Why do you constantly go about changing your political allegiances? ¹  You will get no help from Egypt just as you got no help from Assyria. ² 

“I looked at the land and saw ¹  that it was an empty wasteland. ²  I looked up at the sky, and its light had vanished.

Kings will come against it with their armies. ¹  They will encamp in siege all around it. ²  Each of them will devastate the portion assigned to him. ³ 

They offer only superficial help for the harm my people have suffered. ¹  They say, ‘Everything will be all right!’ But everything is not all right! ² 

The people cry out, ¹  “We have heard reports about them! We have become helpless with fear! ²  Anguish grips us, agony like that of a woman giving birth to a baby!

They offer only superficial help for the hurt my dear people ¹  have suffered. ²  They say, “Everything will be all right!” But everything is not all right! ³ 

You people of Israel, ¹  listen to what the Lord has to say to you.

Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny. ¹  It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them. ² 

“Hear ¹  the terms of the covenant ²  I made with Israel ³  and pass them on ⁴  to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. ⁵ 

But I will completely uproot and destroy any of those nations that will not pay heed,’” ¹  says the Lord.

“I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘This shows how ²  I will ruin the highly exalted position ³  in which Judah and Jerusalem ⁴  take pride.

The Lord continued, ¹  “In every town in the land I will purge them like straw blown away by the wind. ²  I will destroy my people. I will kill off their children. I will do so because they did not change their behavior. ³ 

I will make you serve your enemies ¹  in a land that you know nothing about. For my anger is like a fire that will burn against you.”

I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, ¹  people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases.

The Lord told me, ¹  “Go down ²  to the palace of the king of Judah. Give him a message from me there. ³ 

The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods.”

You will never come back to this land to which you will long to return!” ¹ 

The Lord says, ¹  “The leaders of my people are sure to be judged. ²  They were supposed to watch over my people like shepherds watch over their sheep. But they are causing my people to be destroyed and scattered. ³ 

I did not send those prophets. Yet they were in a hurry to give their message. ¹  I did not tell them anything. Yet they prophesied anyway.