then I will cut Israel off from the land I have given them. I will banish from my presence this Temple I have dedicated to my honor, and I will make it an object lesson of ridicule among the nations.
In the ninth year of the reign of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and deported the Israelites to Assyria. He settled them in Halah, in Gozan on the Habor River, and in the towns of the Medes.
First I'm going to pay them back double for their wickedness and sin, because they have made my land unclean with the lifeless bodies of their disgusting idols, filling my special country with their offensive pagan images.
However, Daniel made up his mind not to make himself impure by eating the king's rich food and wine. He asked the chief eunuch to allow him not to make himself impure.
Like a flock of frightened birds they will come from Egypt, like doves they will come from Assyria, and I will bring them back home, declares the Lord.
They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a useless bow. Their leaders will be killed by the sword because of their cursing. Because of this they will be ridiculed in Egypt.
They present me with their sacrifices, and they eat the meat, but I, the Lord, do not accept them. Now he will remember their wickedness, and punish them for their sins. They will return to Egypt.
Look, they have left because of the destruction: Egypt will with gather them, and Memphis will bury them. They gain a “valued possession” for their silver. Weeds will possess them, and thorns will grow over their tents.
But this is what the Lord says: Your wife will become a prostitute in the city; your sons and daughters will be killed by the sword. Your land will be measured and divided up, and you yourself will die in a foreign land. The people of Israel will definitely be taken from the land and go into exile.
In the same way as he wanted to make you prosperous and increase in number, so now he will wipe you out and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the country you are going in to own.
The Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships to a place that I said you weren't ever meant to see again. You will put yourselves on sale there to your enemies as male and female slaves, but nobody will want to buy you.
If you do this, I call on heaven and earth to be witnesses against you today that you will be completely wiped out from the country that you are crossing the Jordan to occupy. You will not live long there—you will be totally destroyed.
But in the same way that you received all the good things that the Lord your God promised, the Lord will bring on you all the bad things he has threatened until you're completely wiped out from this good land the Lord your God has given to you.