Jeremiah

³“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says the Lord: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy. ⁴I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. ⁵For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?Who will mourn you?Who will come to ask of your welfare? ⁶You have rejected me,” says the Lord.“You have gone backward.Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you,and destroyed you.I am weary of showing compassion. ⁷I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land.I have bereaved them of children.I have destroyed my people.They didn’t return from their ways. ⁸Their widows are increased more than the sand of the seas;I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday.I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly. ⁹She who has borne seven languishes.She has given up the spirit.Her sun has gone down while it was yet day.She has been disappointed and confounded.I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says the Lord.