12 And the word of the Lord came to me: 13 “Son of man,
when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast,
14 even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness,
declares the Lord God.
15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts,
16 even if these three men were in it,
as I live,
declares the Lord God,
they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.
17 “Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast,
18 though these three men were in it,
as I live,
declares the Lord God,
they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered.
19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast,
20 even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it,
as I live,
declares the Lord God,
they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness.
21 “For thus says the Lord God:
How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast!
22 But behold,
some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out;
behold,
when they come out to you,
and you see their ways and their deeds,
you will be consoled
for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem,
for all that I have brought upon it.
23 They will console you,
when you see their ways and their deeds,
and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it,