Thus the Lord said to me: “Make yourself thongs and yoke-bars, and put them on your neck.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Proclaim ye among the Gentiles, and cause the tidings to be heard, and suppress them not: say ye, Babylon is taken, Belus is confounded; the fearless, the luxurious Maerodach is delivered up.
Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the sons of Ammon, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedeki′ah king of Judah.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
For a nation has come up against her from the north, he shall utterly ravage her land, and there shall be none to dwell in it, neither man nor beast.
Give them this charge for their masters: ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters:
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
In those days, and at that time, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Juda together; they shall proceed, weeping as they go, seeking the Lord their God.
“It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the men and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever it seems right to me.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
They shall ask the way till they come to Sion, for that way shall they set their face; and they shall come and flee for refuge to the Lord their God; for the everlasting covenant shall not be forgotten.
Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnez′zar, the king of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him also the beasts of the field to serve him.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds thrust them out, they caused them to wander on the mountains: they went from mountain to hill, they forgot their resting-place.
All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
All that found them consumed them: their enemies said, Let us not leave them alone, because they have sinned against the Lord: he that gathered their fathers had a pasture of righteousness.
“‘“But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this Nebuchadnez′zar king of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I have consumed it by his hand.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Flee ye out of the midst of Babylon, and from the land of the Chaldeans, and go forth, and be as serpents before sleep.
So do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon.’
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
For, behold, I stir up against Babylon the gatherings of nations out of the land of the north; and they shall set themselves in array against her: thence shall she be taken, as the dart of an expert warrior shall not return empty.
For it is a lie which they are prophesying to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land, and I will drive you out, and you will perish.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
And Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied.
But any nation which will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, to till it and dwell there, says the Lord.”’”
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Because ye rejoiced, and boasted, while plundering mine heritage; because ye exulted as calves in the grass, and pushed with the horn as bulls.
Why will you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation which will not serve the king of Babylon?
Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon,’ for it is a lie which they are prophesying to you.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all ye that bend the bow; shoot at her, spare not your arrows,
I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.”
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
and prevail against her: her hands are weakened, her bulwarks are fallen, and her wall is broken down: for it is vengeance from God: take vengeance upon her; as she has done, do to her.
Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, ‘Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon,’ for it is a lie which they are prophesying to you.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Utterly destroy seed out of Babylon, and him that holds a sickle in time of harvest: for fear of the Grecian sword, they shall return every one to his people, and every one shall flee to his own land.
Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation?
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Israel is a wandering sheep; the lions have driven him out: the king of Assyria first devoured him, and afterward this king of Babylon has gnawed his bones.
If they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will take vengeance on the king of Babylon, and upon his land, as I took vengeance on the king of Assyria.
which Nebuchadnez′zar king of Babylon did not take away, when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconi′ah the son of Jehoi′akim, king of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
In those days, and at that time, they shall seek for the iniquity of Israel, and there shall be none; and for the sins of Juda, and they shall not be found: for I will be merciful to them that are left
thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
on the land, saith the Lord. Go up against it roughly, and against them that dwell on it: avenge, O sword, and destroy utterly, saith the Lord, and do according to all that I command thee.
They shall be carried to Babylon and remain there until the day when I give attention to them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.”
Coptic English (عن القبطية)
A sound of war, and great destruction in the land of the Chaldeans!