The enemy reached out and took all her precious things. She even saw foreigners enter her Temple. The Lord had commanded foreigners never to enter the meeting place of his people.
Nebuchadnezzar carried away to Babylon all the things from the Temple of God, both large and small, and all the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and from the king and his officers.
On that day they read the Book of Moses to the people, and they found that it said no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be allowed in the meeting to worship.
I will give all the wealth of this city to its enemies—its goods, its valuables, and the treasures of the kings of Judah. The enemies will carry all those valuables off to Babylon.
“This is what the Lord All-Powerful says about those items left in Jerusalem: the pillars, the large bronze bowl, which is called the Sea, the stands that can be moved, and other things.
Listen to the people running to escape the country of Babylon! They are telling Jerusalem how the Lord our God is punishing Babylon as it deserves for destroying his Temple.
“We people of Judah are disgraced, because we have been insulted. We have been shamed, because strangers have gone into the holy places of the Lord’s Temple!”
Jerusalem is suffering and homeless. She remembers all the good things from the past. But her people were defeated by the enemy, and there was no one to help her. When her enemies saw her, they laughed to see her ruined.
You brought foreigners into my Holy Place who were not circumcised in the flesh and had not given themselves to serving me. You dishonored my Temple when you offered me food, fat, and blood. You broke my agreement by all the things you did that I hate.
Then he said to the men, “Make the Temple unclean, and fill the courtyards with those who have been killed. Go out!” So the men went out and killed the people in the city.
“You will see ‘a blasphemous object that brings destruction’ standing where it should not be.” (You who read this should understand what it means.) “At that time, the people in Judea should run away to the mountains.
This is because the Ammonites and Moabites did not give you bread and water when you came out of Egypt. And they hired Balaam son of Beor, from Pethor in Northwest Mesopotamia, to put a curse on you.