1This is the message that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur, son of Malchijah, and the priest Zephaniah, son of Maaseiah to talk with him. They said,

2“Please speak with the Lord on our behalf because Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will do some miracle for us like all those miracles he used to do, so that Nebuchadnezzar will retreat from us.”

3But Jeremiah replied, “Tell Zedekiah this:

4This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I'm going to turn the weapons you're holding against you, the weapons you're using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonian army outside the wall besieging you. I'm going to bring them right into the center of this city.

5I myself will fight against you with all my power and might, with the full force of my furious anger.

6I will kill those living in this city, human beings and animals. They will die from a terrible plague.

7After that, declares the Lord, I'm going to hand you over, Zedekiah king of Judah, as well as your officers and the people who are left in this city after the plague and war and famine, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to your enemies who want you dead. He will attack you; he won't spare you or show you any pity or mercy.

8Tell the people this as well: This is what the Lord says: Look, I'm placing before you the path of life and the path of death.

9If you stay in this city you'll die either by sword or famine or plague, but if you leave and surrender to the Babylonians who are besieging you, you will live. In fact it will be like gaining your life as plunder from a war.

10For I am determined to bring disaster on this city, and not blessings, declares the Lord. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, who will destroy it with fire.

11In addition tell the royal family of the king of Judah to listen to the Lord's message:

12Descendants of David, this is what the Lord says: Make sure you judge fairly every day. Protect those who are being unjustly treated from those corrupt people, otherwise because of their evil actions my anger will blaze out like fire that can't be put out.

13Watch out, because I'm going to fight against you people who live above the valley on top of a flat rock, ⁶⁴declares the Lord. You say, ‘Who can attack us? Who can break down our defenses?’

14I'm going to punish you as you deserve for what you've done, declares the Lord. I will set your forest ⁶⁵on fire and it will burn up everything around you.”