7. He said to them, “Make this Temple unclean—fill this courtyard with dead bodies! Now go!” So they went and killed the people in the city.
8. I stayed there while the men went to kill the people. I bowed with my face to the ground and said, “Oh, Lord GOD, in showing your anger against Jerusalem, are you killing all the survivors in Israel?”
9. He said, “The family of Israel and Judah has committed many terrible sins! People are being murdered everywhere in this country, and the city is filled with crime. That is because the people say to themselves, ‘The Lord has left this country. The Lord cannot see what we are doing.’
10. So I will not show any mercy or feel sorry for them. They brought it on themselves. I am only giving them the punishment they deserve!”
11. Then the man wearing linen clothes and a scribe’s pen and ink set spoke up. He said, “I have done what you commanded.”