and traveled another day's journey into the desert. He sat down under a broom tree and asked to die. “I've had enough now, Lord,” he said. “Take my life! I'm no better than my forefathers.”
I myself will gather what's left of my flock from all the countries where I exiled them, and I will bring them back to their pasture, where they will increase in number.
Instead they'll say, “On the Lord's life, who led the Israelites back from the northern country and all the other countries where he had exiled them.” Then they'll live in their own country.
I will let you find me, declares the Lord. I will end your captivity, gathering you from all the nations and places where I scattered you, declares the Lord. I will bring you back home to the place from where I sent you into exile.
You should have done this because he has sent a letter to us here in Babylon, stating, ‘The exile will last a long time. So build yourselves houses there to live in. Plant gardens and grow food to eat.’”
So they all came back from the different places where they'd been scattered and went to Gedaliah at Mizpah in Judah. They were able to harvest a large quantity of grapes and summer fruit.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You saw the complete disaster that I brought down on Jerusalem and all the towns of Judah. You can see how today they're ruined and abandoned
That's why my furious anger poured out and set fire to the towns of Judah and burned in the streets of Jerusalem, making them the abandoned ruins they still are today.
This is what the Lord Almighty says: Even those left in Israel will be taken, just as grapes left on a vine are taken by the one harvesting the grapes who checks the branches again.
Lord, you always do what is right, but we continue to be ashamed to this very day—we the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those nearby and those far away, those of every country where you have driven them because of their unfaithfulness to you.
So this is what the Lord says. Watch out! I am planning to bring disaster on such families. They won't be able to escape. You will no longer walk around arrogantly, for this will be a time of disaster.
One day after you experience all this, the blessings and curses I've told you about, you'll think about them, living in all the different nations where the Lord your God has exiled you.
They called on the mountains and the rocks, telling them, “Fall upon us! Hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne, and from the judgment of the Lamb.