Jeremiah 21:3

GOD'S MESSAGE TO ZEDEKIAH

"Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans that besiege you, without the walls; and I will gather them into the midst of the city. And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation. And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. And afterward, saith Jehovah, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy."

"The weapons of war that are in your hands ..." (Jeremiah 21:4). The prophecy here meant that the soldiers and their weapons of war which were fighting against Nebuchadnezzar would not be able to resist the Babylonian army, but would have to withdraw within the wails of the city

"I myself will fight against you ..." (Jeremiah 21:5) Jeremiah even foretold exactly how God would do this. He would bring .a terrible pestilence upon the city. The severe overcrowding of people and animals into the city during the later stages of the siege would become a severe strain upon the sanitary facilities of the city; and the resulting epidemic would wipe out vast numbers of the people. At the time of this delegations coming to Jeremiah, "The siege had just begun, and the Jews were still trying to hinder the enemy from taking a position closer to the city and the resulting tighter blockade."[11]

The terrible news for Zedekiah was that God, far from putting a hook in the nose of Nebuchadnezzar, and dragging him back to his homeland, as he had surely done to Sennacherib a hundred years earlier, God would actually help the invaders to accomplish their purpose of the total destruction of the city.

"From the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine ..." (Jeremiah 21:7) not a great many of the inhabitants would escape; and of them who were the fortunate survivors, many would be deported to Babylon as captives.