Jeremiah 10:17

"Gather up thy wares out of the land, O thou that abidest in the siege. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it."

Here Judah is commanded to pick up her bundle of belongings and begin the long trek to Babylon, on which journey they will be retained by a cord of some kind passed through the ear, the lip, or the nose. One may see such lines of captives upon the old murals and monuments from that era of the world's brutal history. The near approach of the disaster is forcefully indicated in these verses.

"That they may feel it ..." (Jeremiah 10:18). "In the Syriac version, this reads, `That they may find me' (God)."[23]

"I will sling out the inhabitants ..." (Jeremiah 10:18). There is a similar thought in Isaiah 22:18; and in both places the reference is to the violence of the expulsion. The metaphor comes from the habit of whirling a stone round and round in a sling and then releasing it.