15. So hearts melt with fear and many stumble.At all their gates I have stationed the sword for slaughter.Ah! It is made to flash, it is drawn for slaughter!
16. Cut sharply on the right!Swing to the left, wherever your edge is appointed to strike.
17. I too will clap my hands together,I will exhaust my rage;I the Lord have spoken.”
18. The word of the Lord came to me:
19. “You, son of man, mark out two routes for the king of Babylon’s sword to take; both of them will originate in a single land. Make a signpost and put it at the beginning of the road leading to the city.
20. Mark out the routes for the sword to take: “Rabbah of the Ammonites” and “Judah with Jerusalem in it.”
21. For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road at the head of the two routes. He looks for omens: He shakes arrows, he consults idols, he examines animal livers.
22. Into his right hand comes the portent for Jerusalem – to set up battering rams, to give the signal for slaughter, to shout out the battle cry, to set up battering rams against the gates, to erect a siege ramp, to build a siege wall.
23. But those in Jerusalem will view it as a false omen. They have sworn solemn oaths, but the king of Babylon will accuse them of violations in order to seize them.
24. “Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: ‘Because you have brought up your own guilt by uncovering your transgressions and revealing your sins through all your actions, for this reason you will be taken by force.
25. “‘As for you, profane and wicked prince of Israel,whose day has come, the time of final punishment,