The LORD says, "The time is coming when I will punish the people of Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and the desert people, who have their hair cut short. All these people are circumcised, but have not kept the covenant it symbolizes. None of these people and none of the people of Israel have kept my covenant."

So the LORD Almighty said, "I will punish them! Their young men will be killed in war; their children will die of starvation.

But the Lord says, "When I finish what I am doing on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, I will punish the emperor of Assyria for all his boasting and all his pride."

A time is coming when the LORD will punish the powers above and the rulers of the earth.

The furnace burns fiercely, but the waste metals do not melt and run off. It is useless to go on refining my people, because those who are evil are not taken away.

I, the LORD, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do."

You make wise plans and do mighty things; you see everything that people do, and you reward them according to their actions.

So then, you will get what you deserve, and your own actions will make you sick.

The righteous will be happy, and things will go well for them. They will get to enjoy what they have worked for.

But evil people are doomed; what they have done to others will now be done to them.

Do not deceive yourselves; no one makes a fool of God. You will reap exactly what you plant.

If you plant in the field of your natural desires, from it you will gather the harvest of death; if you plant in the field of the Spirit, from the Spirit you will gather the harvest of eternal life.

I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.

The rich forests and farmlands will be totally destroyed, in the same way that a fatal sickness destroys someone.

There will be so few trees left that even a child will be able to count them.

The fortified city lies in ruins. It is deserted like an empty wilderness. It has become a pasture for cattle, where they can rest and graze.

The branches of the trees are withered and broken, and women gather them for firewood. Because the people have understood nothing, God their Creator will not pity them or show them any mercy.

You sent your servants to boast to me that with all your chariots you had conquered the highest mountains of Lebanon. You boasted that there you cut down the tallest cedars and the finest cypress trees, and that you reached the deepest parts of the forests.

"Mortal man," he said, "look toward the south. Speak against the south and prophesy against the forest of the south.

They will all see that I, the LORD, set it on fire and that no one can put it out."

Open your doors, Lebanon, so that fire can burn down your cedar trees!

He burned down the Temple, the palace, and the houses of all the important people in Jerusalem;

He burned down the Temple and the city, with all its palaces and its wealth, and broke down the city wall.