^12 (A)The time has come; the day has arrived. Let not ^(B)the buyer rejoice, nor ^(C)the seller mourn, ^(D)for wrath is upon all their multitude.^{[a] 13} For ^(E)the seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. ^(F)For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.^[b]

^8 (A)knowing that whatever good anyone does, this he will receive back from the Lord, ^(B)whether he is a bondservant or is free. ⁹ Masters, do the same to them, ^(C)and stop your threatening, knowing that ^(D)he who is both their Master^[a] and yours is in heaven, and that ^(E)there is no partiality with him.

^5 (A)we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly ^(B)and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. ^6 (C)We have not listened to ^(D)your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to ^(E)our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. ⁷ To you, ^(F)O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, ^(G)those who are near and ^(H)those who are far away, in ^(I)all the lands to which you have driven them, because of ^(J)the treachery that they have committed against you. ⁸ To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because ^(K)we have sinned against you.

⁸ And ^(A)I will set my face against that man; I ^(B)will make him a sign and a byword ^(C)and cut him off from the midst of my people, ^(D)and you shall know that I am the Lord. ⁹ And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, ^(E)I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. ¹⁰ And they shall bear their punishment^[a]—the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike—

The People Exiled to Babylon

²⁴ And the captain of the guard took ^(A)Seraiah the chief priest, and ^(B)Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; ²⁵ and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and ^(C)seven men of the king's council, who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. ²⁶ And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at ^(D)Riblah. ²⁷ And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at ^(E)Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

²⁸ This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: ^(F)in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; ^29 (G)in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons; ³⁰ in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Judeans 745 persons; all the persons were 4,600.