“Call for archers ¹  to come against Babylon! Summon against her all who draw the bow! Set up camp all around the city! Do not allow anyone to escape! Pay her back for what she has done. Do to her what she has done to others. For she has proudly defied me, ²  the Holy One of Israel. ³ 

I did not spend my time in the company of other people, laughing and having a good time. I stayed to myself because I felt obligated to you ¹  and because I was filled with anger at what they had done.

The Lord says, “I will put a curse on people who trust in mere human beings, who depend on mere flesh and blood for their strength, ²  and whose hearts ³  have turned away from the Lord.

The Lord affirms, ¹  “The descendants of Israel will not cease forever to be a nation in my sight. That could only happen if the fixed ordering of the heavenly lights were to cease to operate before me.” ² 

You are like a wild female donkey brought up in the wilderness. In her lust she sniffs the wind to get the scent of a male. ¹  No one can hold her back when she is in heat. None of the males need wear themselves out chasing after her. At mating time she is easy to find. ² 

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.’” ¹ 

However, I will leave some of these wicked people alive and banish them to other places. But wherever these people who survive may go, they will wish they had died rather than lived,” ¹  says the Lord who rules over all. ² 

Lord, you have always been fair whenever I have complained to you. ¹  However, I would like to speak with you about the disposition of justice. ²  Why are wicked people successful? ³  Why do all dishonest people have such easy lives?

Oh, how shattered Moab will be! Oh, how her people will wail! Oh, how she will turn away ¹  in shame! Moab will become an object of ridicule, a terrifying sight to all the nations that surround her.”

The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, ¹  basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels. ² 

“Hear ¹  the terms of the covenant ²  I made with Israel ³  and pass them on ⁴  to the people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem. ⁵ 

The Lord said to me, “The people of Judah and the citizens of Jerusalem have plotted rebellion against me! ¹ 

They are dismayed because the ground is cracked ¹  because there has been no rain in the land. The farmers, too, are dismayed and bury their faces in their hands.

I, the Lord, say: ¹  ‘That is how I will deal with this city and its citizens. I will make it like Topheth.

I will kill everything living in Jerusalem, ¹  people and animals alike! They will die from terrible diseases.

When you call out to me and come to me in prayer, ¹  I will hear your prayers. ² 

Rather, each person will die for his own sins. The teeth of the person who eats the sour grapes will themselves grow numb. ¹ 

I will restore Judah and Israel ¹  and will rebuild them as they were in days of old. ² 

I, the Lord, affirm that ¹  I know how arrogant they are. But their pride is ill-founded. Their boastings will prove to be false. ² 

Leave your orphans behind and I will keep them alive. Your widows too can depend on me.” ¹