Judgment Must Come

1Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My [a]heart would not be [b]with this people. Send them away from My presence and have them go! 2And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says:

“Those destined for death, to death;

And those destined for the sword, to the sword;

And those destined for famine, to famine;

And those destined for captivity, to captivity.”’ 3And I will appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the LORD: “the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth to devour and destroy. 4I will make them an object of terror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

5“Indeed, who will have pity on you, Jerusalem,

Or who will mourn for you,

Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?

6“You who have forsaken Me,” declares the LORD,

“You keep going backward.

So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;

I am tired of relenting!

7“I will winnow them with a winnowing fork

At the gates of the land;

I will bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;

They did not [c]repent of their ways.

8“Their widows will be more numerous before Me

Than the sand of the seas;

I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,

A destroyer at noon;

I will suddenly bring down on her

Shock and horror.

9“She who gave birth to seven sons withers away;

[d]Her breathing is labored.

Her sun has set while it was still day;

She has been shamed and humiliated.

So I will turn over their survivors to the sword

Before their enemies,” declares the LORD.

10Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to me

As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land!

I have not lent, nor have people lent money to me,

Yet everyone curses me.

11The LORD said, “I will certainly set you free for purposes of good;

I will certainly make the enemy plead with you

In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

12“Can anyone smash iron,

Iron from the north, or bronze?

13“I will give your wealth and your treasures

As plunder without cost,

For all your sins

And within all your borders.

14“Then I will make your enemies bring your possessions

Into a land that you do not know;

For a fire has been kindled in My anger,

And it will burn upon you.”

Jeremiah’s Prayer and God’s Answer