1Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go!2And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence, and those who are for the sword, to the sword; those who are for famine, to famine, and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’”3“I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.4And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.5“For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will grieve for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?6You have rejected me, declares the LORD; you have gone backward, so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of relenting.7I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people; they did not return from their ways.8Their widows became more numerous than the sand of the seas; I have brought against them, against a mother, a destroyer at noonday; I have made anguish and terror fall upon her suddenly.9She who bore seven has grown feeble; she has breathed her last; her sun has set while it was yet day; she has been shamed and disgraced. And the rest of them I will give to the sword before their enemies, declares the LORD.”10Woe to me, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me.11The LORD said, “Surely I will strengthen you for good; surely I will intercede for you in a time of disaster and in a time of distress against the enemy.12Can one break iron, iron from the north, or bronze?13“Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory.14I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever upon you.”15O LORD, you know; remember me and visit me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In your forbearance take me not away; know that for your sake I endure reproach.16Your words were found, and I ate them, and your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart, for I am called by your name, O LORD, God of hosts.17I did not sit in the company of revelers, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone, because your hand was upon me, for you had filled me with indignation.18Why is my pain unceasing, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail?19Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, I will restore you, and you shall stand before me. If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them.20And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you, but they shall not prevail over you, for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the LORD.21I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”