The sword of the King of Babylonia

18 Yahweh gave me another message. He said, 19 “You human, makea map, and on it mark two roads for the King of Babylonia to march onalong with his army, carrying their swords. When they depart from their country, they will come to a sign post where the road divides. 20 If they continue on the one road, they will attack Rabbahcity, the capital of the Ammon people-group. If they continue on the other road, they will come to Judah and to Jerusalem, a city with walls around it. 21 When the army of Babylonia comes to where the road divides, they will stop, and the king will perform magic rituals to decide which road to go on. He will throw arrows; then consult his idolsabout which road to go on, and he will ◄examine/look at► the liverof a sheep. 22 With his right hand he will pick up the arrow marked ‘Jerusalem’. He will thencommand his soldiers to go to Jerusalem. When they arrive there, they will set up ◄rams/devices to batterdown the walls,► and then the king will give the command for them to slaughter the people. They will shout a battle-cry, and they will set up the rams against the city gates. They will build a dirt ramp against the walls around the city, and set up things to bash those walls. 23 The peoplein Jerusalem who had promised to be loyal to the King of Babylonia will think that those rituals must be wrong. They will think that his army should not be attacking them. But he will remind them of the sins [MTY] that they had committed, andhis army will capture them.

24 Therefore, tell the Israeli people that this is what Yahweh the Lord says: ‘You people have allowed everyone to see that you are openly rebellingagainst the King of Babylonia, and by doing that you have shown that everything that you do is sinful. Therefore you will be captured and takento Babylonia.’

25 Also, say, ‘You very wicked [DOU] king of Israel, it is your timeto die. It is the time for you to be punished.’ 26 And this is what Yahweh the Lord says to you soldiers from Babylonia: ‘Take off the king’s turban and his crown, because now things will be different than they were before. Thosein Jerusalem who had no authority will now be given authority, and those who had authority will have their authority taken from them. 27 Jerusalem will be completely ruined. I will cause it to be ruined, and it will not be rebuilt/restored until the king to whom the city truly belongs comes; I will give it to himto rule it.’ ”