<p class="bodytext">&#8220;So now the <sc>Lordsc>, the God who rules over all, the God of Israel,<n id="1" /> asks, &#8216;Why will you do such great harm to yourselves? Why should every man, woman, child, and baby of yours be destroyed from the midst of Judah? Why should you leave yourselves without a remnant?

<p class="bodytext">Then all the men who were aware that their wives were sacrificing to other gods, as well as all their wives, answered Jeremiah. There was a great crowd of them representing all the people who lived in northern and southern Egypt.<n id="1" /> They answered,

<p class="poetry">I will destroy Babylonia just like I didp> <p class="poetry">Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighboring towns.p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it,&#8221;p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Its soldiers are armed with bows and spears.p> <p class="poetry">They are cruel and show no mercy.p> <p class="poetry">They sound like the roaring seap> <p class="poetry">as they ride forth on their horses.p> <p class="poetry">Lined up in formation like men going into battle,p> <p class="poetry">they are coming against you, fair Babylon!<n id="1" />p>

They broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king&#8217;s garden.<n id="1" /> (The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.<n id="2" />

Because he has done this,&#8221;<n id="1" /> the <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8220;I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his whole family. There will not be any of them left to experience the good things that I will do for my people. I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it! For he counseled rebellion against the <sc>Lordsc>.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

I sent all my servants the prophets to warn you over and over again. They said, &#8220;Every one of you, stop doing the evil things you have been doing and do what is right.<n id="1" /> Do not pay allegiance to other gods<n id="2" /> and worship them. Then you can continue to live in this land that I gave to you and your ancestors.&#8221; But you did not pay any attention or listen to me.

<p class="bodytext">Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him led off all the people who had been left alive at Mizpah. They had rescued them from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after he killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam. They led off the men, women, children, soldiers, and court officials whom they had brought away from Gibeon.

But<n id="1" /> listen to what the <sc>Lordsc> has to say, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. The <sc>Lordsc> says, &#8216;I hereby swear by my own great name that none of the people of Judah who are living anywhere in Egypt will ever again invoke my name in their oaths! Never again will any of them use it in an oath saying, &#8220;As surely as the Lord <sc>Godsc> lives&#8230;.&#8221;<n id="2" />

From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king&#8217;s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens<n id="1" /> for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city.