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Ya‘akov's portion is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things, including the tribe he claims as his heritage. Adonai -Tzva'ot is his name.

"But I will repay Bavel and all living in the land of the Kasdim for all the evil they did in Tziyon," says Adonai , "before your eyes [, Y'hudah]."

Raise up a banner in the land, blow the shofar among the nations. Prepare the nations for war against her. Summon kingdoms against her — Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint an officer against her; bring up horses like bristling grasshoppers.

For here is what Adonai -Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "The daughter of Bavel is like a threshing-floor at treading-time. Just a little while longer, and the time for harvesting her will come."

Therefore here is what Adonai says: "I will plead your cause. I will take vengeance for you. I will dry up her river and make her water sources dry.

Bavel will become a heap of ruins, a place for jackals to live, an object of horror and hissing, with no one living there.

Then heaven and earth and all that is in them will sing for joy over Bavel; for the plunderers from the north are coming to her," says Adonai .

For Adonai is plundering Bavel and silencing her noisy din — their waves roar like the raging ocean, their clamor sounds and resounds.

Yes, the plunderer has fallen upon her, fallen on Bavel. Her warriors are captured, their bows are broken. For Adonai is a God of retribution; he will surely repay.

Thus says Adonai -Tzva'ot: "The wide walls of Bavel will be razed to the ground, her lofty gates will be set on fire. The peoples are toiling for nothing, the nation's labor goes up in flames, and everyone is exhausted."

Tzidkiyahu was twenty-one years old when he began to rule, and he ruled for eleven years in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Yirmeyahu, from Livnah.

On the ninth day of the fourth month, when the famine in the city was so severe that there was no food for the people of the land,

The bronze in the two columns, the one Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the bases, all of which Shlomo had made for the house of Adonai , was more than could be weighed.

As for the columns, the height of one column was thirty-one-and-a-half feet; it took a twenty-one-foot measuring line to go around it; and its thickness was four fingers — it was hollow.

and he was granted a daily allowance by the king of Bavel to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived, until the day of his death.

The roads to Tziyon are mourning because no one comes to the festivals. Her gateways are all deserted, her cohanim are groaning, her unmarried girls are grieving — how bitter it is for her!

Her foes have become the head, her enemies relax, for Adonai has made her suffer because of her many sins. Her young children have gone away captive before the foe.

Her filthiness was in her skirts; she gave no thought to how it would end. Hence her astounding downfall, with no one to console her. "Look, Adonai , how I suffer; for the foe has triumphed!"

All her people are groaning, as they search for something to eat. They barter their treasures for food to keep themselves alive. "Look, Adonai ! See how despised I am.

"All the strong men within my walls Adonai has rejected. He has set a specific time for crushing my young men. Adonai has trodden, like grapes in a winepress, the virgin daughter of Y'hudah.