21 “If our town is taken by the enemy, the entire region of Judah will then fall, and our Temple in Jerusalem will be looted. And God will make us pay with our lives for allowing the Temple to be defiled.
22 He will hold us responsible for the slaughter and captivity of our people and for the destruction of the land we have inherited. We will be despised and mocked by the people in those nations to which we will be taken as slaves.
23 We are not going to win the favour of our enemies by surrendering to them now. If we do surrender, the Lord our God will see that we are put to shame.
24 “No, my friends, we should set an example for our own people. Not only their lives, but the fate of the Temple and the altar depend on us.
25 The Lord our God is putting us to the test, just as he tested our ancestors, and we should be thankful for that.
26 Remember how he put Abraham and Isaac to the test, and what happened to Jacob while he was working as a shepherd for his uncle Laban in Mesopotamia.
27 God is not testing our loyalty as severely as he did theirs. God is not sending this punishment on us as revenge, but as a warning to us who worship him.”