² O Mortal, speak to your people and say to them: If I bring the sword upon a land and the people of the land take one of their number as their sentinel,^(A)

³⁰ As for you, mortal, your people who talk together about you by the walls and at the doors of the houses say to one another, each to a neighbor, “Come and hear what the word is that comes from the Lord.”

¹⁷ Yet your people say, “The way of the Lord is not just,” when it is their own way that is not just.

¹⁷ Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, “Let a sword pass through the land,” and I cut off humans and animals from it,^(A)

¹¹ then go to the exiles, to your people, and speak to them. Say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God,’ whether they hear or refuse to hear.”^(A)

The Shepherd Struck, the Flock Scattered

²⁷ But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God’; let those who will hear, hear, and let those who refuse to hear, refuse, for they are a rebellious house.^(A)

² And when they say to you, “Where shall we go?” you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord:

³ And I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the wild animals of the earth to devour and destroy.^(B)