So Judah became a weak kingdom that could not turn against King Nebuchadnezzar. The people were forced to keep the agreement Nebuchadnezzar made with the new king of Judah.
Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “The Lord God All-Powerful is the God of Israel. The Lord says, ‘If you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, your life will be saved and Jerusalem will not be burned down. And you and your family will live.
The seeds grew and became a grapevine.\par It was a good vine.\par The vine was not tall,\par but it spread to cover a large area.\par The vine grew stems,\par and smaller vines grew very long.\par
I will bring back the Egyptian captives. I will bring back the Egyptians to the land of Pathros, to the land where they were born. But their kingdom won’t be important.
It will be the least important kingdom. It will never again lift itself above the other nations. I will make them so small that they won’t rule over the nations.
“The Lord God of Israel promised that your father’s family would serve him forever. But now the Lord says this, ‘That will never be! I will honor people who honor me. But bad things will happen to people who refuse to respect me.