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Jeremiah 2:15
The young lions have roared at him; they have roared loudly. They have laid waste his land. His cities are in ruins, without inhabitants.
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1 Peter 2 25
For you were like sheep going astray, but you have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
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2 Kings 18 9-2 Kings 18 13
In the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Israel’s King Hoshea son of Elah, Assyria’s King Shalmaneser marched against Samaria and besieged it.The Assyrians captured it at the end of three years. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, which was the ninth year of Israel’s King Hoshea, Samaria was captured.The king of Assyria deported the Israelites to Assyria and put them in Halah, along the Habor( Gozan’s river), and in the cities of the Medes,because they did not listen to the LORD their God but violated his covenant— all he had commanded Moses the servant of the LORD. They did not listen, and they did not obey.In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Assyria’s King Sennacherib attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.
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Joel 3:2
I will gather all the nations and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with them there because of my people, my inheritance Israel. The nations have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided up my land.
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Jeremiah 50:6
My people were lost sheep; their shepherds led them astray, guiding them the wrong way in the mountains. They wandered from mountain to hill; they forgot their resting place.
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Jeremiah 52:1
Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.
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Jeremiah 5:6
Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down. A wolf from arid plains will ravage them. A leopard stalks their cities. Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces because their rebellious acts are many, their unfaithful deeds numerous.
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Jeremiah 23:1-2
“ Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” This is the LORD’s declaration.“ Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend my people: You have scattered my flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I am about to attend to you because of your evil acts”— this is the LORD’s declaration.
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Jeremiah 39:1-8
In the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it.In the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into.All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar, Nebusarsechim the chief of staff, Nergal-sharezer the chief soothsayer, and all the rest of the officials of Babylon’s king.When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the fighting men saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the city gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah.However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They arrested him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him there.At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all Judah’s nobles.Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon.The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem.
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Isaiah 8:7-8
the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates River— the king of Assyria and all his glory. It will overflow its channels and spill over all its banks.It will pour into Judah, flood over it, and sweep through, reaching up to the neck; and its flooded banks will fill your entire land, Immanuel!
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Isaiah 10:5-7
Woe to Assyria, the rod of my anger— the staff in their hands is my wrath.I will send him against a godless nation; I will command him to go against a people destined for my rage, to take spoils, to plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.But this is not what he intends; this is not what he plans. It is his intent to destroy and to cut off many nations.
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2 Chronicles 33 11
So he brought against them the military commanders of the king of Assyria. They captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon.
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2 Chronicles 36 1-2 Chronicles 36 23
Then the common people took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in Jerusalem in place of his father.Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem.The king of Egypt deposed him in Jerusalem and fined the land seventy-five hundred pounds of silver and seventy-five pounds of gold.Then King Neco of Egypt made Jehoahaz’s brother Eliakim king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed Eliakim’s name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took his brother Jehoahaz and brought him to Egypt.Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God.Now King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked him and bound him in bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.Also Nebuchadnezzar took some of the articles of the LORD’s temple to Babylon and put them in his temple in Babylon.The rest of the deeds of Jehoiakim, the detestable actions he committed, and what was found against him, are written in the Book of Israel’s Kings. His son Jehoiachin became king in his place.Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight.In the spring Nebuchadnezzar sent for him and brought him to Babylon along with the valuable articles of the LORD’s temple. Then he made Jehoiachin’s brother Zedekiah king over Judah and Jerusalem.Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD his God and did not humble himself before the prophet Jeremiah at the LORD’s command.He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar who had made him swear allegiance by God. He became obstinate and hardened his heart against returning to the LORD, the God of Israel.All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the LORD’s temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem.But the LORD, the God of their ancestors sent word against them by the hand of his messengers, sending them time and time again, for he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place.But they kept ridiculing God’s messengers, despising his words, and scoffing at his prophets, until the LORD’s wrath was so stirred up against his people that there was no remedy.So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him.He took everything to Babylon— all the articles of God’s temple, large and small, the treasures of the LORD’s temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials.Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple. They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles.He deported those who escaped from the sword to Babylon, and they became servants to him and his sons until the rise of the Persian kingdom.This fulfilled the word of the LORD through Jeremiah, and the land enjoyed its Sabbath rest all the days of the desolation until seventy years were fulfilled.In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah, the LORD roused the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also to put it in writing:This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The LORD, the God of the heavens, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a temple at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you may go up, and may the LORD his God be with him.
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2 Kings 24 1-2 Kings 25 7
During Jehoiakim’s reign, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked. Jehoiakim became his vassal for three years, and then he turned and rebelled against him.The LORD sent Chaldean, Aramean, Moabite, and Ammonite raiders against Jehoiakim. He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the LORD he had spoken through his servants the prophets.Indeed, this happened to Judah at the LORD’s command to remove them from his presence. It was because of the sins of Manasseh, according to all he had done,and also because of all the innocent blood he had shed. He had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was not willing to forgive.The rest of the events of Jehoiakim’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings.Jehoiakim rested with his ancestors, and his son Jehoiachin became king in his place.Now the king of Egypt did not march out of his land again, for the king of Babylon took everything that had belonged to the king of Egypt, from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates River.Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he became king, and he reigned three months in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan; she was from Jerusalem.He did what was evil in the LORD’s sight just as his father had done.At that time the servants of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched up to Jerusalem, and the city came under siege.King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it.King Jehoiachin of Judah, along with his mother, his servants, his commanders, and his officials, surrendered to the king of Babylon. So the king of Babylon took him captive in the eighth year of his reign.He also carried off from there all the treasures of the LORD’s temple and the treasures of the king’s palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that King Solomon of Israel had made for the LORD’s sanctuary, just as the LORD had predicted.He deported all Jerusalem and all the commanders and all the best soldiers— ten thousand captives including all the craftsmen and metalsmiths. Except for the poorest people of the land, no one remained.Nebuchadnezzar deported Jehoiachin to Babylon. He took the king’s mother, the king’s wives, his officials, and the leading men of the land into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.The king of Babylon brought captive into Babylon all seven thousand of the best soldiers and one thousand craftsmen and metalsmiths— all strong and fit for war.And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his place and changed his name to Zedekiah.Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done.Because of the LORD’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around.The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food.Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, even though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. As the king made his way along the route to the Arabah,the Chaldean army pursued him and overtook him in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered.The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah, and they passed sentence on him.They slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. Finally, the king of Babylon blinded Zedekiah, bound him in bronze chains, and took him to Babylon.
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Jeremiah 51:38
They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.
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Ezekiel 34:5-6
They were scattered for lack of a shepherd; they became food for all the wild animals when they were scattered.My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and there was no one searching or seeking for them.
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Jeremiah 4:7
A lion has gone up from his thicket; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to make your land a waste. Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.
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2 Chronicles 28 20
Then King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came against Ahaz; he oppressed him and did not give him support.
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Isaiah 7:17-20
The LORD will bring on you, your people, and your father’s house such a time as has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah: He will bring the king of Assyria.”On that day the LORD will whistle to flies at the farthest streams of the Nile and to bees in the land of Assyria.All of them will come and settle in the steep ravines, in the clefts of the rocks, in all the thornbushes, and in all the water holes.On that day the Lord will use a razor hired from beyond the Euphrates River— the king of Assyria— to shave the hair on your heads, the hair on your legs, and even your beards.
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Isaiah 36:1-22
In the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, King Sennacherib of Assyria attacked all the fortified cities of Judah and captured them.Then the king of Assyria sent his royal spokesman, along with a massive army, from Lachish to King Hezekiah at Jerusalem. The Assyrian stood near the conduit of the upper pool, by the road to Launderer’s Field.Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came out to him.The royal spokesman said to them,“ Tell Hezekiah: The great king, the king of Assyria, says this: What are you relying on?You think mere words are strategy and strength for war. Who are you now relying on that you have rebelled against me?Look, you are relying on Egypt, that splintered reed of a staff that will pierce the hand of anyone who grabs it and leans on it. This is how Pharaoh king of Egypt is to all who rely on him.Suppose you say to me,‘ We rely on the LORD our God.’ Isn’t he the one whose high places and altars Hezekiah has removed, saying to Judah and Jerusalem,‘ You are to worship at this altar’?“ Now make a deal with my master, the king of Assyria. I’ll give you two thousand horses if you’re able to supply riders for them!How then can you drive back a single officer among the least of my master’s servants? How can you rely on Egypt for chariots and horsemen?Have I attacked this land to destroy it without the LORD’s approval? The LORD said to me,‘ Attack this land and destroy it.’”Then Eliakim, Shebna, and Joah said to the royal spokesman,“ Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it. Don’t speak to us in Hebrew within earshot of the people who are on the wall.”But the royal spokesman replied,“ Has my master sent me to speak these words to your master and to you, and not to the men who are sitting on the wall, who are destined with you to eat their own excrement and drink their own urine?”Then the royal spokesman stood and called out loudly in Hebrew: Listen to the words of the great king, the king of Assyria!This is what the king says:“ Don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, for he cannot rescue you.Don’t let Hezekiah persuade you to rely on the LORD, saying,‘ The LORD will certainly rescue us! This city will not be handed over to the king of Assyria.’”Don’t listen to Hezekiah, for this is what the king of Assyria says:“ Make peace with me and surrender to me. Then every one of you may eat from his own vine and his own fig tree and drink water from his own cisternuntil I come and take you away to a land like your own land— a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards.Beware that Hezekiah does not mislead you by saying,‘ The LORD will rescue us.’ Has any one of the gods of the nations rescued his land from the power of the king of Assyria?Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they rescued Samaria from my power?Who among all the gods of these lands ever rescued his land from my power? So will the LORD rescue Jerusalem from my power?”But they kept silent; they didn’t say anything, for the king’s command was,“ Don’t answer him.”Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the royal spokesman.
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2 Chronicles 32 1-2 Chronicles 32 23
After Hezekiah’s faithful deeds, King Sennacherib of Assyria came and entered Judah. He laid siege to the fortified cities and intended to break into them.Hezekiah saw that Sennacherib had come and that he planned war on Jerusalem,so he consulted with his officials and his warriors about stopping up the water of the springs that were outside the city, and they helped him.Many people gathered and stopped up all the springs and the stream that flowed through the land; they said,“ Why should the kings of Assyria come and find abundant water?”Then Hezekiah strengthened his position by rebuilding the entire broken-down wall and heightening the towers and the other outside wall. He repaired the supporting terraces of the city of David, and made an abundance of weapons and shields.He set military commanders over the people and gathered the people in the square of the city gate. Then he encouraged them, saying,“ Be strong and courageous! Don’t be afraid or discouraged before the king of Assyria or before the large army that is with him, for there are more with us than with him.He has only human strength, but we have the LORD our God to help us and to fight our battles.” So the people relied on the words of King Hezekiah of Judah.After this, while King Sennacherib of Assyria with all his armed forces besieged Lachish, he sent his servants to Jerusalem against King Hezekiah of Judah and against all those of Judah who were in Jerusalem, saying,“ This is what King Sennacherib of Assyria says:‘ What are you relying on that you remain in Jerusalem under siege?Isn’t Hezekiah misleading you to give you over to death by famine and thirst when he says,“ The LORD our God will keep us from the grasp of the king of Assyria”?Didn’t Hezekiah himself remove his high places and his altars and say to Judah and Jerusalem,“ You must worship before one altar, and you must burn incense on it”?“‘ Don’t you know what I and my predecessors have done to all the peoples of the lands? Have any of the national gods of the lands been able to rescue their land from my power?Who among all the gods of these nations that my predecessors completely destroyed was able to rescue his people from my power, that your God should be able to deliver you from my power?So now, don’t let Hezekiah deceive you, and don’t let him mislead you like this. Don’t believe him, for no god of any nation or kingdom has been able to rescue his people from my power or the power of my predecessors. How much less will your God rescue you from my power!’”His servants said more against the LORD God and against his servant Hezekiah.He also wrote letters to mock the LORD, the God of Israel, saying against him: Just like the national gods of the lands that did not rescue their people from my power, so Hezekiah’s God will not rescue his people from my power.Then they called out loudly in Hebrew to the people of Jerusalem, who were on the wall, to frighten and discourage them in order that he might capture the city.They spoke against the God of Jerusalem like they had spoken against the gods of the peoples of the earth, which were made by human hands.King Hezekiah and the prophet Isaiah son of Amoz prayed about this and cried out to heaven,and the LORD sent an angel who annihilated every valiant warrior, leader, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned in disgrace to his land. He went to the temple of his god, and there some of his own children struck him down with the sword.So the LORD saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the power of King Sennacherib of Assyria and from the power of all others. He gave them rest on every side.Many were bringing an offering to the LORD to Jerusalem and valuable gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah, and he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that.
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Luke 15:4-6
“ What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it?When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders,and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them,‘ Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’
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Jeremiah 49:19
“ Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me?”
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Ezekiel 34:12
As a shepherd looks for his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will look for my flock. I will rescue them from all the places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and total darkness.
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John 10:10-12
A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.“ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.The hired hand, since he is not the shepherd and doesn’t own the sheep, leaves them and runs away when he sees a wolf coming. The wolf then snatches and scatters them.
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2 Kings 17 6-2 Kings 17 23
In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria. He deported the Israelites to Assyria and settled them in Halah, along the Habor( Gozan’s river), and in the cities of the Medes.This disaster happened because the people of Israel sinned against the LORD their God who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt and because they worshiped other gods.They lived according to the customs of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites and according to what the kings of Israel did.The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. They built high places in all their towns from watchtower to fortified city.They set up for themselves sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.They burned incense there on all the high places just like the nations that the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did evil things, angering the LORD.They served idols, although the LORD had told them,“ You must not do this.”Still, the LORD warned Israel and Judah through every prophet and every seer, saying,“ Turn from your evil ways and keep my commands and statutes according to the whole law I commanded your ancestors and sent to you through my servants the prophets.”But they would not listen. Instead they became obstinate like their ancestors who did not believe the LORD their God.They rejected his statutes and his covenant he had made with their ancestors and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves, following the surrounding nations the LORD had commanded them not to imitate.They abandoned all the commands of the LORD their God. They made cast images for themselves, two calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed in worship to all the stars in the sky and served Baal.They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and interpreted omens. They devoted themselves to do what was evil in the LORD’s sight and angered him.Therefore, the LORD was very angry with Israel, and he removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah remained.Even Judah did not keep the commands of the LORD their God but lived according to the customs Israel had practiced.So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel, punished them, and handed them over to plunderers until he had banished them from his presence.When the LORD tore Israel from the house of David, Israel made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam led Israel away from following the LORD and caused them to commit grave sin.The Israelites persisted in all the sins that Jeroboam committed and did not turn away from them.Finally, the LORD removed Israel from his presence just as he had declared through all his servants the prophets. So Israel has been exiled to Assyria from their homeland to this very day.
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Daniel 6:24
The king then gave the command, and those men who had maliciously accused Daniel were brought and thrown into the lions’ den— they, their children, and their wives. They had not reached the bottom of the den before the lions overpowered them and crushed all their bones.
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Matthew 9:36-38
When he saw the crowds, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd.Then he said to his disciples,“ The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few.Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.”
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Jeremiah 51:34-35
“ King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me; he has crushed me. He has set me aside like an empty dish; he has swallowed me like a sea monster; he filled his belly with my delicacies; he has vomited me out.Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon,” says the inhabitant of Zion.“ Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.
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2 Kings 15 29
In the days of King Pekah of Israel, King Tiglath-pileser of Assyria came and captured Ijon, Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee— all the land of Naphtali— and deported the people to Assyria.
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Isaiah 47:6
I was angry with my people; I profaned my possession, and I handed them over to you. You showed them no mercy; you made your yoke very heavy on the elderly.
