Before this, I was like a gentle lamb waiting to be butchered. I did not know they had made plans against me, saying: “Let us destroy the tree and its fruit. Let’s kill him so people will forget him.”
“So they will be in danger. They will be forced into darkness where they will be defeated. I will bring disaster on them in the year I punish them,” says the Lord.
I am watching over them, not to take care of them, but to hurt them. The Jews who live in Egypt will die from swords or hunger until they are all destroyed.
The hired soldiers in Egypt’s army are like fat calves, because even they all turn and run away together; they do not stand strong against the attack. Their time of destruction is coming; they will soon be punished.
“People will run from fear, but they will fall into the pits. Anyone who climbs out of the pits will be caught in the traps. I will bring the year of punishment to Moab,” says the Lord.
Kill all the young men in Babylon; let them be killed like animals. How terrible it will be for them, because the time has come for their defeat; it is time for them to be punished.
This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: “Gather the few people of Israel who are left alive, as you would gather the last grapes on a grapevine. Check each vine again, like someone who gathers grapes.”
They should be ashamed of the terrible way they act, but they are not ashamed at all. They don’t even know how to blush about their sins. So they will fall, along with everyone else. They will be thrown to the ground when I punish them, says the Lord.
The time of punishment has come, the time to pay for sins. Let Israel know this: You think the prophet is a fool, and you say the spiritual person is crazy. You have sinned very much, and your hatred is great.
The people of Jacob will be like a fire and the people of Joseph like a flame. But the people of Esau will be like dry stalks. The people of Jacob will set them on fire and burn them up. There will be no one left of the people of Esau.” This will happen because the Lord has said it.
Even the best of them is like a thornbush; the most honest of them is worse than a prickly plant. The day that your watchmen warned you about has come. Now they will be confused.
They will destroy you and all your people, and not one stone will be left on another. All this will happen because you did not recognize the time when God came to save you.”