³ I will strike your bow from your left hand and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand.^(A)

⁵ On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”^(A)

⁴ Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I am going to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls, and I will bring them together into the center of this city.^{(A) 5} I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and mighty arm, in anger, in fury, and in great wrath.^(B)

²¹ But the children rebelled against me; they did not follow my statutes and were not careful to observe my ordinances, by whose observance everyone shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths.

Then I thought I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness.^{(A) 22} But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, so that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out.^{(B) 23} Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries,^{(C) 24} because they had not executed my ordinances but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their ancestors’ idols.