On the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year as king, the city walls were broken through.

On the ninth day of the fourth month of that same year, when the famine was so bad that the people had nothing left to eat,

"The fasts held in the fourth, fifth, seventh, and tenth months will become festivals of joy and gladness for the people of Judah. You must love truth and peace."

When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said: Some are doomed to die by disease--- that's where they will go! Others are doomed to die in war--- that's where they will go! Some are doomed to die of starvation--- that's where they will go! Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners--- that's where they will go!

The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children."

Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.

I will silence their shouts of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. They will have no oil for their lamps, and there will be no more grain.

"Your Majesty, what these men have done is wrong. They have put Jeremiah in the well, where he is sure to die of starvation, since there is no more food in the city."

I will cut off your food supply, so that ten women will need only one oven to bake all the bread they have. They will ration it out, and when you have eaten it all, you will still be hungry.

They will attack every town in the land that the LORD your God is giving you, and the high, fortified walls in which you trust will fall.

"When your enemies are besieging your towns, you will become so desperate for food that you will even eat the children that the LORD your God has given you.

They will die from hunger and fever; they will die from terrible diseases. I will send wild animals to attack them, and poisonous snakes to bite them.

Now the Lord, the Almighty LORD, is about to take away from Jerusalem and Judah everything and everyone that the people depend on. He is going to take away their food and their water,

They let their babies die of hunger and thirst; children are begging for food that no one will give them.

My people have been punished even more than the inhabitants of Sodom, which met a sudden downfall at the hands of God.

Hunger has made us burn with fever until our skin is as hot as an oven.

"Now take some wheat, barley, beans, peas, millet, and spelt. Mix them all together and make bread. That is what you are to eat during the 390 days you are lying on your left side.

You will also have a limited amount of water to drink, two cups a day.

The LORD said, "This represents the way the Israelites will have to eat food which the Law forbids, when I scatter them to foreign countries."

So God said, "Very well. I will let you use cow dung instead, and you can bake your bread on that."

They will run out of bread and water; they will be in despair, and they will waste away because of their sins."

As a result, parents in Jerusalem will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will punish you and scatter in every direction any who are left alive.

A third of your people will die from sickness and hunger in the city; a third will be cut down by swords outside the city; and I will scatter the last third to the winds and pursue them with a sword.

There is fighting in the streets, and sickness and hunger in the houses. Anyone who is out in the country will die in the fighting, and anyone in the city will be a victim of sickness and hunger.

This is what the Sovereign LORD is saying: "I will send my four worst punishments on Jerusalem---war, famine, wild animals, and disease---to destroy people and animals alike.