Will he then continue to fill and empty his throw net? Will he always destroy nations and spare none?

他岂可屡次倒空网罗，将列国的人时常杀戮，毫不顾惜呢？

但他岂可因此屡屡倒空罗网，时常杀戮列国的人，毫不顾惜呢？

但他岂可因此屡屡倒空罗网，时常杀戮列国的人，毫不顾惜呢？

难道他们要无休止地撒网，无情地毁灭列国吗？

这样，他们倒空自己的网，毫不留情地继续杀戮列国。

他豈可屢次倒空網羅，將列國的人時常殺戮，毫不顧惜呢？

但他豈可因此屢屢倒空羅網，時常殺戮列國的人，毫不顧惜呢？

但他豈可因此屢屢倒空羅網，時常殺戮列國的人，毫不顧惜呢？

難道他們要無休止地撒網，無情地毀滅列國嗎？

這樣，他們倒空自己的網，毫不留情地繼續殺戮列國。

因此他不斷地拔刀，殺戮列國人、毫不顧惜。

彼傾其網、恆戮列邦、而不之惜、可乎哉、

即罄斯網、復出害人、戮民無厭、爾何聽其然乎。

彼傾空其網、以復張害人、恆殺人民、毫不顧惜、何時為止、

Is he to keep on emptying his net, destroying nations without mercy?

Are you going to let them keep on emptying their nets? Will they go on destroying nations without showing them any mercy?

Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?

Will you let them get away with this forever? Will they succeed forever in their heartless conquests?

Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

Will they therefore empty their net, And continually slay nations without sparing?

Shall they therefore empty their net, And continue to slay nations without pity?

Shall he therefore empty his net, and spare not to slay the nations continually?

Will they therefore empty their net and continually slaughter nations without mercy?

Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?

Will he therefore continually empty his net, and kill the nations without mercy?

The LORD spoke to Jeremiah about the nations.He spoke about Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt which was encamped along the Euphrates River at Carchemish. Now this was the army that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was ruling over Judah.“ Fall into ranks with your shields ready! Prepare to march into battle!Harness the horses to the chariots! Mount your horses! Put on your helmets and take your positions! Sharpen you spears! Put on your armor!What do I see?” says the LORD.“ The soldiers are terrified. They are retreating. They have been defeated. They are overcome with terror; they desert quickly without looking back.But even the swiftest cannot get away. Even the strongest cannot escape. There in the north by the Euphrates River they stumble and fall in defeat.“ Who is this that rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage?Egypt rises like the Nile, like its streams turbulent at flood stage. Egypt says,‘ I will arise and cover the earth. I will destroy cities and the people who inhabit them.’Go ahead and charge into battle, you horsemen! Drive furiously, you charioteers! Let the soldiers march out into battle, those from Ethiopia and Libya who carry shields, and those from Lydia who are armed with the bow.But that day belongs to the Lord God who rules over all. It is the day when he will pay back his enemies. His sword will devour them until its appetite is satisfied! It will drink their blood until it is full! For the Lord GOD who rules over all will offer them up as a sacrifice in the land of the north by the Euphrates River.Go up to Gilead and get medicinal ointment, you dear poor people of Egypt. But it will prove useless no matter how much medicine you use; there will be no healing for you.The nations will hear of your devastating defeat. your cries of distress will echo throughout the earth. In the panic of their flight one soldier will trip over another and both of them will fall down defeated.”The LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about Nebuchadnezzar coming to attack the land of Egypt.“ Make an announcement throughout Egypt. Proclaim it in Migdol, Memphis, and Tahpanhes.‘ Take your positions and prepare to do battle. For the enemy army is destroying all the nations around you.’Why will your soldiers be defeated? They will not stand because I, the LORD, will thrust them down.I will make many stumble. They will fall over one another in their hurry to flee. They will say,‘ Get up! Let’s go back to our own people. Let’s go back to our homelands because the enemy is coming to destroy us.’There at home they will say,‘ Pharaoh king of Egypt is just a big noise! He has let the most opportune moment pass by.’I the King, whose name is the LORD who rules over all, swear this: I swear as surely as I live that a conqueror is coming. He will be as imposing as Mount Tabor is among the mountains, as Mount Carmel is against the backdrop of the sea.Pack your bags for exile, you inhabitants of poor dear Egypt. For Memphis will be laid waste. It will lie in ruins and be uninhabited.Egypt is like a beautiful young cow. But northern armies will attack her like swarms of stinging flies.Even her mercenaries will prove to be like pampered, well-fed calves. For they too will turn and run away. They will not stand their ground when the time for them to be destroyed comes, the time for them to be punished.Egypt will run away, hissing like a snake, as the enemy comes marching up in force. They will come against her with axes as if they were woodsmen chopping down trees.The population of Egypt is like a vast, impenetrable forest. But I, the LORD, affirm that the enemy will cut them down. For those who chop them down will be more numerous than locusts. They will be too numerous to count.Poor dear Egypt will be put to shame. She will be handed over to the people from the north.”The LORD God of Israel who rules over all says,“ I will punish Amon, the god of Thebes. I will punish Egypt, its gods, and its kings. I will punish Pharaoh and all who trust in him.I will hand them over to Nebuchadnezzar and his troops, who want to kill them. But later on, people will live in Egypt again as they did in former times. I, the LORD, affirm it!”“ You descendants of Jacob, my servants, do not be afraid; do not be terrified, people of Israel. For I will rescue you and your descendants from the faraway lands where you are captives. The descendants of Jacob will return to their land and enjoy peace. They will be secure and no one will terrify them.I, the LORD, tell you not to be afraid, you descendants of Jacob, my servant, for I am with you. Though I completely destroy all the nations where I scatter you, I will not completely destroy you. I will indeed discipline you but only in due measure. I will not allow you to go entirely unpunished.”

Indeed, wine will betray the proud, restless man! His appetite is as big as Sheol’s; like death, he is never satisfied. He gathers all the nations; he seizes all peoples.“ But all these nations will someday taunt him and ridicule him with proverbial sayings:‘ The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead( How long will this go on?)– he who gets rich by extortion!’Your creditors will suddenly attack; those who terrify you will spring into action, and they will rob you.Because you robbed many countries, all who are left among the nations will rob you. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

All of them intend to do violence; every face is determined. They take prisoners as easily as one scoops up sand.They mock kings and laugh at rulers. They laugh at every fortified city; they build siege ramps and capture them.

So I, the LORD, affirm that I will send for all the peoples of the north and my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and all the nations that surround it. I will utterly destroy this land, its inhabitants, and all the nations that surround it and make them everlasting ruins. I will make them objects of horror and hissing scorn.I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness, to the glad celebration of brides and grooms in these lands. I will put an end to the sound of people grinding meal. I will put an end to lamps shining in their houses.This whole area will become a desolate wasteland. These nations will be subject to the king of Babylon for seventy years.’“‘ But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and his nation for their sins. I will make the land of Babylon an everlasting ruin. I, the LORD, affirm it!I will bring on that land everything that I said I would. I will bring on it everything that is written in this book. I will bring on it everything that Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.For many nations and great kings will make slaves of the king of Babylon and his nation too. I will repay them for all they have done!’”So the LORD, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision.“ Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it.When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.”So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand. I made all the nations to whom he sent me drink the wine of his wrath.I made Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its officials drink it. I did it so Judah would become a ruin. I did it so Judah, its kings, and its officials would become an object of horror and of hissing scorn, an example used in curses. Such is already becoming the case!I made all of these other people drink it: Pharaoh, king of Egypt; his attendants, his officials, his people,the foreigners living in Egypt; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines, the people of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, the people who had been left alive from Ashdod;all the people of Edom, Moab, Ammon;all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon; all the kings of the coastlands along the sea;the people of Dedan, Tema, Buz, all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples;all the kings of Arabia who live in the desert;all the kings of Zimri; all the kings of Elam; all the kings of Media;all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the LORD’s wrath, the king of Babylon must drink it.

For you will pay in full for your violent acts against Lebanon; terrifying judgment will come upon you because of the way you destroyed the wild animals living there. You have shed human blood and committed violent acts against lands, cities, and those who live in them.

Those who see you stare at you, they look at you carefully, thinking:“ Is this the man who shook the earth, the one who made kingdoms tremble?Is this the one who made the world like a desert, who ruined its cities, and refused to free his prisoners so they could return home?”’

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah, from Libnah.He did what displeased the LORD just as Jehoiakim had done.What follows is a record of what happened to Jerusalem and Judah because of the LORD’s anger when he drove them out of his sight. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army and set up camp outside it. They built siege ramps all around it. He arrived on the tenth day of the tenth month in the ninth year that Zedekiah ruled over Judah.The city remained under siege until Zedekiah’s eleventh year.By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine in the city was so severe the residents had no food.They broke through the city walls, and all the soldiers tried to escape. They left the city during the night. They went through the gate between the two walls that is near the king’s garden.( The Babylonians had the city surrounded.) Then they headed for the Jordan Valley.But the Babylonian army chased after the king. They caught up with Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and his entire army deserted him.They captured him and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the territory of Hamath and he passed sentence on him there.The king of Babylon had Zedekiah’s sons put to death while Zedekiah was forced to watch. He also had all the nobles of Judah put to death there at Riblah.He had Zedekiah’s eyes put out and had him bound in chains. Then the king of Babylon had him led off to Babylon and he was imprisoned there until the day he died.On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard who served the king of Babylon, arrived in Jerusalem.He burned down the LORD’s temple, the royal palace, and all the houses in Jerusalem, including every large house.The whole Babylonian army that came with the captain of the royal guard tore down the walls that surrounded Jerusalem.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took into exile some of the poor, the rest of the people who remained in the city, those who had deserted to him, and the rest of the craftsmen.But he left behind some of the poor and gave them fields and vineyards.The Babylonians broke the two bronze pillars in the temple of the LORD, as well as the movable stands and the large bronze basin called the“ The Sea.” They took all the bronze to Babylon.They also took the pots, shovels, trimming shears, basins, pans, and all the bronze utensils used by the priests.The captain of the royal guard took the gold and silver bowls, censers, basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and vessels.The bronze of the items that King Solomon made for the LORD’s temple( including the two pillars, the large bronze basin called“ The Sea,” the twelve bronze bulls under“ The Sea,” and the movable stands) was too heavy to be weighed.Each of the pillars was about 27 feet high, about 18 feet in circumference, three inches thick, and hollow.The bronze top of one pillar was about seven and one-half feet high and had bronze latticework and pomegranate-shaped ornaments all around it. The second pillar with its pomegranate-shaped ornaments was like it.There were ninety-six pomegranate-shaped ornaments on the sides; in all there were one hundred pomegranate-shaped ornaments over the latticework that went around it.The captain of the royal guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest who was second in rank, and the three doorkeepers.From the city he took an official who was in charge of the soldiers, seven of the king’s advisers who were discovered in the city, an official army secretary who drafted citizens for military service, and sixty citizens who were discovered in the middle of the city.Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.The king of Babylon ordered them to be executed at Riblah in the territory of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile away from its land.Here is the official record of the number of people Nebuchadnezzar carried into exile: In the seventh year, 3, 023 Jews;in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the royal guard, carried into exile 745 Judeans. In all 4, 600 people went into exile.In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of King Jehoiachin of Judah, on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month, Evil-Merodach, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison.He spoke kindly to him and gave him a more prestigious position than the other kings who were with him in Babylon.Jehoiachin took off his prison clothes and ate daily in the king’s presence for the rest of his life.He was given daily provisions by the king of Babylon for the rest of his life until the day he died.

The word of the LORD came to me:“ Son of man, turn toward the Ammonites and prophesy against them.Say to the Ammonites,‘ Hear the word of the sovereign LORD: This is what the sovereign LORD says: You said“ Aha!” about my sanctuary when it was desecrated, about the land of Israel when it was made desolate, and about the house of Judah when they went into exile.So take note, I am about to make you slaves of the tribes of the east. They will make camps among you and pitch their tents among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk.I will make Rabbah a pasture for camels and Ammon a resting place for sheep. Then you will know that I am the LORD.For this is what the sovereign LORD says: Because you clapped your hands, stamped your feet, and rejoiced with intense scorn over the land of Israel,take note, I have stretched out my hand against you, and I will hand you over as plunder to the nations. I will cut you off from the peoples and make you perish from the lands. I will destroy you; then you will know that I am the LORD.’”“ This is what the sovereign LORD says:‘ Moab and Seir say,“ Look, the house of Judah is like all the other nations.”So look, I am about to open up Moab’s flank, eliminating the cities, including its frontier cities, the beauty of the land– Beth Jeshimoth, Baal Meon, and Kiriathaim.I will hand it over, along with the Ammonites, to the tribes of the east, so that the Ammonites will no longer be remembered among the nations.I will execute judgments against Moab. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”“ This is what the sovereign LORD says:‘ Edom has taken vengeance against the house of Judah; they have made themselves fully culpable by taking vengeance on them.So this is what the sovereign LORD says: I will stretch out my hand against Edom, and I will kill the people and animals within her, and I will make her desolate; from Teman to Dedan they will die by the sword.I will exact my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will carry out in Edom my anger and rage; they will experience my vengeance, declares the sovereign LORD.’”“ This is what the sovereign LORD says:‘ The Philistines have exacted merciless revenge, showing intense scorn in their effort to destroy Judah with unrelenting hostility.So this is what the sovereign LORD says: Take note, I am about to stretch out my hand against the Philistines. I will kill the Cherethites and destroy those who remain on the seacoast.I will exact great vengeance upon them with angry rebukes. Then they will know that I am the LORD, when I exact my vengeance upon them.’”

The fishermen will mourn and lament, all those who cast a fishhook into the river, and those who spread out a net on the water’s surface will grieve.

It furiously struck down nations with unceasing blows. It angrily ruled over nations, oppressing them without restraint.