CAB(i)
1 The word that came from the Lord to Jeremiah, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashur, the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,
2 Inquire of the Lord for us, for the king of Babylon has risen up against us. Perhaps the Lord will do according to all His wonderful works, and the king shall depart from us.
3 And Jeremiah said to them, Thus shall you say to Zedekiah, king of Judah:
4 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war with which you fight against the Chaldeans that have besieged you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the midst of this city.
5 And I will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, with wrath and great anger.
6 And I will strike all the inhabitants of this city, both men and cattle, with grievous pestilence, and they shall die.
7 And after this, thus says the Lord; I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people that are left in this city from the pestilence, and from the famine, and from the sword, into the hands of their enemies that seek their lives, and they shall cut them in pieces with the edge of the sword. I will not spare them, and I will not have compassion upon them.
8 And you shall say to this people, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I have set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
9 He that remains in this city shall die by the sword, and by famine; but he that goes forth to defect to the Chaldeans that have besieged you shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him, and he shall live.
10 For I have set My face against this city for evil, and not for good: it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall consume it with fire.
11 O house of the king of Judah, hear the word of the Lord.
12 O house of David, thus says the Lord: Judge judgment in the morning, and act rightly, and rescue the spoiled one from the hand of him that wrongs him, lest My anger be kindled like fire, and it burn, and there be none to quench it.
13 Behold, I am against you that dwell in the valley of Sor; in the plain country, even against them that say, Who shall alarm us? Or who shall enter into our dwellings?
14 And I will kindle a fire in its forest, and it shall devour all things round about it.