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The Fall of Jerusalem

15 The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place,(A) 16 but they kept mocking the messengers of God, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so great that there was no remedy.(B)

17 Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their youths with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or young woman, the aged or the feeble; he gave them all into his hand.(C) 18 All the vessels of the house of God, large and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his officials, all these he brought to Babylon.(D) 19 They burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious vessels.(E) 20 He took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,(F) 21 to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had made up for its Sabbaths. All the days that it lay desolate it kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.(G)

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10 Woe to those who make iniquitous decrees,
    who write oppressive statutes,(A)
to turn aside the needy from justice
    and to rob the poor of my people of their right,
to make widows their spoil
    and to plunder orphans!(B)
What will you do on the day of punishment,
    in the calamity that will come from far away?
To whom will you flee for help,
    and where will you leave your wealth,(C)
so as not to crouch among the prisoners
    or fall among the slain?
For all this his anger has not turned away;
    his hand is stretched out still.(D)

Arrogant Assyria Also Judged

Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger—
    the club in their hands is my fury!(E)
Against a godless nation I send him,
    and against the people of my wrath I command him,
to take spoil and seize plunder,
    and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.(F)
But this is not what he intends,
    nor does he have this in mind,
but it is in his heart to destroy
    and to cut off nations not a few.(G)
For he says:
“Are not my commanders all kings?(H)
Is not Calno like Carchemish?
    Is not Hamath like Arpad?
    Is not Samaria like Damascus?(I)
10 As my hand has reached to the kingdoms of the idols
    whose images were greater than those of Jerusalem and Samaria,(J)
11 shall I not do to Jerusalem and her idols
    what I have done to Samaria and her images?”

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