But even the swiftest cannot get away. Even the strongest cannot escape. ¹  There in the north by the Euphrates River they stumble and fall in defeat. ² 

Terror, pits, and traps ¹  are in store for the people who live in Moab. ²  I, the Lord, affirm it! ³ 

King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah did not put him to death, did they? Did not Hezekiah show reverence for the Lord and seek the Lord’s favor? ¹  Did not ²  the Lord forgo destroying them ³  as he threatened he would? But we are on the verge of bringing great disaster on ourselves.” ⁴ 

Even now siege ramps have been built up around the city ¹  in order to capture it. War, ²  starvation, and disease are sure to make the city fall into the hands of the Babylonians ³  who are attacking it. ⁴  Lord, ⁵  you threatened that this would happen. Now you can see that it is already taking place. ⁶ 

They said to him, “Please grant our request ¹  and pray to the Lord your God for all those of us who are still left alive here. ²  For, as you yourself can see, there are only a few of us left out of the many there were before. ³ 

That is why the rains have been withheld, and the spring rains have not come. Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute. ¹  You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.

We know our noisy worship of false gods on the hills and mountains did not help us. ¹  We know that the Lord our God is the only one who can deliver Israel. ² 

They are saying, ¹  ‘Announce to the surrounding nations, ²  “The enemy is coming!” ³  Proclaim this message ⁴  to Jerusalem: “Those who besiege cities ⁵  are coming from a distant land. They are ready to raise the battle cry against ⁶  the towns in Judah.”’

The fiery bellows of judgment burn fiercely. But there is too much dross to be removed. ¹  The process of refining them has proved useless. ²  The wicked have not been purged.

Stop putting your confidence in the false belief that says, ¹  “We are safe! ²  The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!” ³ 

But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me. They followed the stubborn inclinations of their own wicked hearts. They acted worse and worse instead of better. ¹ 

(8:23) ¹  I wish that my head were a well full of water ²  and my eyes were a fountain full of tears! If they were, I could cry day and night for those of my dear people ³  who have been killed.

So I, Jeremiah, tell you, ¹  “Each of you people should say to his friend or his relative, ‘How did the Lord answer? Or what did the Lord say?’ ² 

Listen to the cries of anguish of the leaders. Listen to the wails of the shepherds of the flocks. They are wailing because the Lord is about to destroy their lands. ¹ 

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again. ¹  But you have not paid any attention to them.

This day ¹  I have told you what he said. ²  But you do not want to obey the Lord by doing what he sent me to tell you. ³ 

“Make an announcement throughout Egypt. Proclaim it in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes. ¹  ‘Take your positions and prepare to do battle. For the enemy army is destroying all the nations around you.’ ² 

If grape pickers came to pick your grapes, would they not leave a few grapes behind? ¹  If robbers came at night, would they not pillage only what they needed? ² 

Kill all her soldiers! ¹  Let them be slaughtered! ²  They are doomed, ³  for their day of reckoning ⁴  has come, the time for them to be punished.”

The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins. She has become a dry and barren desert. No one lives in those towns any more. No one even passes through them. ¹