or else like a lion they will carry me off where no one can save me, and there they will tear me to pieces.

"Don't they know?" asks the LORD. "Are all these evildoers ignorant? They live by robbing my people, and they never pray to me."

But it is on your account that we are being killed all the time, that we are treated like sheep to be slaughtered.

They wanted to crush us completely; they burned down every holy place in the land.

Don't abandon your helpless people to their cruel enemies; don't forget your persecuted people!

Remember the covenant you made with us. There is violence in every dark corner of the land.

They left the bodies of your people for the vultures, the bodies of your servants for wild animals to eat.

They shed your people's blood like water; blood flowed like water all through Jerusalem, and no one was left to bury the dead.

For they have killed your people; they have ruined your country.

"Ever since I was young, my enemies have persecuted me cruelly, but they have not overcome me.

They cut deep wounds in my back and made it like a plowed field.

You have no right to crush my people and take advantage of the poor. I, the Sovereign LORD Almighty, have spoken."

And now in Babylonia the same thing has happened: you are captives, and nothing was paid for you. Those who rule over you boast and brag and constantly show contempt for me.

But you can only see your selfish interests; you kill the innocent and violently oppress your people. The LORD has spoken.

The LORD says, "Babylonia, you are my hammer, my weapon of war. I used you to crush nations and kingdoms,

to kill men and women, to slay old and young, to kill boys and girls,

yet you hate what is good and you love what is evil. You skin my people alive and tear the flesh off their bones.

You eat my people up. You strip off their skin, break their bones, and chop them up like meat for the pot.

And I saw that the woman was drunk with the blood of God's people and the blood of those who were killed because they had been loyal to Jesus. When I saw her, I was completely amazed.

Years later the king of Egypt died, but the Israelites were still groaning under their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry went up to God,

who heard their groaning and remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The LORD says, "People of Babylonia, you plundered my nation. You are happy and glad, going about like a cow threshing grain or like a neighing horse,

I will send my two witnesses dressed in sackcloth, and they will proclaim God's message during those 1, 260 days."