17 Someone will want to go into the city and won’t be able.
18 Cities will be thrown into confusion because of their pride. Houses will be destroyed; people will be afraid.
19 People will have no mercy on their neighbors. They will cause their neighbors trouble by breaking into their houses with swords, to pillage their property, because they are hungry for bread and in great distress.
20 Look, says the Lord, I am calling together all the kings of the earth, those from the north and from the south, from the east and from Lebanon. I am stirring them up to make them return and restore whatever my people gave them.
21 As they have done to my chosen ones even to this very day, so I will do to them: they will suffer full payback. This is what the Lord God says:
22 My strong hand won’t spare sinners, nor will my sword stop fighting against those who spill innocent blood on earth.
23 God’s anger has gone forth like fire to devour the earth’s foundations and sinners like kindled straw.