The enemies set fire to the house of God, and they destroyed the wall of Jerusalem. They burned down all the towers. And whatever was precious, they demolished.
And this house will become an example: anyone who passes by it will be stupefied, and he will hiss and say, 'Why has the Lord acted in this way to this land and to this house?'
Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lead in evils over this place, and over its inhabitants, with all the curses that have been written in this book, which they have read before the king of Judah.
I will uproot you from my land, which I gave to you, and from this house, which I sanctified to my name, and I will cast it away from before my face, and I will deliver it to be a parable and an example for all the peoples.
And they said to me: "Those who have remained and have been left behind from the captivity, there in the province, are in great affliction and in disgrace. And the wall of Jerusalem has been broken apart, and its gates have been burned with fire."
And I said to the king: "O king, live forever. Why should my expression not be mournful, since the city of the house of the sepulchers of my father is desolate, and its gates have been burned with fire?"
And I will make it desolate. It will not be pruned, and it will not be dug. And briers and thorns will rise up. And I will command the clouds not to rain upon it.
For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, says the Lord. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.
But I will visit against you according to the fruit of your intentions, says the Lord. And I will kindle a fire in its forest. And it shall devour everything around it."
And the Chaldeans fighting against this city will advance, and set fire to it, and burn it, along with the houses on whose roofs they were offering sacrifice to Baal and were pouring out libations to strange gods, so that they provoked me to wrath.
I will do to this house, in which my name is invoked, and in which you have confidence, even to this place which I gave to you and to your fathers, just as I have done to Shiloh.
ALEPH. O how the gold has become dulled, the finest color has been altered, the stones of the sanctuary have been scattered at the head of every street.
For this reason, because of you, Zion will be plowed under like a field, and Jerusalem will become like a pile of stones, and the mountain of the temple like the high places of the forests.
Yet truly my words and my lawfulness, which I entrusted to my servants the prophets, were indeed comprehended by your fathers, and so they were converted, and they said: Just as the Lord of hosts decided to do to us, according to our ways and according to our inventions, so has he done to us.