And it came to be, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be consumed.”
“See, I am bringing them from the land of the north, and shall gather them from the ends of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, those with child and those in labour, together – a great assembly returning here.
“Therefore say, ‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “Although I have sent them far off among the gentiles, and although I have scattered them among the lands, yet I was for them a set-apart place for a little while in the lands to which they came.” ’
and all his fugitives with all his bands fall by the sword, and those who are left be scattered to every wind. And you shall know that I, יהוה, have spoken.”
‘Therefore fathers are going to eat their sons in your midst, and sons eat their fathers. And I shall execute judgments among you and scatter all your remnant to all the winds.
‘One-third of you shall die of pestilence, and be consumed with scarcity of food in your midst. And one-third shall fall by the sword all around you. And I shall scatter another third to all the winds, and draw out a sword after them.
“But when he has arisen, his rule shall be broken up and divided toward the four winds of the heavens, but not among his descendants nor according to his authority with which he ruled, because his rule shall be uprooted, even for others besides these.
‘Therefore thus said יהוה, “I shall return to Yerushalayim with compassion. My house shall be built in it,” declares יהוה of hosts, “and a surveyor’s line be stretched out over Yerushalayim.” ’
“And He shall send His messengers with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His chosen ones from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.
“And then He shall send His messengers, and assemble His chosen ones from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven.
“And יהוה shall scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other mighty ones, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.