Jerusalem’s Fall Explained

²¹ In the twelfth year of our exile, in the tenth month on the fifth day, a man who had escaped^(A) from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!^(B)” ²² Now the evening before the man arrived, the hand of the Lord was on me,^(C) and he opened my mouth^(D) before the man came to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer silent.^(E)

²³ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, the people living in those ruins^(F) in the land of Israel are saying, ‘Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many;^(G) surely the land has been given to us as our possession.’^{(H) 25} Therefore say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Since you eat^(I) meat with the blood^(J) still in it and look to your idols and shed blood, should you then possess the land?^{(K) 26} You rely on your sword, you do detestable things,^(L) and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife.^(M) Should you then possess the land?’

²⁷ “Say this to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: As surely as I live, those who are left in the ruins will fall by the sword, those out in the country I will give to the wild animals to be devoured, and those in strongholds and caves will die of a plague.^{(N) 28} I will make the land a desolate waste, and her proud strength will come to an end, and the mountains^(O) of Israel will become desolate so that no one will cross them.^{(P) 29} Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolate^(Q) waste because of all the detestable things they have done.’^(R)