Ain. While we were yet standing, our eyes failed, expecting help for us in vain, when we looked attentively towards a nation that was not able to save.
And king Sedecias sent Juchal the son of Selemias and Sophonias the son of Maasias the priest to Jeremias the prophet, saying: Pray to the Lord our God for us.
Inquire of the Lord for us: for Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon maketh war against us: if so be the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful works, that he may depart from us.
But to the king of Juda, who sent you to consult the Lord, thus shall you say: Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: Forasmuch as thou hast heard the words of the book,
And they shall be no more a confidence to the house of Israel, teaching iniquity, that they may flee, and follow them: and they shall know that I am the Lord God.
And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the troubled water? And what hast thou to do with the way of the Assyrians, to drink the water of the river?
For from thence thou shalt go, and thy hand shall be upon thy head: for the Lord hath destroyed thy trust, and thou shalt have nothing prosperous therein.
The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord, when king Sedecias sent unto him Phassur, the son of Melchias, and Sophonias, the son of Maasias the priest, saying:
Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to the king of Juda, who sent you to inquire of me: Behold, the army of Pharao, which is come forth to help you, shall return into their own land, into Egypt.
Zain. Jerusalem hath remembered the days of her affliction and prevarication of all her desirable things which she had from the days of old, when her people fell in the enemy's hand and there was no helper: the enemies have seen her and have mocked at her sabbaths.
Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against Pharao king of Egypt, and I will break into pieces his strong arm, which is already broken: and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand:
And the king of Egypt came not again any more out of his own country: for the king of Babylon had taken all that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the river of Egypt, unto the river Euphrates.
Lo, thou trustest upon this broken staff of a reed, upon Egypt: upon which if a man lean, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharao king or Egypt to all that trust in him.