GOD SPEAKS TO HIS CHILDREN

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36. Jeremiah warns of God’s punishment.

The people who kept the Covenant with God were not numerous. Their troops were no match for the armies of the mighty nations. They could not prevent the Assyrians from occupying the land and driving many people out of their own country and into foreign lands. Those who were believers recognised God’s punishment in this misfortune, just as he had warned through his prophets.

In Jerusalem, Jeremiah warned the people: For twenty-three years now I have been God’s prophet. I have passed on to you all that he has said. But you will not listen. I said: be converted from your wrongful ways. Stop doing evil. Then you will remain in the land which God has given to your fathers and you forever. But you have not listened to me. And so the Lord has said: I will allow the nations of the north to invade. I will make Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, into my instrument. I will make him fall upon you and your neighbours. He will devastate your land. You will serve the King of Babylon.

And so it happened: Nebuchadnezzar laid siege to Jerusalem with his army. Soon there was no more bread to be had in the city. The famine became extreme. Then the Babylonians made a breach in the wall. They forced their way into the city, burned down the temple, the king’s palace and the big houses. The walls of Jerusalem were torn down. The sacred vessels of the temple were taken as booty by the Babylonians. All the important people and the craftsmen, too, were forced into exile in Babylon. Only the poor people, the peasants and the vine-growers, were allowed to stay behind in their homeland.

(Jer 25 ; 52)

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