Then the Lord will scatter you among all the people of the world, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve gods made of wood and stone that neither you nor your ancestors ever knew.
In Hoshea’s ninth year as king of Israel, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the Israelites to Assyria as captives. He settled them in Halah, along the Habor River in Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
So I will throw you out of this land into a land that you and your ancestors haven’t heard of. There you will serve other gods day and night because I will no longer have pity on you.’
“The people of Israel are like scattered sheep that lions have chased. The first to devour them was the king of Assyria. The last to gnaw at their bones was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
“Judah has been exiled after ⌞much⌟ suffering and harsh treatment. Its ⌞people⌟ live among the nations; they find no rest. Those who chased them caught up with them in places where there was no way out.
I forced them into other nations, and they became scattered among the nations. I judged them based on the way that they lived and based on everything that they had done.
I’m going to give the order. I will sift the nation of Israel out of all the nations as if I were using a sieve. Not one pebble will fall to the ground.
I used a windstorm to scatter them among all the nations, nations they hadn’t even heard of. They left behind a land so ruined that no one is able to travel through it. They have turned a pleasant land into a wasteland.”
Swords will cut them down, and they will be carried off into all nations as prisoners. Nations will trample Jerusalem until the times allowed for the nations ⌞to do this⌟ are over.
All these blessings and curses I have spoken about will happen to you. Take them to heart when you are among all the nations where the Lord your God will scatter you.
They sacrificed to demons that are not God, to gods they never heard of. These were new gods, who came from nearby, gods your ancestors never worshiped.
Search the distant past, long before your time. Start from the very day God created people on earth. Search from one end of heaven to the other. Has anything as great as this ever happened before, or has anything like it ever been heard of?