Who gave Jacob away as loot and handed Israel over to robbers? Wasn’t it the Lord, against whom we have sinned? They didn’t want to live his way. They didn’t obey his teachings.
So he had the Babylonian king attack them and execute their best young men in their holy temple. He didn’t spare the best men or the unmarried women, the old people or the sick people. God handed all of them over to him.
This is what the Almighty Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: You can be saved by returning to me. You can have rest. You can be strong by being quiet and by trusting me. But you don’t want that.
I was angry with my people. I dishonored those who belong to me. I put them under your control. You showed them no mercy. You placed a heavy burden on old people.
You have not humbled yourselves even to this day. You haven’t feared me or lived your lives by my teachings or by my decrees that I gave your ancestors.
Nation of Israel, I’m going to bring a nation from far away to attack you, declares the Lord. It is a nation that has lasted a long time. It is an ancient nation. You don’t know the language of this nation. You can’t understand what its people say.
My rebellious acts are a heavy burden for me. They were tied together by God’s own hands. They were tied around my neck. He has weakened me ⌞with them⌟. The Lord has handed me over to people I cannot oppose.
“The Lord is right in what he did, because I rebelled against his word. Please listen, all you people, and look at my pain. My young women and young men have gone into captivity.
The Lord handed King Jehoiakim of Judah and some utensils from God’s temple over to Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar took the utensils to the temple of his god in Babylonia and put them in the temple treasury.
The Lord will bring against you a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth. The nation will swoop down on you like an eagle. It will be a nation whose language you won’t understand.
How could one person chase a thousand or two people make ten thousand flee? Their rock used these people to defeat them and the Lord gave them no help.
So the Lord became angry with the people of Israel. He handed them over to people who robbed them. He also used their enemies around them to defeat them. They could no longer stand up against their enemies.
The Lord became angry with the people of Israel. He used King Cushan Rishathaim of Aram Naharaim to defeat them. So Israel served Cushan Rishathaim for eight years.