⁵⁶ And I will do to you ^(A)as I thought to do to them.”

⁶³ And as the Lord ^(A)took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will ^(B)take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it.

^23 (A)Alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress upon the earth and ^(B)wrath against this people. ²⁴ They will fall by the edge of the sword and ^(C)be led captive among all nations, and ^(D)Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles, ^(E)until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

^24 (A)“Son of man, the inhabitants of these ^(B)waste places in the land of Israel keep saying, ^(C)‘Abraham was only one man, yet he got possession of the land; but ^(D)we are many; the land is surely given us to possess.’ ²⁵ Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: ^(E)You eat flesh with the blood and ^(F)lift up your eyes to your idols and ^(G)shed blood; shall you then possess the land? ^26 (H)You rely on the sword, ^(I)you commit abominations, and ^(J)each of you defiles his neighbor's wife; shall you then possess the land? ²⁷ Say this to them, Thus says the Lord God: ^(K)As I live, surely those who are in ^(L)the waste places shall fall by ^(M)the sword, and whoever is in the open field I will give to ^(N)the beasts to be devoured, and those who are in ^(O)strongholds and in caves shall die by ^(P)pestilence. ^28 (Q)And I will make the land a desolation and a waste, and ^(R)her proud might shall come to an end, and ^(S)the mountains of Israel shall be so desolate that none will pass through. ^29 (T)Then they will know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and a waste because of all their abominations that they have committed.

Jerusalem Captured and Burned

^17 (A)Therefore he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary and had no compassion on young man or virgin, old man or aged. He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (B)And all the vessels of the house of God, great and small, and the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his princes, all these he brought to Babylon. ^19 (C)And they burned the house of God and broke down the wall of Jerusalem and burned all its palaces with fire and destroyed all its precious vessels. ²⁰ He ^(D)took into exile in Babylon those who had escaped from the sword, ^(E)and they became servants to him and to his sons until the establishment of the kingdom of Persia,

¹⁵ But just as all the good things that the Lord your God promised concerning you have been fulfilled for you, so the Lord will bring upon you ^(A)all the evil things, until he has destroyed you from off this good land that the Lord your God has given you, ¹⁶ if you transgress the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them. Then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and you shall perish quickly from off the good land that he has given to you.”

²⁸ and the Lord ^(A)uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and ^(B)cast them into another land, as they are this day.’

^23 (A)And you shall not walk in the customs of the nation that I am driving out before you, for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them.

²⁸ lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.