People from all nations, tribes, languages, and races will look at their bodies for three and a half days and will not allow them to be buried.

They left the bodies of your people for the vultures, the bodies of your servants for wild animals to eat.

They shed your people's blood like water; blood flowed like water all through Jerusalem, and no one was left to bury the dead.

They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

God said to me, "Mortal man, the people of Israel are like these bones. They say that they are dried up, without any hope and with no future.

At that very moment there was a violent earthquake; a tenth of the city was destroyed, and seven thousand people were killed. The rest of the people were terrified and praised the greatness of the God of heaven.

A second angel followed the first one, saying, "She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She made all peoples drink her wine---the strong wine of her immoral lust!"

The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of all countries were destroyed. God remembered great Babylon and made her drink the wine from his cup---the wine of his furious anger.

Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came to me and said, "Come, and I will show you how the famous prostitute is to be punished, that great city that is built near many rivers.

On her forehead was written a name that has a secret meaning: "Great Babylon, the mother of all prostitutes and perverts in the world."

He cried out in a loud voice: "She has fallen! Great Babylon has fallen! She is now haunted by demons and unclean spirits; all kinds of filthy and hateful birds live in her.

They stand a long way off, because they are afraid of sharing in her suffering. They say, "How terrible! How awful! This great and mighty city Babylon! In just one hour you have been punished!"

and cried out as they saw the smoke from the flames that consumed her: "There never has been another city like this great city!"

Then a mighty angel picked up a stone the size of a large millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, "This is how the great city Babylon will be violently thrown down and will never be seen again.

whose people were wicked and sinned against the LORD.

Suddenly the LORD rained burning sulfur on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

Jerusalem, your rulers and your people are like those of Sodom and Gomorrah. Listen to what the LORD is saying to you. Pay attention to what our God is teaching you.

But I have seen the prophets in Jerusalem do even worse: they commit adultery and tell lies; they help people to do wrong, so that no one stops doing what is evil. To me they are all as bad as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah.

The LORD said to Jerusalem, "I will make them prosperous again---Sodom and her villages and Samaria and her villages. Yes, I will make you prosperous too.

They will become prosperous again, and you and your villages will also be restored.

"I destroyed some of you as I destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Those of you who survived were like a burning stick saved from a fire. Still you did not come back to me," says the LORD.

I assure you that on the Judgment Day God will show more mercy to the people of Sodom and Gomorrah than to the people of that town!

God condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them with fire, and made them an example of what will happen to the godless.

Remember Sodom and Gomorrah, and the nearby towns, whose people acted as those angels did and indulged in sexual immorality and perversion: they suffer the punishment of eternal fire as a plain warning to all.

and made their lives miserable by forcing them into cruel slavery. They made them work on their building projects and in their fields, and they had no pity on them.

(SEE 1:13)

Then the LORD said, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their sufferings,

"I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt, where you were slaves.

and performed his mighty acts and miracles in the plain of Zoan in the land of Egypt.

He sent flies among them, that tormented them, and frogs that ruined their land.

He killed their grapevines with hail and their fig trees with frost.

He caused them great distress by pouring out his anger and fierce rage, which came as messengers of death.

He killed the first-born sons of all the families of Egypt.

Babylon was punished because the blood of prophets and of God's people was found in the city; yes, the blood of all those who have been killed on earth.

Yet I must be on my way today, tomorrow, and the next day; it is not right for a prophet to be killed anywhere except in Jerusalem.

"Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets, you stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me!

He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me?"

And then they abandoned their faith! It is impossible to bring them back to repent again, because they are again crucifying the Son of God and exposing him to public shame.

For this reason Jesus also died outside the city, in order to purify the people from sin with his own blood.