So I made a vow in the desert that I would not take them to the land I had given them, a rich and fertile land, the finest land of all.

As surely as I am the living God, I raise my hand and I vow

Then the angel that I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven

and took a vow in the name of God, who lives forever and ever, who created heaven, earth, and the sea, and everything in them. The angel said, "There will be no more delay!

I will bring war on you and scatter you in foreign lands. Your land will be deserted, and your cities left in ruins.

"The LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will serve gods made of wood and stone, gods that neither you nor your ancestors have ever worshiped before.

Your life will always be in danger. Day and night you will be filled with terror, and you will live in constant fear of death.

The LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships, even though he said that you would never have to go there again. There you will try to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will want to buy you."

I would have destroyed them completely, so that no one would remember them.

But I could not let their enemies boast that they had defeated my people, when it was I myself who had crushed them.'

and scatter their descendants among the heathen, letting them die in foreign countries.

I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah."