²⁸ Therefore this is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the Babylonians and to Nebuchadnezzar^(A) king of Babylon, who will capture it.^(B)

³ Now Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him there, saying, “Why do you prophesy^(A) as you do? You say, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will capture^(B) it.

³⁶ “You are saying about this city, ‘By the sword, famine and plague^(A) it will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon’; but this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says:

⁷ “‘In this place I will ruin^[a] the plans^(A) of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies,^(B) at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses^(C) as food^(D) to the birds and the wild animals. ⁸ I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn;^(E) all who pass by will be appalled^(F) and will scoff because of all its wounds.^{(G) 9} I will make them eat^(H) the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies^(I) will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’

¹⁰ “Then break the jar^(J) while those who go with you are watching, ¹¹ and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash^(K) this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury^(L) the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. ¹² This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth.

⁵ I will deliver all the wealth^(A) of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away^(B) as plunder and carry it off to Babylon.

¹⁷ He brought up against them the king of the Babylonians,^[a](A) who killed their young men with the sword in the sanctuary, and did not spare young men^(B) or young women, the elderly or the infirm.^(C) God gave them all into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar.^(D)