<p class="poetry">Pack your bags for exile,p> <p class="poetry">you inhabitants of poor dear Egypt.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">For Memphis will be laid waste.p> <p class="poetry">It will lie in ruins<n id="2" /> and be uninhabited.p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">The <sc>Lordsc> spoke to the prophet Jeremiah<n id="1" /> about the Philistines before Pharaoh attacked Gaza.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">For did not you people of Moab laugh at the people of Israel?p> <p class="poetry">Did you think that they were nothing but thieves,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">that you shook your head in contempt<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">every time you talked about them?<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">Oh, how shattered Moab will be!p> <p class="poetry">Oh, how her people will wail!p> <p class="poetry">Oh, how she will turn away<n id="1" /> in shame!p> <p class="poetry">Moab will become an object of ridicule,p> <p class="poetry">a terrifying sight to all the nations that surround her.&#8221;p>

<p class="poetry">Her towns<n id="1" /> will be captured.p> <p class="poetry">Her fortresses will be taken.p> <p class="poetry">At that time the soldiers of Moab will be frightenedp> <p class="poetry">like a woman in labor.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Look! Like an eagle with outspread wings,p> <p class="poetry">a nation will soar up and swoop down on Bozrah.p> <p class="poetry">At that time the soldiers of Edom will be as fearfulp> <p class="poetry">as a woman in labor.&#8221;<n id="1" />p>

<p class="poetry">Their camels will be taken as plunder.p> <p class="poetry">Their vast herds will be taken as spoil.p> <p class="poetry">I will scatter to the four windsp> <p class="poetry">those desert peoples who cut their hair short at the temples.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">I will bring disaster against themp> <p class="poetry">from every direction,&#8221; says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;Hazor will become a permanent wasteland,p> <p class="poetry">a place where only jackals live.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">No one will live there.p> <p class="poetry">No human being will settle in it.&#8221;<n id="2" />p>

<t /><p class="bodytext">Early in the reign<n id="1" /> of King Zedekiah of Judah, the <sc>Lordsc> spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">&#8220;My people have been lost sheep.p> <p class="poetry">Their shepherds<n id="1" /> have allow them to go astray.p> <p class="poetry">They have wandered around in the mountains.p> <p class="poetry">They have roamed from one mountain and hill to another.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">They have forgotten their resting place.p>

<p class="poetry">After I vent my wrath on it Babylon will be uninhabited.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">It will be totally desolate.p> <p class="poetry">All who pass by will be filled with horror and will hiss out their scornp> <p class="poetry">because of all the disasters that have happened to it.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">Come from far away and attack Babylonia!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">Open up the places where she stores her grain!p> <p class="poetry">Pile her up in ruins!<n id="2" /> Destroy her completely!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Do not leave anyone alive!<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">Destructive forces will come against her horses and her<n id="1" /> chariots.p> <p class="poetry">Destructive forces will come against all the foreign troops within her;<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">they will be as frightened as women!<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">Destructive forces will come against her treasures;p> <p class="poetry">they will be taken away as plunder!p>

<p class="poetry">I will send people to winnow Babylonia like a wind blowing away chaff.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will winnow her and strip her land bare.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">This will happen when<n id="3" /> they come against her from every direction,p> <p class="poetry">when it is time to destroy her.<n id="4" />p>

<p class="poetry">No one will use any of your stones as a cornerstone.p> <p class="poetry">No one will use any of them in the foundation of his house.p> <p class="poetry">For you will lie desolate forever,&#8221;<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">says the <sc>Lordsc>.<n id="2" />p>

<p class="poetry">The soldiers of Babylonia will stop fighting.p> <p class="poetry">They will remain in their fortified cities.p> <p class="poetry">They will lose their strength to do battle.<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They will be as frightened as women.<n id="2" />p> <p class="poetry">The houses in her cities will be set on fire.p> <p class="poetry">The gates of her cities will be broken down.<n id="3" />p>

<p class="poetry">The towns of Babylonia have become heaps of ruins.p> <p class="poetry">She has become a dry and barren desert.p> <p class="poetry">No one lives in those towns any more.p> <p class="poetry">No one even passes through them.<n id="1" />p>

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="bodytext">What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s anger when he drove them out of his sight.<n id="1" /> Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

The <sc>Lordsc> also spoke to him when Jehoiakim son of Josiah ruled over Judah, and he continued to speak to him until the fifth month of the eleventh year<n id="1" /> that Zedekiah son of Josiah ruled over Judah. That was when the people of Jerusalem<n id="2" /> were taken into exile.<n id="3" />p>