"Before I formed you in your mother's womb I chose you. Before you were born I set you apart. I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations."

"Israel is not a slave, is he? He was not born into slavery, was he? If not, why then is he being carried off?

For I, the Lord, tell you what will happen to the children who are born here in this land and to the men and women who are their mothers and fathers.

Cursed be the day I was born! May that day not be blessed when my mother gave birth to me.

Cursed be the man who made my father very glad when he brought him the news that a baby boy had been born to him!

I will force you and your mother who gave you birth into exile. You will be exiled to a country where neither of you were born, and you will both die there.

But Babylonia will be put to great shame. The land where you were born will be disgraced. Indeed, Babylonia will become the least important of all nations. It will become a dry and barren desert.