The army of Pekah son of Remaliah killed one hundred twenty thousand brave soldiers from Judah in one day. Pekah defeated them because they had left the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
I decide your fate, and I will punish you with my sword. You will all be killed, because I called you, but you refused to answer. I spoke to you, but you wouldn’t listen. You did the things I said were evil and chose to do things that displease me.”
So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “I will soon punish the men from Anathoth. Their young men will die in war. Their sons and daughters will die from hunger.
If I go into the country, I see people killed by swords. If I go into the city, I see much sickness, because the people have no food. Both the priests and the prophets have been taken to a foreign land.’ ”
There are more widows than grains of sand in the sea. I brought a destroyer at noontime against the mothers of the young men of Judah. I suddenly brought pain and fear on the people of Judah.
So now, let their children starve, and let their enemies kill them with swords. Let their wives lose their children and husbands. Let the men from Judah be put to death and the young men be killed with swords in battle.
“ ‘At this place I will ruin the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The enemy will chase them, and I will have them killed with swords. I will make their dead bodies food for the birds and wild animals.
Anyone who stays in Jerusalem will die in war or from hunger or from a terrible disease. But anyone who goes out of Jerusalem and surrenders to the Babylonians who are attacking you will live. Anyone who leaves the city will save his life as if it were a prize won in war.
“People young and old lie outside on the ground. My young women and young men have been killed by the sword. You killed them on the day of your anger; you killed them without mercy.