I will bring war on you to get revenge for my promise ⌞that you rejected⌟. When you gather in your cities, I will send plagues on you and you will fall under the control of your enemy.
“An enemy may defeat your people Israel because they have sinned against you. But when your people turn to you, praise your name, pray, and plead with you in this temple,
“There may be famine in the land. Plant diseases, heat waves, funguses, locusts, or grasshoppers may destroy crops. Enemies may blockade Israel’s city gates. During every plague or sickness
The Aramean army had come with a small number of men, but the Lord handed Joash’s large army over to them because Joash’s soldiers had abandoned the Lord God of their ancestors. So the Arameans carried out ⌞the Lord’s⌟ judgment on Joash.
They replied, “The God of the Hebrews has met with us. Please let us travel three days into the desert to offer sacrifices to the Lord our God. If we don’t go, he may kill us with a plague or a war.”
Now I will destine you for death. All of you will bow to be slaughtered. I called, but you didn’t answer. I spoke, but you didn’t listen. You did what I consider evil. You chose what I don’t like.
I will smash the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will cut them down with swords in front of their enemies and with the hands of those who want to kill them. I will give their bodies as food to birds and to animals.
Sharpen the arrows; fill the quivers. The Lord will stir up the spirit of the kings of the Medes because his plan is to destroy Babylon. The Lord will avenge his temple.
Young and old lie on the ground in the streets. My young women and men are cut down by swords. You killed them on the day of your anger. You slaughtered them without any pity.
“Suppose I bring a war against that country by saying, ‘I will let a war go throughout this country.’ Suppose I destroy the people and the animals in it.
“Son of man, speak to your people. Tell them, ‘Suppose I bring war on this country, and the people of this country choose one of their men and make him their watchman.
I will send famines and wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children. I will send plagues, violence, and wars to kill you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Say this, ‘You mountains of Israel, listen to the Almighty Lord’s word! This is what the Almighty Lord says to the mountains and hills and to the ravines and valleys: I am going to attack you with a sword and destroy your worship sites.
I sent plagues on you as I did to Egypt. With swords I killed your best young men along with your captured horses. I made the stench from your camps fill your noses. And you still didn’t return to me, declares the Lord.
Foreign wars will kill off their children, and even at home there will be horrors. Young men and young women alike will die as well as nursing babies and gray-haired men.
So 3,000 men from Judah went to the cave in the cliff at Etam. They said to Samson, “Don’t you know that the Philistines rule us? Why have you done this to us?” Samson replied, “I did to them what they did to me.”