You will feel my anger when I turn it loose on you like a blazing fire. And I will hand you over to brutal men, experts at destruction.

I will bring ruthless enemies to attack you. They will destroy all the beautiful things you have acquired by skill and wisdom.

He abandoned them to the power of the heathen, and their enemies ruled over them.

Like a lion coming from its hiding place, a destroyer of nations has set out. He is coming to destroy Judah. The cities of Judah will be left in ruins, and no one will live in them.

Across all the desert highlands people have come to plunder. I have sent war to destroy the entire land; no one can live in peace.

I am bringing the Babylonians to power, those fierce, restless people. They are marching out across the world to conquer other lands.

"Their horses are faster than leopards, fiercer than hungry wolves. Their cavalry troops come riding from distant lands; their horses paw the ground. They come swooping down like eagles attacking their prey.

They treat kings with contempt and laugh at high officials. No fortress can stop them---they pile up earth against it and capture it.

Their houses will be given to others, and so will their fields and their wives. I am going to punish the people of this land.

Our property is in the hands of strangers; foreigners are living in our homes.

I will make the country a desolate wasteland, and the power they were so proud of will come to an end. The mountains of Israel will be so wild that no one will be able to travel through them.

The world of the dead is hungry for them, and it opens its mouth wide. It gulps down the nobles of Jerusalem along with the noisy crowd of common people.

"Mortal man," he said, "denounce Jerusalem. Denounce the places where people worship. Warn the land of Israel

But if you and your people ever disobey the laws and commands I have given you and worship other gods,

who said, "We will take for our own the land that belongs to God."