And thou didst multiply their children as the stars of heaven: and broughtest them to the land concerning which thou hadst said to their fathers, that they should go in and possess it.
And they said to Jeremias the prophet: Let our supplication fall before thee, and pray thou for us to the Lord thy God for all this remnant: for we are left but a few of many, as thy eyes do behold us.
Therefore shall a curse devour the earth: and the inhabitants thereof shall sin. And therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad: and few men shall be left.
And he carried away all Jerusalem; and all the princes; and all the valiant men of the army, to the number of ten thousand into captivity; and every artificer and smith. And none were left, but the poor sort of the people of the land.
And Joachaz had no more left of the people than fifty horsemen, and ten chariots, and ten thousand footmen: for the king of Syria had slain them, and had brought them low as dust by threshing in the barnfloor.
And I will send in upon you the beasts of the field, to destroy you and your cattle, and make you few in number: and that your highways may be desolate.
And I said: How long, O Lord? And he said: Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land shall be left desolate.
And there shall be still a tithing therein: and she shall turn, and shall be made a show as a turpentine-tree, and as an oak that spreadeth its branches. That which shall stand therein, shall be a holy seed.
For thus saith the Lord God: The city, out of which came forth a thousand, there shall be left in it a hundred: and out of which there came a hundred, there shall be left in it ten, in the house of Israel.