I was living in peace, but God took me by the throat and battered me and crushed me. God uses me for target practice

and shoots arrows at me from every side--- arrows that pierce and wound me; and even then he shows no pity.

"Listen to this, you that ignore me, or I will destroy you, and there will be no one to save you.

That is why lions from the forest will kill them; wolves from the desert will tear them to pieces, and leopards will prowl through their towns. If those people go out, they will be torn apart because their sins are numerous and time after time they have turned from God.

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,

And then there will be a fourth empire, as strong as iron, which shatters and breaks everything. And just as iron shatters everything, it will shatter and crush all the earlier empires.

The toes---partly iron and partly clay---mean that part of the empire will be strong and part of it weak.

At the time of those rulers the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never end. It will never be conquered, but will completely destroy all those empires and then last forever.

This is the explanation I was given: "The fourth beast is a fourth empire that will be on the earth and will be different from all other empires. It will crush the whole earth and trample it down.

Those who are left among the nations will be like a lion hunting for food in a forest or a pasture: it gets in among the sheep, pounces on them, and tears them to pieces---and there is no hope of rescue.

The people say, "Let's return to the LORD! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won't he?

"He sent fire from above, a fire that burned inside me. He set a trap for me and brought me to the ground. Then he abandoned me and left me in constant pain.

You have worn me out, God; you have let my family be killed.

The city gates will mourn and cry, and the city itself will be like a woman sitting on the ground, stripped naked.

People of Jerusalem, let these troubles be a warning to you, or else I will abandon you; I will turn your city into a desert, a place where no one lives."

I said, "I will mourn for the mountains and weep for the pastures, because they have dried up, and no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard; birds and wild animals have fled and gone."

The LORD says, "I will make Jerusalem a pile of ruins, a place where jackals live; the cities of Judah will become a desert, a place where no one lives."

I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.

The people are saying that this land will be like a desert where neither people nor animals live, and that it will be given over to the Babylonians. But fields will once again be bought in this land.

And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty.

They threw dust on their heads, they cried and mourned, saying, "How terrible! How awful for the great city! She is the city where all who have ships sailing the seas became rich on her wealth! And in one hour she has lost everything!"