Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am devising disaster against this family, from which you cannot remove your necks; and you will not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of calamity.
Moreover the Lord says: Because the daughters of Zion are haughty and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet,
who say, “Let Him make speed and hasten His work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”
Now therefore speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Repent now, everyone from his evil way, and make your ways and your deeds good.
I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him and his people, and live.
Therefore thus says the Lord: You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, everyone to his brother and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim a liberty to you, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.
Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men said to Jeremiah, “You speak falsely. The Lord our God has not sent you to say, ‘Do not go into Egypt to sojourn there.’
Death will be chosen rather than life by all the rest of those who remain of this evil family, which remains in all the places wherever I have driven them, says the Lord of Hosts.
The yoke of my transgressions was bound; by His hand they were fastened together; they were set upon my neck. He made my strength fail; the Lord delivered me into the hands of those whom I am not able to withstand.
The Lord has done what He planned; He has fulfilled His word that He had commanded in the days of old. He has thrown down and has not pitied, and He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; He has exalted the power of your adversaries.
Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and those who walk in pride He is able to abase.
Woe to those who conceive wickedness, to those who devise evil on their beds! At morning’s light they execute it, because it is in the power of their hand.
Therefore, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, thirst, nakedness, and need of all things, and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.