The people roar like the waves, but when God speaks harshly to them, they will run away. They will be like chaff on the hills being blown by the wind, or like tumbleweeds blown away by a storm.
You will throw them into the air, and the wind will carry them away; a windstorm will scatter them. Then you will be happy in the Lord; you will be proud of the Holy One of Israel.
Like a strong east wind, I will scatter them before their enemies. At that awful time they will not see me coming to help them; they will see me leaving.”
I will scatter them through other nations that they and their ancestors never knew about. I will chase the people of Judah with the sword until they are all killed.”
“The Lord has rejected all my mighty men inside my walls. He brought an army against me to destroy my young men. As if in a winepress, the Lord has crushed the capital city of Judah.
All the best of his soldiers who escape will die by the sword, and those who live will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.
A third of you will die by disease or be destroyed by hunger inside your walls. A third will fall dead by the sword outside your walls. And a third I will scatter in every direction as I chase them with a sword.
Burn one-third with fire in the middle of the city when the days of the attack on Jerusalem are over. Then take one-third and cut it up with the knife all around the city. And scatter one-third to the wind. This is how I will chase them with a sword.
So those people will be like the morning mist; they will disappear like the morning dew. They will be like chaff blown from the threshing floor, like smoke going out a window.
Do it before it’s too late, before you are blown away like chaff, before the Lord’s terrible anger reaches you, before the day of the Lord’s anger comes to you.
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.
The Lord will scatter you among the other nations. Only a few of you will be left alive, and those few will be in other nations where the Lord will send you.