Jeremiah 4:17

²³“But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart. They have revolted and gone.

¹In the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it around it. ²So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. ³On the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was severe in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. ⁴Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king’s garden (now the Chaldeans were against the city around it); and the king went by the way of the Arabah.

³⁰Yet many years you put up with them, and testified against them by your Spirit through your prophets. Yet they would not listen. Therefore you gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.

⁸The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, like a hut in a field of melons, like a besieged city.

⁸Jerusalem has grievously sinned. Therefore she has become unclean. All who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness. Yes, she sighs and turns backward.

¹⁸“The LORD is righteous, for I have rebelled against his commandment. Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow. My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.

³He said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day. ⁴The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘This is what the Lord^[+] GOD says.’ ⁵They, whether they will hear, or whether they will refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that there has been a prophet among them. ⁶You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. ⁷You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear or whether they will refuse; for they are most rebellious.

²⁰“But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation is at hand. ²¹Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let those who are in the middle of her depart. Let those who are in the country not enter therein. ²²For these are days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled. ²³Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath to this people. ²⁴They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁶“Nevertheless they were disobedient and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

²I will cut off the beautiful and delicate one, the daughter of Zion. ³Shepherds with their flocks will come to her. They will pitch their tents against her all around. They will feed everyone in his place.”