Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

他岂可屡次倒空网罗，将列国的人时常杀戮，毫不顾惜呢？

但他岂可因此屡屡倒空罗网，时常杀戮列国的人，毫不顾惜呢？

但他岂可因此屡屡倒空罗网，时常杀戮列国的人，毫不顾惜呢？

难道他们要无休止地撒网，无情地毁灭列国吗？

这样，他们倒空自己的网，毫不留情地继续杀戮列国。

他豈可屢次倒空網羅，將列國的人時常殺戮，毫不顧惜呢？

但他豈可因此屢屢倒空羅網，時常殺戮列國的人，毫不顧惜呢？

但他豈可因此屢屢倒空羅網，時常殺戮列國的人，毫不顧惜呢？

難道他們要無休止地撒網，無情地毀滅列國嗎？

這樣，他們倒空自己的網，毫不留情地繼續殺戮列國。

因此他不斷地拔刀，殺戮列國人、毫不顧惜。

彼傾其網、恆戮列邦、而不之惜、可乎哉、

即罄斯網、復出害人、戮民無厭、爾何聽其然乎。

彼傾空其網、以復張害人、恆殺人民、毫不顧惜、何時為止、

Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?

Are you going to let them keep on emptying their nets? Will they go on destroying nations without showing them any mercy?

Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?

Will they therefore empty their net, And continually slay nations without sparing?

Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity?

Shall he therefore empty his net, and spare not to slay the nations continually?

Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Will he then continue to fill and empty his throw net? Will he always destroy nations and spare none?

Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about the nations:About Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco, Egypt’s king, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in the fourth year of Judah’s King Jehoiakim son of Josiah:Deploy small shields and large; approach for battle!Harness the horses; mount the steeds; take your positions with helmets on! Polish the lances; put on armor!Why have I seen this? They are terrified, they are retreating, their warriors are crushed, they flee headlong, they never look back, terror is on every side! This is the LORD’s declaration.The swift cannot flee, and the warrior cannot escape! In the north by the bank of the Euphrates River, they stumble and fall.Who is this, rising like the Nile, with waters that churn like rivers?Egypt rises like the Nile, and its waters churn like rivers. He boasts,“ I will go up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities with their residents.”Rise up, you cavalry! Race furiously, you chariots! Let the warriors march out— Cush and Put, who are able to handle shields, and the men of Lud, who are able to handle and string the bow.That day belongs to the Lord, the GOD of Armies, a day of vengeance to avenge himself against his adversaries. The sword will devour and be satisfied; it will drink its fill of their blood, because it will be a sacrifice to the Lord, the GOD of Armies, in the northern land by the Euphrates River.Go up to Gilead and get balm, Virgin Daughter Egypt! You have multiplied remedies in vain; there is no healing for you.The nations have heard of your dishonor, and your cries fill the earth, because warrior stumbles against warrior and together both of them have fallen.This is the word the LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to defeat the land of Egypt:Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol! Proclaim it in Memphis and in Tahpanhes! Say,“ Take positions! Prepare yourself, for the sword devours all around you.”Why have your strong ones been swept away? Each has not stood, for the LORD has thrust him down.He continues to stumble. Indeed, each falls over the other. They say,“ Get up! Let’s return to our people and to our native land, away from the oppressor’s sword.”There they will cry out,“ Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise; he let the opportune moment pass.”As I live— this is the King’s declaration; the LORD of Armies is his name— the king of Babylon will come like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea.Get your bags ready for exile, inhabitant of Daughter Egypt! For Memphis will become a desolation, uninhabited ruins.Egypt is a beautiful young cow, but a horsefly from the north is coming against her.Even her mercenaries among her are like stall-fed calves. They too will turn back; together they will flee; they will not take their stand, for the day of their calamity is coming on them, the time of their punishment.Egypt will hiss like a slithering snake, for the enemy will come with an army; with axes they will come against her like those who cut trees.They will cut down her forest— this is the LORD’s declaration— though it is dense, for they are more numerous than locusts; they cannot be counted.Daughter Egypt will be put to shame, handed over to a northern people.The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says,“ I am about to punish Amon, god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt, her gods, and her kings— Pharaoh and those trusting in him.I will hand them over to those who intend to take their lives— to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited again as in ancient times.” This is the LORD’s declaration.But you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid, and do not be discouraged, Israel, for without fail I will save you from far away, and your descendants from the land of their captivity! Jacob will return and have calm and quiet with no one to frighten him.And you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid— this is the LORD’s declaration— for I will be with you. I will bring destruction on all the nations where I have banished you, but I will not bring destruction on you. I will discipline you with justice, and I will by no means leave you unpunished.

Moreover, wine betrays; an arrogant man is never at rest. He enlarges his appetite like Sheol, and like Death he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations to himself; he collects all the peoples for himself.Won’t all of these take up a taunt against him, with mockery and riddles about him? They will say,“ Woe to him who amasses what is not his— how much longer?— and loads himself with goods taken in pledge.”Won’t your creditors suddenly arise, and those who disturb you wake up? Then you will become spoil for them.Since you have plundered many nations, all the peoples who remain will plunder you— because of human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

All of them come to do violence; their faces are set in determination. They gather prisoners like sand.They mock kings, and rulers are a joke to them. They laugh at every fortress and build siege ramps to capture it.

I am going to send for all the families of the north’— this is the LORD’s declaration—‘ and send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will bring them against this land, against its residents, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will completely destroy them and make them an example of horror and scorn, and ruins forever.I will eliminate the sound of joy and gladness from them— the voice of the groom and the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.This whole land will become a desolate ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years.When the seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation’— this is the LORD’s declaration—‘ the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, and I will make it a ruin forever.I will bring on that land all my words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations.For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.’”This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me:“ Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it.They will drink, stagger, and go out of their minds because of the sword I am sending among them.”So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink from it.Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah, its kings and its officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an example for scorn and cursing— as it is today;Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officers, his leaders, all his people,and all the mixed peoples; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines— Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coasts and islands;Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all those who clip the hair on their temples;all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed peoples who have settled in the desert;all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media;all the kings of the north, both near and far from one another; that is, all the kingdoms of the world throughout the earth. Finally, the king of Sheshak will drink after them.

For your violence against Lebanon will overwhelm you; the destruction of animals will terrify you because of your human bloodshed and violence against lands, cities, and all who live in them.

Those who see you will stare at you; they will look closely at you:“ Is this the man who caused the earth to tremble, who shook the kingdoms,who turned the world into a wilderness, who destroyed its cities and would not release the prisoners to return home?”

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.Because of the LORD’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah.The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders.Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.On the tenth day of the fifth month— which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon— Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon.He burned the LORD’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses.The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen.But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the LORD’s temple and the water carts and the bronze basin that were in the LORD’s temple, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service.The captain of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls— whatever was gold or silver.As for the two pillars, the one basin, with the twelve bronze oxen under it, and the water carts that King Solomon had made for the LORD’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure.One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow— four fingers thick—and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze grating and pomegranates, stood 7½ feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates.Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the grating numbered one hundred.The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers.From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people who were found within the city.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;in his eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported 745 Jews. Altogether, 4,600 people were deported.On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon.So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life.As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.

Then the word of the LORD came to me:“ Son of man, face the Ammonites and prophesy against them.Say to the Ammonites,‘ Hear the word of the Lord GOD: This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you said,“ Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was laid waste, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile,therefore I am about to give you to the people of the east as a possession. They will set up their encampments and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.“‘ For this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced over the land of Israel with wholehearted contempt,therefore I am about to stretch out my hand against you and give you as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and eliminate you from the countries. I will destroy you, and you will know that I am the LORD.“‘ This is what the Lord GOD says: Because Moab and Seir said,“ Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations.”Therefore I am about to expose Moab’s flank beginning with its frontier cities, the splendor of the land: Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim.I will give it along with Ammon to the people of the east as a possession, so that Ammon will not be remembered among the nations.So I will execute judgments against Moab, and they will know that I am the LORD.“‘ This is what the Lord GOD says: Because Edom acted vengefully against the house of Judah and incurred grievous guilt by taking revenge on them,therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom and cut off both people and animals from it. I will make it a wasteland; they will fall by the sword from Teman to Dedan.I will take my vengeance on Edom through my people Israel, and they will deal with Edom according to my anger and wrath. So they will know my vengeance. This is the declaration of the Lord GOD.“‘ This is what the Lord GOD says: Because the Philistines acted in vengeance and took revenge with deep contempt, destroying because of their perpetual hatred,therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines, cutting off the Cherethites and wiping out what remains of the coastal peoples.I will execute severe vengeance against them with furious rebukes. They will know that I am the LORD when I take my vengeance on them.’”

Then the fishermen will mourn. All those who cast hooks into the Nile will lament, and those who spread nets on the water will give up.

It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows. It subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution.