<p class="bodytext">Yet<n id="1" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="2" /> &#8220;A new time will certainly come.<n id="3" /> People now affirm their oaths with &#8216;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.&#8217;

For I see everything they do. Their wicked ways are not hidden from me. Their sin is not hidden away where I cannot see it.<n id="1" />

Do not carry any loads out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day.<n id="1" /> But observe the Sabbath day as a day set apart to the <sc>Lord,sc><n id="2" /> as I commanded your ancestors.<n id="3" />

<p class="poetry">May that man be like the cities<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that the <sc>Lordsc> destroyed without showing any mercy.p> <p class="poetry">May he hear a cry of distress in the morningp> <p class="poetry">and a battle cry at noon.p>

For I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say that<n id="1" /> I am determined not to deliver this city but to bring disaster on it.<n id="2" /> It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will destroy it with fire.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;So I, the <sc>Lordsc>, say:<n id="1" /> &#8216;A new time will certainly come.<n id="2" /> People now affirm their oaths with &#8220;I swear as surely as the <sc>Lordsc> lives who delivered the people of Israel out of Egypt.&#8221;

You must pay attention to the exhortations of my servants the prophets. I have sent them to you over and over again.<n id="1" /> But you have not paid any attention to them.

<p class="poetry">When the time for them to be rescued comes,&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all,<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I will rescue you from foreign subjugation.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">I will deliver you from captivity.<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">Foreigners will then no longer subjugate them.p>

They have turned away from me instead of turning to me.<n id="1" /> I tried over and over again<n id="2" /> to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction.<n id="3" />

The king did not even listen to Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah, who had urged him not to burn the scroll.<n id="1" />

Neither he nor the officials who served him nor the people of Judah paid any attention to what the <sc>Lordsc> said through the prophet Jeremiah.<n id="1" />p>

Jeremiah answered, &#8220;That&#8217;s a lie! I am not deserting to the Babylonians.&#8221;<n id="1" /> But Irijah would not listen to him. Irijah put Jeremiah under arrest and took him to the officials.

But now please listen, your royal Majesty,<n id="1" /> and grant my plea for mercy.<n id="2" /> Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan, the royal secretary. If you do, I will die there.&#8221;<n id="3" />

But I will rescue you when it happens.<n id="1" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!<n id="2" /> You will not be handed over to those whom you fear.<n id="3" />

Now he has brought it about. The <sc>Lordsc> has done just as he threatened to do. This disaster has happened because you people sinned against the <sc>Lordsc> and did not obey him.<n id="1" />

So Johanan son of Kareah, all the army officers, and all the rest of the people did not obey the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s command to stay in the land.

I will indeed<n id="1" /> see to it that disaster, not prosperity, happens to them.<n id="2" /> All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will die in war or from starvation until not one of them is left.

<p class="poetry">What do I see?&#8221;<n id="1" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;The soldiers<n id="3" /> are terrified.p> <p class="poetry">They are retreating.p> <p class="poetry">They have been defeated.p> <p class="poetry">They are overcome with terror;<n id="4" />p> <p class="poetry">they desert quicklyp> <p class="poetry">without looking back.p>

<p class="poetry">Edom will be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrahp> <p class="poetry">and the towns that were around them.p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.p>

<p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> says,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Army of Babylon,<n id="2" /> go and attackp> <p class="poetry">a nation that lives in peace and security.p> <p class="poetry">They have no gates or walls to protect them.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">They live all alone.p>