Then all the people of Egypt will know that I am the LORD." The LORD says, "The Israelites relied on you Egyptians for support, but you were no better than a weak stick.

When they leaned on you, you broke, pierced their armpits, and made them wrench their backs.

You are expecting Egypt to help you, but that would be like using a reed as a walking stick---it would break and would jab your hand. That is what the king of Egypt is like when anyone relies on him."

to say to Zedekiah, "The Egyptian army is on its way to help you, but it will return home.

For help that never came, we looked until we could look no longer. We kept waiting for help from a nation that had none to give.

Then, to represent a siege, put trenches, earthworks, camps, and battering rams all around it.

Some will fight against the Babylonians, who will fill the houses with the corpses of those whom I am going to strike down in my anger and fury. I have turned away from this city because of the evil things that its people have done.

and so Nebuchadnezzar came with all his army and attacked Jerusalem on the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. They set up camp outside the city, built siege walls around it,