Your land is a desolation; your cities burned with fire. Strangers devour your land before you; and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

which sends ambassadors by sea, even in vessels of reed on the waters, saying, Go, swift messengers, to a nation tall and smooth, to a people to be feared until now and onward; a mighty nation, treading underfoot; whose land the rivers have divided!

Now it came to pass in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah that Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.

For thus says the Lord Jehovah, My people went down before into Egypt to stay there; and the Assyrian oppressed them without cause.

Now therefore, what have I here, says Jehovah, that My people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule make them howl, says Jehovah; and My name is continually blasphemed every day.

All you beasts of the field, come to devour, all you beasts in the forest.

Israel is like scattered sheep, driven away by lions. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and last this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has crushed his bones.

Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me; he has made me an empty vessel. He has swallowed me up like a dragon; he has filled his stomach with my delicacies; he has rinsed me out.

The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon, the inhabitant of Zion shall say. And, My blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, Jerusalem shall say.

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it and built siege walls against it all around.

And in the fourth month, in the ninth of the month, the famine was so severe in the city, so that there was no food for the people of the land.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. And all his army was scattered from him.

And the king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes. He also killed all the rulers of Judah in Riblah.

And as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it,

For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and besiege you on every side,

But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is near.

For these are the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

to open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, those who sit in darkness out of the prison house.

who made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed its cities; who did not open the house for his prisoners?

I have raised him up in righteousness, and I will direct all his ways; he shall build My city, and he shall set free My captives, not for price nor reward, says Jehovah of Hosts.

to hear the groaning of the prisoner, to set free the children of death,

And it came to pass in the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the twenty-fifth of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him out of prison,

But I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, Bow down so that we may pass over; and lay your back on the ground, even as the street, for those who cross over.

And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered all your days, and no one shall deliver you.

Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them.

A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and your produce, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

Now consider this, you who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be no one to deliver.