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?

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."

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