¹¹ The Lord’s word came to me: ¹² Say now to the rebellious household: Don’t you know what these things mean? Say: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and carried its king and its officers away with him to Babylon. ¹³ Then he took a prince from the royal line, made an agreement with him, and made him take a solemn pledge of loyalty. He also took away the land’s officials. ¹⁴ Thus it would be a lowly kingdom, not asserting its own interests but observing the agreement so that it would survive. ¹⁵ But the prince rebelled against him and sent messengers to Egypt to supply him with horses and a great army. Can such a person succeed? Can one who does these things escape? Can he overturn the agreement and escape capture? ¹⁶ As surely as I live, says the Lord God, he will die in Babylon, in the place of the king who gave him the authority to rule, whose solemn pledge he scorned and whose agreement he overturned. ¹⁷ Pharaoh won’t help him. There will be no strong force or mighty army in battle when siege ramps are set up and towers are built to eliminate many lives. ¹⁸ He scorned the solemn pledge and overturned the agreement! Even though he made a promise, he did all these things, and he won’t escape capture. ¹⁹ So now the Lord God proclaims: As surely as I live, it was my solemn pledge that he scorned and my agreement that he overturned, and I will hold him accountable. ²⁰ I will spread my net over him, and he will be caught in my trap. I will bring him to Babylon, and I myself will enter into judgment with him there for rebelling against me. ²¹ All his elite fighters^[a] along with all his troops will fall by the sword, and those who are left will be scattered to the winds. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken.

²² The Lord God proclaims: I myself will take one of the top branches from the tall cedar. I will pluck a tender shoot from its crown, and I myself will plant it on a very high and lofty mountain. ²³ On Israel’s mountainous highlands I will plant it, and it will send out branches and bear fruit. It will grow into a mighty cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it and find shelter in the shade of its boughs. ²⁴ Then all the trees in the countryside will know that I, the Lord, bring down the tall tree and raise up the lowly tree, and make the green tree wither and the dry tree bloom. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do it.