The Babylonian Exile

So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.

I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out.

The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.

Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.

This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague.

He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.

Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster— behold, it is coming!

The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come!

Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy.

Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.