15-19 “But for right now, because you’ve taken up with these new-fangled prophets who set themselves up as ‘Babylonian specialists,’ spreading the word ‘God sent them just for us!’ God is setting the record straight: As for the king still sitting on David’s throne and all the people left in Jerusalem who didn’t go into exile with you, they’re facing bad times. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, ‘Watch this! Catastrophe is on the way: war, hunger, disease! They’re a barrel of rotten apples. I’ll rid the country of them through war and hunger and disease. The whole world is going to hold its nose at the smell, shut its eyes at the horrible sight. They’ll end up in slum ghettos because they wouldn’t listen to a thing I said when I sent my servant-prophets preaching tirelessly and urgently. No, they wouldn’t listen to a word I said.’” God’s Decree.

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16 but this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your fellow citizens who did not go with you into exile— 17 yes, this is what the Lord Almighty says: “I will send the sword, famine and plague(A) against them and I will make them like figs(B) that are so bad they cannot be eaten. 18 I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent(C) to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse[a](D) and an object of horror,(E) of scorn(F) and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 29:18 That is, their names will be used in cursing (see verse 22); or, others will see that they are cursed.