3. Then said Jeremiah to them, “Thus will you say to Zedekiah,
4. thus says Adonai, the God of Israel: ‘I will soon turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you use to fight against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans, who are besieging you outside the walls—I will assemble them in the center of this city.
5. I myself will fight against you, with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even with anger, fury and in great wrath.
6. I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast—they will die of a great pestilence.’”
7. “Then afterward,” declares Adonai, “I will deliver King Zedekiah of Judah and his servants, as well as the people—those surviving in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine—into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their foes, yes, into the hand of those who seek their life. So he will smite them with the edge of the sword; he will not spare them, nor have pity or compassion.”
8. Now to this people you will say, thus says Adonai: “Look, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
9. He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, or by the pestilence. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you, he will live, and he will have his life as prize.”