I will call the Babylonian armies back again. They will fight against this city and will capture it and burn it down. I will see to it that all the towns of Judah are destroyed, with no one living there.”

耶和华说：‘我必吩咐他们回到这城，攻打这城，将城攻取，用火焚烧。我也要使犹大的城邑变为荒场，无人居住。’”

看哪，我要吩咐他们回到这城，攻打这城，将城攻取，用火焚烧；我也要使犹大的城镇变为废墟，无人居住。这是耶和华说的。”

看哪，我要吩咐他们回到这城，攻打这城，将城攻取，用火焚烧；我也要使犹大的城镇变为废墟，无人居住。这是耶和华说的。”

看啊，我要吩咐他们回来攻占这城，将它付之一炬，我要使犹大的城邑荒无人烟。这是耶和华说的。’”

看哪！我必下令，使他们回到这城来；他们必攻打、夺取这城，用火焚烧；我必使犹大的城镇都荒凉，没有人居住。’”这是耶和华的宣告。

耶和華說：我必吩咐他們回到這城，攻打這城，將城攻取，用火焚燒。我也要使猶大的城邑變為荒場，無人居住。」

看哪，我要吩咐他們回到這城，攻打這城，將城攻取，用火焚燒；我也要使猶大的城鎮變為廢墟，無人居住。這是耶和華說的。」

看哪，我要吩咐他們回到這城，攻打這城，將城攻取，用火焚燒；我也要使猶大的城鎮變為廢墟，無人居住。這是耶和華說的。」

看啊，我要吩咐他們回來攻佔這城，將它付之一炬，我要使猶大的城邑荒無人煙。這是耶和華說的。』」

看哪！我必下令，使他們回到這城來；他們必攻打、奪取這城，用火焚燒；我必使猶大的城鎮都荒涼，沒有人居住。’”這是耶和華的宣告。

看吧，永恆主發神諭說，我必發命令，叫他們回到這城來、攻擊它，將城攻取，放火焚燒；我必使猶大的城市荒涼，沒有人居住。』

耶和華曰、我必命之復返是邑、攻而取之、焚之以火、我亦必使猶大諸邑荒蕪、無人居處、

I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

But I am going to give an order,” announces the Lord.“ I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it. They will capture it and burn it down. And I will completely destroy the towns of Judah. No one will be able to live there.”

Behold, I will command, declares the Lord, and will bring them back to this city. And they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”

I am about to give the command— this is the LORD’s declaration— and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it. I will make Judah’s cities a desolation, without inhabitant.”

Behold, I am going to give a command,’ declares the Lord,‘ and I will bring them back to this city, and they will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’ ”

Behold, I will command,’ says the Lord,‘ and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’”

Behold, I will command, saith Jehovah, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

I am about to give the command”— this is the Lord’s declaration—“ and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make Judah’s cities a desolation, without inhabitant.”

Behold, I will command, saith the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.

For I, the LORD, affirm that I will soon give the order and bring them back to this city. They will fight against it and capture it and burn it down. I will also make the towns of Judah desolate so that there will be no one living in them.”’”

Behold, I will command,” says Yahweh,“ and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it, take it, and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

“ I will make Jerusalem into a heap of ruins,” says the Lord.“ It will be a place haunted by jackals. The towns of Judah will be ghost towns, with no one living in them.”

Meanwhile, the Babylonians burned Jerusalem, including the royal palace and the houses of the people, and they tore down the walls of the city.

In January of the ninth year of King Zedekiah’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came with his entire army to besiege Jerusalem.Two and a half years later, on July 18 in the eleventh year of Zedekiah’s reign, a section of the city wall was broken down.

It was because the Lord could no longer bear all the disgusting things you were doing that he made your land an object of cursing— a desolate ruin without inhabitants— as it is today.

He burned down the Temple of the Lord, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He destroyed all the important buildings in the city.

“ This is what the Lord says: You have said,‘ This is a desolate land where people and animals have all disappeared.’ Yet in the empty streets of Jerusalem and Judah’s other towns, there will be heard once more

Then a section of the city wall was broken down, and all the soldiers fled. Since the city was surrounded by the Babylonians, they waited for nightfall. Then they slipped through the gate between the two walls behind the king’s garden and headed toward the Jordan Valley.

When the ram’s horn blows a warning, shouldn’t the people be alarmed? Does disaster come to a city unless the Lord has planned it?

“ But have you not heard? I decided this long ago. Long ago I planned it, and now I am making it happen. I planned for you to crush fortified cities into heaps of rubble.

This is what the Lord says to Cyrus, his anointed one, whose right hand he will empower. Before him, mighty kings will be paralyzed with fear. Their fortress gates will be opened, never to shut again.This is what the Lord says:“ I will go before you, Cyrus, and level the mountains. I will smash down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron.And I will give you treasures hidden in the darkness— secret riches. I will do this so you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, the one who calls you by name.

So the Lord brought the king of Babylon against them. The Babylonians killed Judah’s young men, even chasing after them into the Temple. They had no pity on the people, killing both young men and young women, the old and the infirm. God handed all of them over to Nebuchadnezzar.

“ The king was furious, and he sent out his army to destroy the murderers and burn their town.

Your holy cities are destroyed. Zion is a wilderness; yes, Jerusalem is a desolate ruin.

I, the Lord, have dedicated these soldiers for this task. Yes, I have called mighty warriors to express my anger, and they will rejoice when I am exalted.”

Upon hearing this, the angel of the Lord prayed this prayer:“ O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, for seventy years now you have been angry with Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. How long until you again show mercy to them?”

“ This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: You saw the calamity I brought on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. They now lie deserted and in ruins.They provoked my anger with all their wickedness. They burned incense and worshiped other gods— gods that neither they nor you nor any of your ancestors had ever even known.“ Again and again I sent my servants, the prophets, to plead with them,‘ Don’t do these horrible things that I hate so much.’But my people would not listen or turn back from their wicked ways. They kept on burning incense to these gods.And so my fury boiled over and fell like fire on the towns of Judah and into the streets of Jerusalem, and they are still a desolate ruin today.

‘ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will make your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside your walls attacking you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city.I myself will fight against you with a strong hand and a powerful arm, for I am very angry. You have made me furious!I will send a terrible plague upon this city, and both people and animals will die.And after all that, says the Lord, I will hand over King Zedekiah, his staff, and everyone else in the city who survives the disease, war, and famine. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their other enemies. He will slaughter them and show them no mercy, pity, or compassion.’“ Tell all the people,‘ This is what the Lord says: Take your choice of life or death!Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life!For I have decided to bring disaster and not good upon this city, says the Lord. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will reduce it to ashes.’

Jerusalem, once so full of people, is now deserted. She who was once great among the nations now sits alone like a widow. Once the queen of all the earth, she is now a slave.

The Babylonians outside the walls will come in and set fire to the city. They will burn down all these houses where the people provoked my anger by burning incense to Baal on the rooftops and by pouring out liquid offerings to other gods.

Then the Babylonians will come back and capture this city and burn it to the ground.’“ This is what the Lord says: Do not fool yourselves into thinking that the Babylonians are gone for good. They aren’t!Even if you were to destroy the entire Babylonian army, leaving only a handful of wounded survivors, they would still stagger from their tents and burn this city to the ground!”

All your wives and children will be led out to the Babylonians, and you will not escape. You will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”

But the land will become empty and desolate because of the wickedness of those who live there.

“ What sorrow awaits Assyria, the rod of my anger. I use it as a club to express my anger.I am sending Assyria against a godless nation, against a people with whom I am angry. Assyria will plunder them, trampling them like dirt beneath its feet.But the king of Assyria will not understand that he is my tool; his mind does not work that way. His plan is simply to destroy, to cut down nation after nation.

Then I said,“ Lord, how long will this go on?” And he replied,“ Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland;

As with a whirlwind, I scattered them among the distant nations, where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even traveled through it. They turned their pleasant land into a desert.”

A lion stalks from its den, a destroyer of nations. It has left its lair and is headed your way. It’s going to devastate your land! Your towns will lie in ruins, with no one living in them anymore.

“ Say to them,‘ This is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those living in the ruins will die by the sword. And I will send wild animals to eat those living in the open fields. Those hiding in the forts and caves will die of disease.I will completely destroy the land and demolish her pride. Her arrogant power will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so desolate that no one will even travel through them.

The city is left in ruins, its gates battered down.

Then the Lord sent bands of Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Judah to destroy it, just as the Lord had promised through his prophets.These disasters happened to Judah because of the Lord’s command. He had decided to banish Judah from his presence because of the many sins of Manasseh,

Then David said to Abishai and to all his servants,“ My own son is trying to kill me. Doesn’t this relative of Saul have even more reason to do so? Leave him alone and let him curse, for the Lord has told him to do it.