The anointed of Adonai, the breath of our nostrils, was captured in their pits, of whom we have said, “Under His shadow we will live among the nations.”
I will spread out My net upon him, so he will be caught in My net. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans. He will not see it, though he will die there.
But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. When they captured him, they brought him up to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he passed judgment on him.
Her gates sank into the ground. Her bars He destroyed and shattered. Her king and princes are among nations. There is no more Torah. Also her prophets find no vision from Adonai.
Hills of Gilboa, let no dew or rain be on you, nor on bountiful fields, for there the shield of the mighty ones lay defiled—Saul’s shield will no longer be anointed with oil.
But the troops said, “You must not go out! For if we were to flee, they would not care about us, even if half of us die, they still wouldn’t care about us—but you are worth 10,000 of us. Therefore now, it is better that you be ready to support us from the city.”
This thing that you’ve done is no good. As Adonai lives, all of you deserve to die, because you have not kept watching over your lord, Adonai’s anointed. So now, look around, where are the king’s spear and the water jar that were at his head?”
Look, today your own eyes should see how Adonai delivered you today into my hand, in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but my eye had pity on you, and I said: ‘I will not stretch out my hand against my lord, for he is Adonai’s anointed.’
So he said to his fellow men, “Adonai forbid that I should do such a thing to my lord, Adonai’s anointed, stretching out my hand against him—for he is Adonai’s anointed.”
Then he said to them, “Adonai is then a witness against you, and His anointed is a witness this day that you have not found anything in my hand.” “He is a witness,” they replied.
Here I am. Witness against me before Adonai and before His anointed. Whose ox have I taken or whose donkey have I taken? Whom have I defrauded or whom have I oppressed? From whose hand have I taken a bribe to look the other way? I will restore it to you.”
Now Jeremiah composed laments for Josiah, and to this day all the singers, male and female, commemorated Josiah in their laments. And they made them an ordinance in Israel and behold, they are written in the lamentations.
Yet leave a stump with its roots in the earth, in fetters of iron and bronze, in the tender grass of the field. Let him be damp with the dew of heaven, and let his portion be with the animals in the grass of the earth.
And the bramble said to the trees, ‘If you truly are going to anoint me king over you, then come and take refuge in my shadow; but if not, let fire come out of the bramble and devour the cedars of Lebanon.’
Each will be like a refuge from the wind and a shelter from the storm, like streams of water in a dry place, like the shade of a massive rock in a weary land.