Why should I forgive you? Your sons have forsaken me, and you have sworn by those who aren't gods. When I gave them enough food to satisfy them, they committed adultery and marched to the prostitute's house.

"Should I not punish them for these things?" asks the LORD, "And on a nation like this, should I not seek retribution?"

"Should I not punish them for this?' asks the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?'

Should I not punish them for these things?" asks the LORD, "and should I not avenge myself on a nation like this?"

Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit to take my life. Remember! I stood before you and spoke good on their behalf in order to turn your wrath away from them.

This is what you should say to one another and among yourselves, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

This is what you should say to the prophet, "What has the LORD answered?' or "What has the LORD said?'

Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by plague as the LORD has decreed about the nation that does not serve the king of Babylon?

Don't listen to them! Serve the king of Babylon and you'll live. Why should this city become a ruin?

Ask about this and think about it Can a man give birth to a child? Why then do I see every strong man with his hands on his thighs like a woman giving birth, and all their faces have turned pale?

"Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a darling child? Indeed, as often as I've spoken about him, I surely still remember him. Therefore I deeply yearn for him. I'll surely have great compassion on him," declares the LORD.

Then Kareah's son Jonathan spoke privately to Gedaliah at Mizpah: "Let me go kill Nethaniah's son Ishmael, and no one will know. Why should he take your life? Otherwise all the Judeans who have gathered around you will be scattered, and the remnant of Judah will perish."

Pray that the LORD your God may inform us as to how we should live and what we should do."

"Now, this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: "Why are you doing great harm to yourselves so as to cut off from Judah man and woman, child and infant from you, leaving yourselves without a remnant?

"Prepare buckler and shield, and advance into the battle!

The slain will fall in the land of Chaldea, pierced through in her streets.

"Before your eyes I'll repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they did in Zion," declares the LORD.

May the violence done to me and my flesh be on Babylon," says the inhabitant of Zion. "May my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea," says Jerusalem.

Though Babylon should reach up to the heavens and fortify her high fortresses, from me destroyers will come to her," declares the LORD.