But if you do not surrender to Nebuchadnezzar’s generals, this city will be handed over to the Babylonians, they will burn it down, and I will make sure that you are taken prisoner by your enemies.’ ”
“ ‘For I am determined to bring calamity to this city, not good, declares Yahweh. I will turn the city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it to the ground.’ ”
The Lord has rejected his own altar and disowned his sanctuary. He has given the walls of her fortresses to her enemies. When the enemy toppled Yahweh’s temple, they shouted for joy like it was a festival day.
The Lord has swallowed up without mercy all the homes of Jacob’s descendants. In his fury, he tore down the fortresses of Daughter Judah. He threw to the ground and brought disgrace to the kingdom of Judah and her leaders.
The enemy has seized all her precious treasures. Before her very eyes she witnessed foreigners enter her holy sanctuary, although you had forbidden them ever to enter your assembly.
For even if you were to defeat the entire army of Chaldeans who are fighting against you and only severely wounded men were left lying in their tents, they still would rise up and burn this city to the ground!’ ”
Yahweh, God of Israel, then told me to go to Zedekiah king of Judah and give him this message: “Yahweh says to you, ‘I am going to hand over this city to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.
But if you do not listen to me, if you treat the Sabbath as any other day on which you carry loads through the gates of Jerusalem, then I will set its gates on fire, and that fire will consume even the palaces of Jerusalem, and no one will be able to extinguish it!’ ”
Therefore, listen to the words of the Lord Yahweh: ‘My anger and my wrath will be poured out in this place, on the people and the animals, on the trees and on the crops; my anger will burn as a fire that no one can put out.’
This is what Yahweh, the Commander of Angel Armies, said in my ears: “Truly, many of your houses will become devastated and your large, impressive mansions will have no one living in them!
The attacking army of Babylon will seize this city, set it on fire, and burn it to the ground. The people offered sacrifices to Baal on those same rooftops and poured out drink offerings to other idols, provoking my anger.
They will burn down your homes and execute justice on you while many other women look on. I will once and for all put an end to your wicked harlotry—no more paid lovers for you!
In the eleventh year of our captivity, on the fifth day of the tenth month, one who escaped from Jerusalem arrived and informed me: “The city has been taken.”
“Here is what I, Yahweh, have decreed: ‘I will send your enemies to cut the branches from your vines, but they won’t destroy them completely. I will tell them to strip away your branches. The people of Judah and Israel have been utterly unfaithful to me and are no longer mine.’ ”