1The answer that came to Jeremiah from before LORD JEHOVAH, when Tsedeqia the King sent Pashkhur, son of Melkia, to him, and Tsephenia, son of Massia the Priest, saying 2“Pray for us from LORD JEHOVAH, because Nebukadnetsar the King of Babel fights with us! Perhaps LORD JEHOVAH shall do with us according to all his wonders and he shall take him away from us!”

3And Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you will say to Tsedeqiah the King 4‘Thus says LORD JEHOVAH, God of Hosts of Israel: behold, I turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands by which you fight with the King of Babel and with the Chaldeans who surround you outside of the city and I shall assemble them within this city. 5And I shall fight with you by a mighty hand and by an arm raised in passion, and in rage, and in great anger 6I shall assault those inhabiting this city. The children of men and beasts will die in a great death 7And after that, says LORD JEHOVAH, I shall deliver Tsedeqiah King of Judea and his Servants and the people who were left in this city from the sword and from famine and from plague. I shall deliver into the hand of Nebukadnetsar, King of Babel, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their soul, and he shall strike them by the mouth of the sword, and he shall not show pity upon them, and he shall not hover, and he shall not show compassion upon them”

8And to this people say: “Thus says LORD JEHOVAH, ‘Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death 9He who dwells in this city shall die by the sword, or with starvation, or with plague, and he who goes out to the Chaldeans who surround you, lives and saves himself 10Because I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good, says LORD JEHOVAH, and into the hand of the King of Babel you shall be given, and he shall burn it in fire, and the house of the King of Judea

11Hear the word of LORD JEHOVAH, those of the house David:

12Thus says LORD JEHOVAH: “Judge judgment at dawn and save the oppressed from him who oppresses him, lest my wrath will go forth as fire and it will burn and there is no one who extinguishes, because of the wickedness of your deeds

13Behold, I am against you. You have sat in the valleys, the depth of the broad valleys, says LORD JEHOVAH, who say: ‘who will come upon us and who will enter our dwelling?’

14I shall adjudicate for you according to the fruits of your works, says LORD JEHOVAH, and I shall send fire in its cities, and it shall devour all of them around it”