9. Say: Thus says the Lord God: Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it withers, so that all its spring leaves wither? It will not take a great power or many people to pull it from its roots.
10. Though it has been planted, will it prosper? Shall it not utterly wither when the east wind hits it? It shall wither in the furrows where it grew.
11. Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
12. Say now to the rebellious house: Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them: The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king and its officials, and led them to him in Babylon.
13. He took one of the king’s seed, and made a covenant with him, and put him under oath. He has also taken away the mighty of the land,
14. that the kingdom might be debased, that it might not lift itself up, but by the keeping of his covenant it might stand.
15. But he rebelled against him in sending his ambassadors into Egypt, that they might give him horses and much people. Shall he prosper? Shall he escape who does such things? Can he indeed break the covenant and be delivered?
16. As I live, says the Lord God, surely in the country of the king who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, in the midst of Babylon he shall die.
17. Nor shall Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company help him in the war by casting up mounts and building forts to cut off many persons.
18. Seeing he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, when he had given his allegiance and has done all these things, he shall not escape.
19. Therefore thus says the Lord God: As I live, surely My oath that he has despised and My covenant that he has broken, I will inflict upon his own head.