Jeremiah 15:2-9

English Standard Version

²And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^(A)“‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’

³^(B)I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and ^(C)the birds of the air ^(D)and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴^(E)And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what ^(F)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

⁵^(G)“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
    ^(H)or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside
    to ask about your welfare?
⁶^(I)You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
    ^(J)you keep going backward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
    ^(K)I am weary of relenting.
⁷^(L)I have winnowed them with ^(M)a winnowing fork
    in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
    ^(N)they did not turn from their ways.
⁸I have made their widows more in number
    than ^(O)the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men
    a destroyer at noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
    fall upon them suddenly.
⁹^(P)She who bore seven has grown feeble;
    ^(Q)she has fainted away;
^(R)her sun went down while it was yet day;
    she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
    before their enemies,
declares the Lord.”