Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.’ This is the declaration of the Lord of Armies.
I will be found by you’ #– #this is the Lord’s declaration #– #‘and I will restore your fortunes , and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you’ #– #this is the Lord’s declaration. ‘I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.’
but, “As the Lord lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other countries where I had banished them.” They will dwell once more in their own land.’
‘I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have banished them, and I will return them to their grazing land. They will become fruitful and numerous.
Lord, righteousness belongs to you, but this day public shame belongs to us: the men of Judah, the residents of Jerusalem, and all Israel #– #those who are near and those who are far, in all the countries where you have banished them because of the disloyalty they have shown towards you.
‘When all these things happen to you #– #the blessings and curses I have set before you #– #and you come to your senses while you are in all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you,
they all returned from all the places where they had been banished and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and harvested a great amount of wine and summer fruit.
but he went on a day’s journey into the wilderness. He sat down under a broom tree and prayed that he might die. He said, ‘I have had enough! Lord, take my life, for I’m no better than my ancestors.’
This is what the Lord of Armies says: Glean the remnant of Israel as thoroughly as a vine. Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer over the branches.
Therefore, the Lord says: I am now planning a disaster against this nation; you cannot free your necks from it. Then you will not walk so proudly because it will be an evil time.
But I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw a sword to chase after you. So your land will become desolate, and your cities will become ruins.
‘This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster I brought against Jerusalem and all Judah’s cities. Look, they are a ruin today without an inhabitant in them