⁹ “Say, ‘Thus says the Lord God:

¹⁵ But ^(A)he rebelled against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt, ^(B)that they might give him horses and many people. ^(C)Will he prosper? Will he who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and still be delivered?

¹⁶ ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely ^(D)in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke—with him in the midst of Babylon he shall die. ^17 (E)Nor will Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company do anything in the war, ^(F)when they heap up a siege mound and build a ^[a]wall to cut off many persons.

⁷ Then the city wall was broken through, and all the men of war fled and went out of the city at night by way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans were near the city all around. And they went by way of the ^[a]plain.

⁸ But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king, and they overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. All his army was scattered from him. ^9 (A)So they took the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he pronounced judgment on him. ^10 (B)Then the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. And he killed all the princes of Judah in Riblah. ¹¹ He also ^(C)put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in ^[b]bronze fetters, took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

^10 (A)For though you had defeated the whole army of the Chaldeans who fight against you, and there remained only wounded men among them, they would rise up, every man in his tent, and burn the city with fire.’ ”

⁵ then he shall ^(A)lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be ^(B)until I visit him,” says the Lord; ^(C)“though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed” ’?”

⁸ ‘And as the bad ^(A)figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the Lord—‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the ^(B)residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and ^(C)those who dwell in the land of Egypt. ⁹ I will deliver them to ^(D)trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, ^(E)to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them. ¹⁰ And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are ^[a]consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the ^[a]Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and ^(A)I will assemble them in the midst of this city. ⁵ I ^(B)Myself will fight against you with an ^(C)outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath. ⁶ I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷ And afterward,” says the Lord, ^(D)“I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. ^(E)He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’