At the sound of the horsemen and the archers, all the people in the towns run away. They hide in the thick bushes and climb up into the rocks. All of the cities of Judah are empty; no one lives in them.
Then the Lord will scatter you among the nations—from one end of the earth to the other. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known.
I will make the people of Judah hated by everyone on earth because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. (Manasseh son of Hezekiah was king of the nation of Judah.)
Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, captured the people left in Jerusalem, those who had surrendered to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the people.
When God turned away from the Jews, he became friends with other people in the world. So when God accepts the Jews, surely that will bring them life after death.
“I will sweep away the people and animals; I will destroy the birds in the air and the fish of the sea. I will ruin the evil people, and I will remove human beings from the earth,” says the Lord.