The Lord will have compassion for Jacob and again choose Israel. He will resettle them in their own country. Foreigners will join them and unite with the descendants of Jacob.
This is the divine revelation about the desert by the sea. Like a storm sweeping through the Negev, an invader will come from the desert, from a terrifying land.
Go, sit in the dirt, virgin princess of Babylon! Sit on the ground, not on a throne, princess of the Babylonians! You will no longer be called soft and delicate.
Important people send their assistants out for water. They go to the cisterns, but they don’t find any water. They come back with their containers empty. They cover their heads, because they are ashamed and disgraced.
After I was turned around, I changed the way I thought and acted. After I was taught a lesson, I hung my head in shame. I was so ashamed and humiliated, because of all the stupid things I have done ever since I was young.’
The enemies laid their hands on all of the city’s treasures. Jerusalem has seen the nations enter the holy place. ‘O Lord, they are the same people you have forbidden to enter your congregation.’
“O Lord, look and consider: Have you ever treated anyone like this? Should women eat their own children, the children they have nursed? Should priests and prophets be killed in the Lord’s holy place?
‘Tell the nation of Israel, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: I’m going to dishonor my holy place. You brag that my holy place gives you strength. It’s the thing you love the most. It’s your hearts’ desire. So the sons and daughters that you left behind will die in battle.
You have kept Omri’s laws and all the practices of the descendants of Ahab, and you have followed their advice. That is why I will ruin you. Your people will be ridiculed. You will bear the disgrace of my people.”
Then my enemies will see this, and they will be covered with shame, because they asked me, “Where is the Lord your God?” Now I look at them. They are trampled like mud in the streets.