Flee, turn around! Go to a remote place to stay, residents of Dedan! For I'll bring Esau's disaster on him at the time when I punish him.

But I'll strip Esau bare. I'll uncover his hiding places so he cannot conceal himself. His offspring, his relatives, and his neighbors will be destroyed, and he will no longer exist.

Leave your orphans. I'll keep them alive. Let your widows trust in me."

Indeed, I'll make you the least of the nations, despised among men.

The terror you cause and the pride of your heart have deceived you. You who live in hidden places in the rocks, who hold on to the heights of the hill, although you make your nest high like the eagle, I'll bring you down from there," declares the LORD.

Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

"I'll kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will devour the strongholds of Ben-hadad."

Their camels will become booty, their many herds will become spoil. I'll scatter to the winds those who shave the corners of their beards, and I'll bring disaster on them from every side," declares the LORD.

I'll bring the four winds against Elam from the four corners of the heavens, and I'll scatter them to all these winds. There will be no nation to which the exiles from Elam won't go.

I'll terrify Elam before their enemies and before those who seek to kill them. I'll bring on them disaster and become fiercely angry at them," declares the LORD. "I'll send the sword after them, until I've made an end of them.

I'll put my throne in Elam, and destroy the king and the officials there," declares the LORD.

"But in the latter days I'll restore the fortunes of Elam," declares the LORD.

For a nation from the north will go up against her. It will make her land into an object of horror, and no one will live in it. Both people and animals will wander off, and they'll leave.

In those days, and at that time," declares the LORD, "the people of Israel will come together with the people of Judah. They'll be weeping as they travel along, and they'll be seeking the LORD their God.

They'll ask the way to Zion, turning their faces in that direction. They'll come and join themselves to the LORD in an everlasting covenant that won't be forgotten.

Indeed, I'm going to stir up and bring against Babylon a great company of nations from the land of the north. They'll deploy for battle against her, and from there she will be captured. Their arrows will be like a skilled warrior; they won't miss their targets.

I'll bring Israel back to his pasture. He will graze on Carmel, on Bashan, on Mt. Ephraim, and on Gilead his hunger will be satisfied.

In those days and at that time,' declares the LORD, "the iniquity of Israel will be searched for, but there will be none; and the sin of Judah, but none will be found, because I'll pardon those I leave as a remnant.'"

I'll set a trap for you, and you will be caught, Babylon, but you don't realize it. You will be found and also seized, because you challenged the LORD!

The arrogant one will stumble and fall, and there will be no one to lift him up. I'll set fire to his cities, and it will devour everything around him."

A sword against the diviners. They'll be made fools. A sword against her warriors. They'll be shattered.

A sword against her horses, against her chariots, and against all the foreign troops in her midst. They'll become women. A sword against her treasures. They'll be plundered.

A drought against her waters. They'll dry up. For it's a land of idols, and they go mad over their terrifying images.

Therefore the desert creatures along with hyenas will live there. They'll live in it with ostriches, but people won't live in it again. They won't inhabit it from generation to generation.

"Look, like a lion comes up from the thicket of the Jordan to a pasture that grows year round, so I'll drive them away from her in an instant, and I'll appoint whomever is chosen over her. Indeed, who is like me? Who gives me counsel? Who is the shepherd who will stand against me?"

Therefore, hear the plan that the LORD has made against Babylon, and the strategy that he devised against the land of the Chaldeans. Surely they'll drag the little ones of the flock away. Surely their pasture will be desolate because of them.

I'll send foreigners to Babylon, and they'll winnow her, and devastate her land. They'll come against her from every side on the day of her disaster.

The LORD of the Heavenly Armies has sworn by himself: "I'll surely fill you with soldiers like a swarm of locusts, and they'll sing songs of victory over you."

They're worthless, a work of mockery, and when the time of punishment comes, they'll perish.

"You are my war-club and weapons of war. I'll smash nations with you and destroy kingdoms with you.

I'll smash the horse and its rider with you. I'll smash the chariot and its rider with you.

I'll smash man and woman with you. I'll smash old man and young boy with you. I'll smash young man and young woman with you.

I'll smash the shepherd and his flock with you. I'll smash the farmer and his team of oxen with you. I'll smash governors and officials with you.

"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.

"Look, I'm against you, destroying mountain, who destroys the whole earth," declares the LORD. "I'll stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags. And I'll make you a burned-out mountain.

Therefore this is what the LORD says: "Look, I'm going to argue your case and take vengeance for you. I'll dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.

They'll roar together like young lions; they'll growl like lion cubs.

When they're excited I'll serve them their banquet, and make them drunk until they're merry. They'll sleep forever and won't wake up," declares the LORD.

"I'll bring them down like lambs for the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

I'll punish Bel in Babylon, and I'll make what he has swallowed come out of his mouth. The nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon will fall.

Therefore, look, days are coming when I'll punish the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.

"Therefore, look, days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I'll punish her idols, and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

I'll make their leaders, their wise men, their governors, their deputies, and their warriors drunk so that they sleep forever and don't wake up," declares the King whose name is the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

They ask their mothers, "Is there anything to eat or drink?" They faint in the streets of the city like wounded men. Their life ebbs away while they lie on their mother's bosom.

Young men and the aged lie on the ground in the streets; my young women and young men have fallen by the sword. You killed them in your anger, slaughtering them without pity.

Those who enjoyed delicacies lie desolate in the streets. Those who were reared wearing purple scavenge in piles of trash.

Whether this rebellious group listens to you or not, at least they'll realize that a prophet had appeared in their midst!

"So when I say to a wicked person, "You're about to die,' if you don't warn or instruct that wicked person that his behavior is wicked so he can live, that wicked person will die in his sin, but I'll hold you responsible for his death.

If you warn the wicked person, and he doesn't repent of his wickedness or of his wicked behavior, he'll die in his sin, but you will have saved your own life.

"When a righteous man abandons his righteousness to practice unrighteousness, I'll set a stumbling block before him. He'll die. If you don't warn him, he'll die in his sin and the righteous deeds that he had practiced won't be remembered, but you'll be held responsible for his death.

If you warn the righteous person, so that he doesn't commit sin, then he'll live, since he had been warned. And you will have saved your life."

The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he told me, "Get up! Go to the valley, and I'll speak with you there."

Meanwhile, I'll make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you'll be mute and unable to reprove them, since they're a rebellious group.

But when I speak with you, I'll open your mouth so you can say to them, "This is what the Lord GOD says: "As for those who will listen, "Let them listen,' but as for those who refuse, "Let them refuse,' since they're a rebellious group."'"

You are to lay siege against it, build a rampart around it, set a bulwark against it, encircle it with a berm, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it.

Then you are to take a flat, iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city. "Next, you are to turn toward it, oppose it, and place it under siege, because you are to lay siege to it. All of this will serve as a sign to the house of Israel.

"Now as for you, you are to sleep on your left side, symbolically bearing the punishment of the house of Israel while you're counting the days you'll be sleeping on your left side to bear symbolically the punishment for their sin.

Look! I'll tie you up so that you're unable to turn from one side to the other until you've completed your siege."

"Furthermore, you are to take some wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt, and mix them together in one container. Then you are to make bread from these grains sufficient to supply you through the time during which you'll be sleeping on your side. You are to eat it for 390 days.

The food that you'll be eating is to consist of portions weighing 20 shekels, to be consumed daily at regular intervals.

Then the LORD said, "This is how the Israelis will be eating unclean food among the nations, where I'll be sending them."

"Okay," he responded. "I'll allow you to substitute cow's dung for human dung. Cook your food over that."

He also told me, "Son of Man, look! I'm about to disrupt the source of bread in Jerusalem. As a result, they'll ration bread by weight while their terror continues to grow and they'll ration drinking water while their horror continues to mount!

Indeed, they'll need bread and water, but everyone will be panic-stricken as they waste away in their iniquity."

You are to burn a third of it in the middle of the city when you've finished your siege. Next, you are to take another third of it and beat it with your sword. Last, you are to scatter the remaining third to the wind, after which I'll unsheathe my sword and pursue them.

"Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: "Watch out! I that's right, even I am against you. I'll carry out my sentence among you right in front of the nations.

In fact, I'm going to do what I've never done before and what I'll never again do, because of all of your loathsome behavior:

"Therefore, as sure as I live," declares the Lord GOD, "because you've defiled my sanctuary with every loathsome thing and every abomination, I'll restrain myself, and I'll show neither pity nor compassion.

A third of you will die by pestilence, starving because of the famine in your midst. Another third will die violently by the violence of war around you. The final third I'll scatter to the wind as I unsheathe my sword to pursue them.

"Only then will I stop being angry my burning in anger. Then they'll know that I've spoken out in my arduous anger. Only then will my burning anger against them be exhausted.

I'll send arrows of severe famine in their direction, meant for destruction, which I'll shoot, intending to destroy them. I'll make you have more and more famines that will attack you, and I'll disrupt your source of food.

"I'll send famine and wild beasts against you that will rob you of your children. Pestilence and bloodshed will devastate you when I'll declare war on you. I, the LORD, have spoken."

Your altars will become desolate and your sun pillars will be shattered. I'll throw your slain down right in front of your idols.

I'll place the corpses of the Israelis in front of their idols. I'll scatter your bones around your altar.

The fatally wounded among you will fall, and at that time you'll know that I am the LORD.

I'll leave a remnant among you those who will escape the sword when I'll have scattered you throughout the earth.

Your survivors will remember me among the nations where they'll be taken captives. I've been crushed by their unfaithful hearts that have turned against me.

Then they'll know that I am the LORD. I didn't declare this evil that's intended for them without a reason.'"

This is what the Lord GOD says: "Clap your hands and stamp your feet! Say, "Oh, no!' Because of all the detestable evil that has come from Israel's house, they'll fall by the sword, famine, and pestilence.

"You'll learn that I am the LORD, when the fatally wounded will be among their idols, around their altars, on every hill, on top of the mountains, under every luxuriant tree, and under all the full-grown foliage every place where they've offered fragrant aromas to all their idols.

I'll stretch out my hands to strike them and send devastation to the land, from the wilderness of Diblah, throughout all their dwelling places. Then they'll know that I am the LORD."

I won't be showing pity on you and I won't be showing compassion. I'm going to turn your own lifestyles against you while your detestable practices remain among you. Then you'll learn that I am the LORD.'"

Very soon now, I'll pour out my burning anger on you. I'll complete expressing my anger at you, judge you according to your behavior, and repay you for all your detestable practices.

I won't be showing pity or compassion. I'll repay you according to your behavior while your detestable practices remain among you. And you'll know that I, the LORD, have been attacking you.'"

"They'll clothe themselves with sackcloth, terror will overcome them, shame will cover their faces, and baldness will spread over their entire heads.

They'll fling their silver into the streets, and their gold will be cast away as impure. Their silver and gold won't be able to deliver them during the time of the LORD's wrath. They won't be able to satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs, because their iniquity has tripped them up."

"As for his beautiful ornament, he set it up in majesty, but they made detestable images and loathsome idols. Therefore, I'll give them something loathsome

I'll give it as plunder into the control of strangers and as the spoils of war to the wicked who will invade the land to profane it.

I'll turn my face away from them so that they'll defile my treasured place. Robbers will enter and profane it!

Therefore, I'm bringing the worst of the nations, who will take possession of their houses. I'll cause the pride of the mighty to cease, and their sanctuaries will be profaned.

"When destruction comes, they'll seek peace, but there will be none to be found.

Disaster upon disaster will come, followed by rumor after rumor. They'll seek an oracle from the prophet, but the Law will be gone from the priests, and counsel from the elders.

"The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I'll deal with them according to their behavior and I will judge them by how they've judged. Then they'll learn that I am the LORD."

I'm going to deal with them in rage and anger. I'll show neither pity nor compassion. They'll cry loudly directly in my ears, but I won't listen to them."

"Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says, "The corpses that you've laid out in your midst are the meat, and this city is the cooking pot. But you'll be taken out from the middle of it.

You're going to die violently, and I'll judge you as far as the borders of Israel. Then you'll learn that I am the LORD.

Then you'll learn that I am the LORD, because you didn't live by my statues or obey my ordinances. Instead, you obeyed the ordinances of the nations around you."'"

"Therefore you are to say, "This is what the Lord GOD says, "I'm going to gather you from among the nations, assembling you from the lands among which you have been dispersed. I'll give you the land of Israel.

then I'll give them a united heart, placing a new spirit within them. I'll remove their stubborn heart and give them a heart that's sensitive to me.

When they live by my statutes and keep my ordinances by observing them, then they'll be my people and I will be their God.