Have respect unto the covenant: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.

Since the days of our fathers {have} we {been} in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, {and} our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as {it is} this day.

And to the others he said in mine hearing, Go ye after him through the city, and smite: let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity: {mine hearing: Heb. mine ears}

Now the LORD hath brought {it}, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you.

But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments;

And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go {to be} among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. {sleep: Heb. lie down}

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their {blood} by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and {be} widows; and let their men be put to death; {let} their young men {be} slain by the sword in battle. {pour...: Heb. pour them out}

Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, {and} children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord? {of a span...: or, swaddled with their hands?}

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth {day} of the month, {that} Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

Wherefore the LORD brought upon them the captains of the host of the king of Assyria, which took Manasseh among the thorns, and bound him with fetters, and carried him to Babylon. {of the king: Heb. which were the king's} {fetters: or, chains}

For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.

Therefore hath the LORD watched upon the evil, and brought it upon us: for the LORD our God {is} righteous in all his works which he doeth: for we obeyed not his voice.

Zedekiah {was} one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name {was} Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. {began...: Heb. reigned}

Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young men a spoiler at noonday: I have caused {him} to fall upon it suddenly, and terrors upon the city. {the mother...: or, the mother city a young man spoiling, etc, or, the mother and the young men}

And they conspired against him, and stoned him with stones at the commandment of the king in the court of the house of the LORD.

But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:

Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go {and} serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood; {gall: or, a poisonous herb: Heb. rosh}

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, came Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and all his army against Jerusalem, and they besieged it.

The dead bodies of thy servants have they given {to be} meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth.

And the LORD sent against him bands of the Chaldees, and bands of the Syrians, and bands of the Moabites, and bands of the children of Ammon, and sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by his servants the prophets. {by: Heb. by the hand of}

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered {with fatness}; then he forsook God {which} made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, {and that} ye shall not prolong {your} days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

There were present at that season some that told him of the Galilaeans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.

With thee also will I break in pieces man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;

Slay utterly old {and} young, both maids, and little children, and women: but come not near any man upon whom {is} the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which {were} before the house. {utterly: Heb. to destruction}

For, lo, I raise up the Chaldeans, {that} bitter and hasty nation, which shall march through the breadth of the land, to possess the dwellingplaces {that are} not theirs. {breadth: Heb. breadths}

The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain {them} in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, {and} not pitied.

For death is come up into our windows, {and} is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, {and} the young men from the streets.

{Their} bows also shall dash the young men to pieces; and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb; their eye shall not spare children.

Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns {for} signs.

But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not take hold of your fathers? and they returned and said, Like as the LORD of hosts thought to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath he dealt with us. {take...: or, overtake}

Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine: {punish: Heb. visit upon}

A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: {of fierce...: Heb. strong of face}

And he said unto them, Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew in the city.

The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and stone.

How long shall I see the standard, {and} hear the sound of the trumpet?

Go ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but make not a full end: take away her battlements; for they {are} not the LORD'S.

Moreover it shall come to pass, {that} I shall do unto you, as I thought to do unto them.

Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their {blood} by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and {be} widows; and let their men be put to death; {let} their young men {be} slain by the sword in battle. {pour...: Heb. pour them out}

Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

They shall be carried to Babylon, and there shall they be until the day that I visit them, saith the LORD; then will I bring them up, and restore them to this place.

Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it:

Behold, I will command, saith the LORD, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an inhabitant.

The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders. {anger: or, face}

And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire. {dispatch...: or, single them out}

And it came to pass in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth {month}, in the fifth {day} of the month, {that} one that had escaped out of Jerusalem came unto me, saying, The city is smitten.

Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD; Thus saith the Lord GOD to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys, to the desolate wastes, and to the cities that are forsaken, which became a prey and derision to the residue of the heathen that {are} round about; {rivers: or, bottoms, or, dales}

Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.

The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling {also} with the man of gray hairs. {within: Heb. from the chambers} {destroy: Heb. bereave}

And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth {day} of the month, {that} Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about.

And Jehozadak went {into captivity}, when the LORD carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar.

And it shall be answered, Because they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods, and worshipped them, and served them: therefore hath he brought all this evil upon them.

And nation was destroyed of nation, and city of city: for God did vex them with all adversity. {destroyed: Heb. beaten in pieces}

Wherefore the LORD his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought {them} to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter. {Damascus: Heb. Darmesek}

Therefore thou deliveredst them into the hand of their enemies, who vexed them: and in the time of their trouble, when they cried unto thee, thou heardest {them} from heaven; and according to thy manifold mercies thou gavest them saviours, who saved them out of the hand of their enemies.

[A Psalm of Asaph.] O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. {of: or, for}

For Jerusalem is ruined, and Judah is fallen: because their tongue and their doings {are} against the LORD, to provoke the eyes of his glory.

He who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, {and} none hindereth. {a continual...: Heb. a stroke without removing}

Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? did not the LORD, he against whom we have sinned? for they would not walk in his ways, neither were they obedient unto his law.