1. Then the Lord said to me: “I would not feel sorry for the people of Judah even if Moses and Samuel prayed for them. Send them away from me! Tell them to go!
2. When they ask you, ‘Where will we go?’ tell them: ‘This is what the Lord says:Those who are meant to diewill die.Those who are meant to die in warwill die in war.Those who are meant to die from hungerwill die from hunger.Those who are meant to be taken captivewill be taken captive.’
3. “I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” says the Lord. “I will send war to kill, dogs to drag the bodies away, and the birds of the air and wild animals to eat and destroy the bodies.
4. I will make the people of Judah hated by everyone on earth because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. (Manasseh son of Hezekiah was king of the nation of Judah.)
5. “Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?Who will be sad and cry for you?Who will go out of his way to ask how you are?
6. Jerusalem, you have left me,” says the Lord.“You keep going farther and farther away,so I have taken hold of you and destroyed you.I was tired of holding back my anger.
7. I have separated the people of Judah with my pitchforkand scattered them at the city gates of the land.My people haven’t changed their ways.So I have destroyed themand taken away their children.