&#8220;So then, Jeremiah,<n id="1" /> when your people<n id="2" /> ask, &#8216;Why has the <sc>Lordsc> our God done all this to us?&#8217; tell them, &#8216;It is because you rejected me and served foreign gods in your own land. So<n id="3" /> you must serve foreigners<n id="4" /> in a land that does not belong to you.&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">A destructive army<n id="1" /> will come marchingp> <p class="poetry">over the hilltops in the desert.p> <p class="poetry">For the <sc>Lordsc> will use them as his destructive weapon<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">against<n id="3" /> everyone from one end of the land to the other.p> <p class="poetry">No one will be safe.<n id="4" />p>

So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.&#8217;&#8221;p>

But in that time they will affirm them with &#8216;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the people of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.&#8217; At that time I will bring them back to the land I gave their ancestors.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

But at that time they will affirm them with &#8220;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the descendants of the former nation of Israel<n id="1" /> from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished<n id="2" /> them.&#8221;<n id="3" /> At that time they will live in their own land.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;I, the <sc>Lordsc>, also solemnly assert: &#8216;King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the people who remain in Jerusalem<n id="1" /> or who have gone to live in Egypt are like those bad figs. I consider them to be just like those bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten.<n id="2" />

the foreigners living in Egypt;<n id="1" /> all the kings of the land of Uz;<n id="2" /> all the kings of the land of the Philistines,<n id="3" /> the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod;<n id="4" />

<p class="poetry">Those who have been killed by the <sc>Lordsc> at that timep> <p class="poetry">will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other.p> <p class="poetry">They will not be mourned over, gathered up, or buried.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Their dead bodies will lie scattered over the ground like manure.p>

&#8220;I made the earth and the people and animals on it by my mighty power and great strength,<n id="1" /> and I give it to whomever I see fit.<n id="2" />

<t /><p class="bodytext">Now some of the officers of the Judean army and their troops had been hiding in the countryside. They heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam to govern<n id="1" /> the country. They also heard that he had been put in charge over the men, women, and children from the poorer classes of the land who had not been carried off into exile in Babylon.<n id="2" />

That is what will result from your making me angry by what you are doing.<n id="1" /> You are making me angry by sacrificing to other gods here in the land of Egypt where you live. You will be destroyed for doing that! You will become an example used in curses<n id="2" /> and an object of ridicule among all the nations of the earth.<n id="3" />

None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah. Though they long to return and live there, none of them shall return except a few fugitives.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Look! Enemies are gathering in the north like water rising in a river.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be like an overflowing stream.p> <p class="poetry">They will overwhelm the whole country and everything in it like a flood.p> <p class="poetry">They will overwhelm the cities and their inhabitants.p> <p class="poetry">People will cry out in alarm.p> <p class="poetry">Everyone living in the country will cry out in pain.p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Look up at the hilltops and consider this.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">You have had sex with other gods on every one of them.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.<n id="4" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Announce<n id="2" /> this in Judah and proclaim it in Jerusalem:<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Sound the trumpet<n id="4" /> throughout the land!&#8217;p> <p class="poetry">Shout out loudly,p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Gather together! Let us flee into the fortified cities!&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">Like a lion that has come up from its lair<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">the one who destroys nations has set out from his home base.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">He is coming out to lay your land waste.p> <p class="poetry">Your cities will become ruins and lie uninhabited.p>

<p class="poetry">They are saying,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;Announce to the surrounding nations,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;The enemy is coming!&#8221;<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Proclaim this message<n id="4" /> to Jerusalem:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Those who besiege cities<n id="5" /> are coming from a distant land.p> <p class="poetry">They are ready to raise the battle cry against<n id="6" /> the towns in Judah.&#8221;&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">I see<n id="1" /> one destruction after another taking place,p> <p class="poetry">so that the whole land lies in ruins.p> <p class="poetry">I see our<n id="2" /> tents suddenly destroyed,p> <p class="poetry">their<n id="3" /> curtains torn down in a mere instant.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Because of this the land will mournp> <p class="poetry">and the sky above will grow black.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For I have made my purpose known<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">and I will not relent or turn back from carrying it out.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Their houses will be turned over to othersp> <p class="poetry">as will their fields and their wives.p> <p class="poetry">For I will unleash my power<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">against those who live in this land,&#8221;p> <p class="bodytext">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>