O you children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a signal of fire in Beth-haccherem: for evil appears out of the north, and great destruction.

Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, says the LORD; and they shall come, and they shall set everyone his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls round about, and against all the cities of Judah.

Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from afar, O house of Israel, says the LORD: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation whose language you know not, neither understand what they say.

Behold, the noise of the report has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of jackals.

Behold, I will send and take all the families of the north, says the LORD, and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will bring them against this land, and against its inhabitants, and against all these nations round about, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, and a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many kings shall be raised up from the ends of the earth.

The king of Babylon has heard the report of them, and his hands grew feeble: anguish took hold of him, and birth pangs as of a woman in travail.