^13 (A)He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God. ^(B)He stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹¹ Then the word of the Lord came to me: ¹² “Say now to ^(A)the rebellious house, ^(B)Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, behold, ^(C)the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes and brought them to him to Babylon. ^13 (D)And he took one of the royal offspring^{[a] (E)}and made a covenant with him, ^(F)putting him under oath (^(G)the chief men of the land he had taken away), ¹⁴ that the kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up, and keep his covenant that it might stand. ^15 (H)But he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors ^(I)to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. ^(J)Will he thrive? Can one escape who does such things? Can he ^(K)break the covenant and yet escape?

^16 (L)“As I live, declares the Lord God, surely ^(M)in the place where the king dwells ^(N)who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant with him he broke, in Babylon he shall die. ^17 (O)Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war, ^(P)when mounds are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives. ¹⁸ He despised the oath in breaking the covenant, and behold, he gave his hand and did all these things; he shall not escape. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely it is my oath that he despised, and my covenant that he broke. I will return it upon his head. ^20 (Q)I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon ^(R)and enter into judgment with him there ^(S)for the treachery he has committed against me.

^8 (A)Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, ^(B)that his fierce anger may turn away from you.

¹³ But ^(A)exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by ^(B)the deceitfulness of sin.

⁴ Or do you presume on ^(A)the riches of his kindness and ^(B)forbearance and ^(C)patience, ^(D)not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? ⁵ But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are ^(E)storing up ^(F)wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

² And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(A)according to all that Jehoiakim had done. ³ For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence.

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

^29 (A)And you warned them in order to turn them back to your law. Yet ^(B)they acted presumptuously and did not obey your commandments, but sinned against your rules, ^(C)which if a person does them, he shall live by them, ^(D)and they turned a stubborn shoulder ^(E)and stiffened their neck and would not obey.