When you finish reading this scroll aloud, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River.<n id="1" />

<p class="poetry">You who have escaped the sword,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">go, do not delay.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Remember the <sc>Lordsc> in a faraway land.p> <p class="poetry">Think about Jerusalem.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;&#8216;Do not go to a house where people are feasting and sit down to eat and drink with them either.

<p class="bodytext">This is what the <sc>Lordsc> who rules over all<n id="1" /> said to me:<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Those who remain in Israel will bep> <p class="poetry">like the grapes thoroughly gleaned<n id="3" /> from a vine.p> <p class="poetry">So go over them again, as though you were a grape harvesterp> <p class="poetry">passing your hand over the branches one last time.&#8221;<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Raise up battle flags throughout the lands.p> <p class="poetry">Sound the trumpets calling the nations to do battle.p> <p class="poetry">Prepare the nations to do battle against Babylonia.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Call for these kingdoms to attack her:p> <p class="poetry">Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Appoint a commander to lead the attack.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Send horses<n id="4" /> against her like a swarm of locusts.<n id="5" />p>

<p class="poetry">Set up a gravestone for Moab,p> <p class="poetry">for it will certainly be laid in ruins!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Its cities will be laid wastep> <p class="poetry">and become uninhabited.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">Yes,<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> has this to sayp> <p class="poetry">to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,p> <p class="poetry">you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;p> <p class="poetry">just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,p> <p class="poetry">you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> said to me,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;I have made you like a metal assayerp> <p class="poetry">to test my people like ore.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">You are to observe themp> <p class="poetry">and evaluate how they behave.&#8221;<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">But Babylonia will be put to great shame.p> <p class="poetry">The land where you were born<n id="1" /> will be disgraced.p> <p class="poetry">Indeed,<n id="2" /> Babylonia will become the least important of all nations.p> <p class="poetry">It will become a dry and barren desert.p>

<p class="poetry">Yes, a time is comingp> <p class="poetry">when watchmen<n id="1" /> will call out on the mountains of Ephraim,p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Come! Let us go to Zionp> <p class="poetry">to worship the <sc>Lordsc> our God!&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">You people of this generation,p> <p class="poetry">listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> says.p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Have I been like a wilderness to you, Israel?p> <p class="poetry">Have I been like a dark and dangerous land to you?<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Why then do you<n id="2" /> say, &#8216;We are free to wander.<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">We will not come to you any more?&#8217;p>

<p class="poetry">For a nation from the north<n id="1" /> will attack Babylon.p> <p class="poetry">It will lay her land waste.p> <p class="poetry">People and animals will flee out of it.p> <p class="poetry">No one will inhabit it.&#8217;p>

I will bring such disaster on them that all the kingdoms of the earth will be horrified. I will make them an object of reproach, a proverbial example of disaster. I will make them an object of ridicule, an example to be used in curses.<n id="1" /> That is how they will be remembered wherever I banish them.<n id="2" />

I, the <sc>Lordsc>,<n id="1" /> hereby promise to make you<n id="2" /> as strong as a fortified city, an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. You will be able to stand up against all who live in<n id="3" /> the land, including the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests and all the people of the land.

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" />

<p class="poetry">A drought will come upon her land;p> <p class="poetry">her rivers and canals will be dried up.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">All of this will happen because her land is filled with idols.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">Her people act like madmen because of<n id="3" /> those idols they fear.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">He says, &#8220;I will build myself a large palacep> <p class="poetry">with spacious upper rooms.&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">He cuts windows in its walls,p> <p class="poetry">panels it<n id="1" /> with cedar, and paints its rooms red.<n id="2" />p>

Do not listen to them. Be subject to the king of Babylon. Then you<n id="1" /> will continue to live. Why should this city be made a pile of rubble?&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />

He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than<n id="1" /> the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

<p class="poetry">Let cries of terror be heard in their housesp> <p class="poetry">when you send bands of raiders unexpectedly to plunder them.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For they have virtually dug a pit to capture mep> <p class="poetry">and have hidden traps for me to step into.p>