you will serve your enemies, whom Adonai will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lacking everything; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
“When Your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against You, if they turn back to You and confess Your Name and pray and make supplication to You in this House,
I was angry with My people. I profaned My heritage. I gave them into your hand, but you showed them no mercy. You made your yoke very heavy on the aged.
So you, on your own, let go of your heritage that I gave you. So I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know. For you have kindled a fire in My nose that will burn forever.”
Then Adonai could no longer endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations that you committed! So your land has become a wasteland, a desolation and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
Here I am, watching over them for evil, and not for good. All the people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end of them.
So it will come to pass that when you ask, ‘Why has Adonai Eloheinu done all these things to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
My transgressions are bound into a yoke, woven together by His hand. They have come upon my neck and He has sapped my strength. The Lord delivered me over to those I cannot withstand.
Judah is gone into exile under affliction and great servitude. She dwells among the nations. She finds no resting place. All her pursuers have overtaken her in the midst of her distress.
Say now to the rebellious house, “Do you not know what these things mean?” Tell them: “Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took the king and the princes and brought them with him to Babylon.
Say, thus says Adonai Elohim: “A great eagle with large wings and broad wings, full of feathers which had varied colors, came to Lebanon and took hold of the top of the cedar.
“There was also another great eagle with large wings and many feathers. Behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed where it was planted, so that he might water it.
They will treat you with hatred, take all your property and leave you naked and exposed. The vulgarity of your prostitutions will be uncovered—your debauchery and your promiscuity.
Therefore, thus said Adonai: “Behold, I am scheming a calamity against this family from which you cannot remove your necks. Then you will not walk haughtily, for it will be a time of distress.”