14 “Why are we just sitting here?\par Come, let’s run to the strong cities.\par If the Lord our God is going to make us die,\par then let’s die there.\par We have sinned against the Lord,\par so God gave us poisoned water to drink.\par
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
14 [Then say the people to each other] Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities and be silent or perish there! For the Lord our God has decreed our ruin and given us bitter and poisonous water to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Jehovah our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against Jehovah.
14 Why are we sitting here? Come, let’s go to the fortified towns and meet our doom there. The LORD our God has doomed us by giving us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD!
14 "Why are we sitting still? Assemble, and let us enter the fortified city, and let us remain silent there. For the Lord our God has brought us to silence, and he has given us the water of gall as a drink. For we have sinned against the Lord.
So, this is what the Lord All-Powerful says\par about the prophets:\par “I will punish those prophets.\par The punishment will be\par like eating poisoned food and water.\par The prophets started a spiritual sickness.\par And that sickness spread through\par the whole country.\par So I will punish those prophets.\par That sickness came from the prophets\par in Jerusalem.”\par
So the Lord All-Powerful,\par the God of Israel, says,\par “I will soon make the people of Judah\par eat bitter food.\par I will make them drink poisoned water.\par
But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon attacked the country of Judah, we did go into Jerusalem. We said to each other, ‘Come, we must enter the city of Jerusalem, so that we can escape the Babylonian army and the Aramean army.’ So we have stayed in Jerusalem.”
David said to Abishai, “Sheba son of Bicri is more dangerous to us than Absalom was. So take my officers and chase Sheba. Hurry before Sheba gets into cities with walls. If Sheba gets into the well protected cities, we won’t be able to get him.”
Be sure that there is no man, woman, family or family group here today that turns away from the Lord our God. No person should go and serve the gods of the other nations. People who do that are like a plant that grows bitter and poisonous fruit.
And when a person dies, a relative will come to get the body so he can take it out and burn it. {\cf2\super [81]} The relative will come to take away the bones. He will call to any person who might be hiding way back in the house, “Are there any other \{dead bodies\} in there with you?”
Then Moses said to Aaron, “The Lord says, ‘The priests that come near me must respect me! I must be holy to them and to all the people.’” So Aaron did not say anything {about his sons dying}.
“So Babylon, sit there and be quiet.\par Daughter of the Chaldeans, {\cf2\super [411]} \par go into the darkness.\par Why? Because you will no longer be\par ‘The Queen of the Kingdoms.’\par
Let us lie down in our shame.\par Let our shame cover us like a blanket.\par We have sinned against the Lord our God.\par We and our fathers have sinned.\par We have not obeyed the Lord our God\par
“We know that those things are our fault.\par We are now suffering because of our sins.\par Lord, do something to help us for the good of your name.\par We admit that we left you many times.\par We have sinned against you.\par
The people of Judah lived their own way.\par They were stubborn.\par They followed the false god Baal. {\cf2\super [76]} \par Their fathers taught them to follow\par those false gods.”\par