Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and pour out their blood by the force of the sword; and let their wives be bereaved of their children, and be widows; and let their men be put to death; let their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
So let their children starve from hunger, and let them be killed by the sword. Let their wives lose their children and become widows. Let their men die, and let their young men be killed in battle.
Jeremiah is asking God to bring severe judgment on those who have rejected God's message and plotted against him.
📚 Historical Context
This is part of Jeremiah's prayer for vengeance against his enemies who had plotted to kill him for delivering God's warnings about Jerusalem's coming destruction. In the ancient Near East, such imprecatory prayers (prayers calling for divine judgment) were common when people felt they had exhausted all other means of justice. Jeremiah had faithfully warned the people for years, but they responded with hostility and death threats.
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