<p class="poetry">O royal family descended from David.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">The <sc>Lordsc> says:p> <p class="poetry">&#8216;See to it that people each day<n id="2" /> are judged fairly.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Deliver those who have been robbed from those<n id="4" /> who oppress them.p> <p class="poetry">Otherwise, my wrath will blaze out against you.p> <p class="poetry">It will burn like a fire that cannot be put outp> <p class="poetry">because of the evil that you have done.<n id="5" />p>

all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s wrath,<n id="1" /> the king of Babylon<n id="2" /> must drink it.p>

<p class="bodytext">Then the <sc>Lordsc> said to me,<n id="1" /> &#8220;Tell them that the <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all<n id="2" /> says,<n id="3" /> &#8216;Drink this cup<n id="4" /> until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can&#8217;t get up.<n id="5" /> For I will send wars sweeping through you.&#8217;<n id="6" />

<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>

<p class="bodytext">King Hezekiah and all the people of Judah did not put him to death, did they? Did not Hezekiah show reverence for the <sc>Lordsc> and seek the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s favor?<n id="1" /> Did not<n id="2" /> the <sc>Lordsc> forgo destroying them<n id="3" /> as he threatened he would? But we are on the verge of bringing great disaster on ourselves.&#8221;<n id="4" />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" />

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

This will happen because<n id="1" /> the people of this city have aroused my anger and my wrath since the time they built it until now.<n id="2" /> They have made me so angry that I am determined to remove<n id="3" /> it from my sight.

&#8216;The defenders of the city will go out and fight with the Babylonians.<n id="1" /> But they will only fill those houses and buildings with the dead bodies of the people that I will kill in my anger and my wrath.<n id="2" /> That will happen because I have decided to turn my back on<n id="3" /> this city on account of the wicked things they have done.<n id="4" />

&#8220;You have surely noticed what these people are saying, haven&#8217;t you? They are saying,<n id="1" /> &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> has rejected the two families of Israel and Judah<n id="2" /> that he chose.&#8217; So they have little regard that my people will ever again be a nation.<n id="3" />

You will die a peaceful death. They will burn incense at your burial just as they did at the burial of your ancestors, the former kings who preceded you.<n id="1" /> They will mourn for you, saying, &#8220;Poor, poor master!&#8221;<n id="2" /> Indeed, you have my own word on this.<n id="3" /> I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

Recently, however, you yourselves<n id="1" /> showed a change of heart and did what is pleasing to me. You granted your fellow countrymen their freedom and you made a covenant to that effect in my presence in the house that I have claimed for my own.<n id="2" />

I will punish those people who have violated their covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces.<n id="1" /> I will do so because they did not keep the terms of the covenant they made in my presence.<n id="2" />

Do not build houses. Do not plant crops. Do not plant a vineyard or own one.<n id="1" /> Live in tents all your lives. If you do these things you will<n id="2" /> live a long time in the land that you wander about on.&#8217;<n id="3" />

Perhaps then they will ask the <sc>Lordsc> for mercy and will all stop doing the evil things they have been doing.<n id="1" /> For the <sc>Lordsc> has threatened to bring great anger and wrath against these people.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

All the people living in Jerusalem<n id="1" /> and all the people who came into Jerusalem from the towns of Judah came to observe a fast before the <sc>Lordsc>. The fast took place in the ninth month of the fifth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.<n id="2" />

&#8220;Your royal Majesty, those men have been very wicked in all that they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have thrown him into a cistern and he is sure to die of starvation there because there is no food left in the city.<n id="1" />

&#8220;Go<n id="1" /> and tell Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, &#8216;The <sc>Lordsc> God of Israel who rules over all says, &#8220;I will carry out against this city what I promised. It will mean disaster and not good fortune for it.<n id="2" /> When that disaster happens, you will be there to see it.<n id="3" />

I for my part will stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Babylonians<n id="1" /> whenever they come to us. You for your part go ahead and harvest the wine, the dates, the figs,<n id="2" /> and the olive oil, and store them in jars. Go ahead and settle down in the towns that you have taken over.&#8221;<n id="3" />

Now the cistern where Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of those he had killed was a large one<n id="1" /> that King Asa had constructed as part of his defenses against King Baasha of Israel.<n id="2" /> Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with dead bodies.<n id="3" />