1. Then the Lord said to me: Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, yet My heart would not be with this people. Cast them out of My sight and let them go!
2. It shall come to pass if they say to you, “Where should we go?” then you shall tell them: Thus says the Lord: Those destined for death, to death;and those destined for the sword, to the sword;and those destined for the famine, to the famine;and those destined for the captivity, to the captivity.
3. I will appoint over them four kinds of disaster, says the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear, the birds of the heaven, the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
4. I will cause them to be removed into all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
5. For who shall have pity on you, OJerusalem?Or who shall bemoan you?Or who shall go aside to ask how you are doing?
6. You who have forsaken Me, says the Lord,you keep going backward.Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you.I am weary of relenting!
7. I will winnow them with a winnowing forkin the gates of the land;I will bereave them of children. I will destroy My people,since they did not repent from their ways.
8. Their widows will increase before Memore than the sand of the seas;I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,a destroyer at noonday;I will suddenly bring down on hersorrow and terrors.
9. She who has borne seven sons languishes;she has given up the spirit;her sun has gone down while it was yet day;she has been ashamed and humiliated.And the rest of them I will deliver to the swordbefore their enemies,says the Lord.
10. Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne meas a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!I have not lent with usury, nor have men lent to me on usury,yet every one of them curses me!
11. The Lord said: Truly I will set you free for good purposes.Truly I will cause the enemy to entreat youin the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
12. Can anyone break the northern ironor the bronze?