<p class="poetry">They will come and shout for joy on Mount Zion.p> <p class="poetry">They will be radiant with joy<n id="1" /> over the good things the <sc>Lordsc> provides,p> <p class="poetry">the grain, the fresh wine, the olive oil,p> <p class="poetry">the young sheep and calves he has given to them.p> <p class="poetry">They will be like a well-watered gardenp> <p class="poetry">and will not grow faint or weary any more.p>

<p class="bodytext">&#8220;People will no longer need to teach their neighbors and relatives to know me.<n id="1" /> For all of them, from the least important to the most important, will know me,&#8221;<n id="2" /> says the <sc>Lordsc>. &#8220;For<n id="3" /> I will forgive their sin and will no longer call to mind the wrong they have done.&#8221;p>

The whole valley where dead bodies and sacrificial ashes are thrown<n id="1" /> and all the terraced fields<n id="2" /> out to the Kidron Valley<n id="3" /> on the east as far north<n id="4" /> as the Horse Gate<n id="5" /> will be included within this city that is sacred to the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="6" /> The city will never again be torn down or destroyed.&#8221;p>

But when they came in and took possession of it, they did not obey you or live as you had instructed them. They did not do anything that you commanded them to do.<n id="1" /> So you brought all this disaster on them.

They built places of worship for the god Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom so that they could sacrifice their sons and daughters to the god Molech.<n id="1" /> Such a disgusting practice was not something I commanded them to do! It never even entered my mind to command them to do such a thing! So Judah is certainly liable for punishment.&#8217;<n id="2" />p>

I will make the children who follow one another in the line of my servant David very numerous. I will also make the Levites who minister before me very numerous. I will make them all as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands which are on the seashore.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

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" />

I will punish him and his descendants and the officials who serve him for the wicked things they have done.<n id="1" /> I will bring on them, the citizens of Jerusalem,<n id="2" /> and the people of Judah all the disaster that I threatened to do to them. I will punish them because I threatened them but they still paid no heed.&#8221;&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />

The officials may hear that I have talked with you. They may come to you and say, &#8216;Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you.<n id="1" /> Do not hide anything from us. If you do, we will kill you.&#8217;<n id="2" />

&#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" />

They said to him, &#8220;Are you at all aware<n id="1" /> that King Baalis of Ammon has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you?&#8221; But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them.

But there were ten men among them who said<n id="1" /> to Ishmael, &#8220;Do not kill us. For we will give you the stores of wheat, barley, olive oil, and honey we have hidden in a field.<n id="2" /> So he spared their lives and did not kill<n id="3" /> them along with the rest.<n id="4" />

All the people who are determined to go and settle in Egypt will die from war, starvation, or disease. No one will survive or escape the disaster I will bring on them.&#8217;

None of the Judean remnant who have come to live in the land of Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah. Though they long to return and live there, none of them shall return except a few fugitives.&#8217;&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

Finally the <sc>Lordsc> could no longer endure your wicked deeds and the disgusting things you did. That is why your land has become the desolate, uninhabited ruin that it is today. That is why it has become a proverbial example used in curses.<n id="1" />

You have sacrificed to other gods! You have sinned against the <sc>Lordsc>! You have not obeyed the <sc>Lordsc>! You have not followed his laws, his statutes, and his decrees! That is why this disaster that is evident to this day has happened to you.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;From its earliest days Moab has lived undisturbed.p> <p class="poetry">It has never been taken into exile.p> <p class="poetry">Its people are like wine allowed to settle undisturbed on its dregs,p> <p class="poetry">never poured out from one jar to another.p> <p class="poetry">They are like wine which tastes like it always did,p> <p class="poetry">whose aroma has remained unchanged.<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">I will cause enemies to blow through Elam from every directionp> <p class="poetry">like the winds blowing in from the four quarters of heaven.p> <p class="poetry">I will scatter the people of Elam to the four winds.p> <p class="poetry">There will not be any nation where the refugees of Elam will not go.<n id="1" />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>

<p class="poetry">When that time comes,p> <p class="poetry">no guilt will be found in Israel.p> <p class="poetry">No sin will be found in Judah.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For I will forgive those of them I have allowed to survive.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">I, the <sc>Lordsc>, affirm it!&#8217;&#8221;<n id="3" />p>