A message about Jerusalem

22 I received this message from Yahweh about Jerusalem, about the valley where Yahweh showed me this vision.

Why is everyone foolishly running up to their flat rooftops?

2 Everyone in the city seems to be shouting.

There are a lot of corpses in the city,

but they were not killed by their enemies’ swords.

They did not die in battles;

instead, they died from diseases and hunger.

3 All the leaders of the city fled.

But then they were captured because they did not have bows and arrows to defend themselves.

Your soldiers tried to flee while the enemy army was still far away,

but they also were captured.

4 That is why I said, “Allow me to cry alone;

do not try to comfort me about my people being slaughtered.”

5 The Commander of the armies of angels has chosen a time when there will be a great uproar, soldiers marching, and people being terrified

in the valley where I received this vision.

It will be a time when our city walls will be battered down

and the people’s cries for help will be heard in the mountains.

6 The armies from Elam and Kir in Media will attack,

driving chariots and carrying shields.

7 Our beautiful valleys will be filled with our enemies’ chariots

and the men who drive the chariots will stand outside our city gates.

8 The walls that protect the cities in Judah will fall down.

You people of Jerusalem will run to get the weapons that are stored in the building called “the Hall of the Forest”.

9 You will see that there are many breaks/holes in the walls of Jerusalem.

You will store water in the lower pool in the city.

10 You will inspect the houses in Jerusalem,

and some of them you will tear down to use the stones to repair the city wall.

11 Between the walls of the city you will build a reservoir to store water from the old pool.

But you will never request help from the one who made the city;

you have never depended on Yahweh, who planned this city long ago.

12 The Commander of the armies of angels told you to weep and mourn;

he told you to shave your heads and to wear rough sackcloth

to show that you were sorry for the sins that you had committed.

13 But instead of doing that, you were happy and celebrating;

you slaughtered cattle and sheep,

in order to cook their meat and eat it and drink wine.

You said, “Let’s eat and drink all that we want to,

because it is possible that we will die tomorrow!”

14 So the Commander of the armies of angels revealed this to me: “I will never forgive my people for sinning like this!”