9 The Lord All-Powerful said this to me, and I heard him, “There are many houses now. But I promise that all the houses will be destroyed. There are nice, big houses now. But those houses will be empty.
And so the things the Lord told the people of Israel through the prophet Jeremiah really happened. The Lord had said through Jeremiah: “This place will be an empty wasteland for 70 years. {\cf2\super [456]} This will happen to make up for the Sabbath rests {\cf2\super [457]} that the people didn’t do.”
The Lord All-Powerful said these things to me and I heard it with my ears: “You are guilty of doing wrong things. And I promise, you will die before this guilt is forgiven.” My Master, the Lord All-Powerful said those things.
At that time, the great city will be empty—it will be like a desert. All the people will be gone—they will run away. That city will be like an open pasture. Young cattle will eat grass there. The cattle will eat leaves from the branches of the vines.
I will make my vineyard {\cf2\super [47]} an empty field.\par No person will care for the plants.\par No person will work in the field.\par Weeds and thorns will grow there.\par I will command the clouds\par not to rain on the field.”\par
You take unfair taxes {\cf2\super [69]} from poor people.\par You take loads of wheat from them.\par You build fancy houses with cut stone.\par But you will not live in those houses.\par You plant beautiful fields of grapes.\par But you will not drink the wine from them.\par
Look, the Lord God will give the command,\par and the large houses\par will be broken to pieces,\par and the small houses\par will be broken to small pieces.\par
People worked in your fields, but you did not pay them. Those people are crying out against you. Those people harvested your crops. Now the Lord (God) of heaven’s armies {\cf2\super [24]} has heard the things they are shouting.