‘ This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city.I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in furious anger and in great wrath.
“‘ But the children rebelled against me: They did not follow my decrees, they were not careful to keep my laws, of which I said,“ The person who obeys them will live by them,” and they desecrated my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my wrath on them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.But I withheld my hand, and for the sake of my name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.Also with uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries,because they had not obeyed my laws but had rejected my decrees and desecrated my Sabbaths, and their eyes lusted after their parents’ idols.