⁶⁴ For the Lord will scatter you among all the nations from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship foreign gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made of wood and stone!

God’s Mercy on Israel

11 I ask, then, has God rejected his own people, the nation of Israel? Of course not! I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham and a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

² No, God has not rejected his own people, whom he chose from the very beginning. Do you realize what the Scriptures say about this? Elijah the prophet complained to God about the people of Israel and said,

²⁸ The number of captives taken to Babylon in the seventh year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign^[a] was 3,023. ²⁹ Then in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year^[b] he took 832 more. ³⁰ In Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year^[c] he sent Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who took 745 more—a total of 4,600 captives in all.

⁴ Because of the wicked things Manasseh son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will make my people an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

²¹ And there at Riblah, in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon had them all put to death. So the people of Judah were sent into exile from their land.