until they became like rams butting one another. Woe to them—again, woe to them! I honor only those who honor Me, (1) and I abase whoever treats My command lightly. Earlier peoples used to sin against Me in secret, but these people commit sins freely and brazenly: they parade them in the mosques, in the marketplaces, on mountaintops, and beneath the shade of the trees. The heavens have cried out to Me because of them; the earth and the mountains have cried out, and the wild beasts have fled to the remotest edges of the land—yet still they will not desist, nor do they profit from what they know of the Book.

He said: When Jeremiah delivered to them the message of their Lord and they heard in it the threats and the chastisement, they disobeyed him, denied him, and accused him, saying, “You have lied and forged a monstrous calumny against God. You claim that God will deprive His land and His mosques of His Book, His worship, and His oneness. Who will worship Him when no worshipper, no mosque, and no Scripture remain on earth? You have uttered a grave falsehood against God—madness has overtaken you!” They seized him, shackled him, and threw him into prison.

At that point Allah sent against them Nebuchadnezzar. He advanced with his armies until he encamped in their very courtyard and laid siege to them, so that it came to pass exactly as the Exalted has said: “so they ravaged the dwellings.”

When the siege grew unbearable, they surrendered to his terms. They opened the gates and he spread through the alleyways—“so they ravaged the dwellings”—and he ruled over them with the law of pagan times and the violence of tyrants: he killed one-third of them, took one-third captive, and left the infirm, the aged, and the old women. He trampled them under horses, demolished the Temple, drove off the boys, and set the women up for sale in the marketplaces stripped of their coverings. He slew every fighting man, ruined the fortresses, tore down the mosques, and burned the Torah. He inquired after Daniel, who had once written him a book; finding that he had died, his family produced the book, among whom were Daniel son of Hezekiel the Younger, Mishael, Azrael, and Michael, and he ratified that book for them. Daniel son of Hezekiel was the successor of Daniel the Elder.

Nebuchadnezzar marched with his troops into Jerusalem, overran the whole of greater Syria, and slaughtered the Children of Israel until he had all but annihilated them. When he had finished, he turned back, carrying off the wealth that was there and driving the captives before him. The number of their boys—sons of the rabbis and kings—who went with him reached ninety thousand. He dumped refuse in Jerusalem and slaughtered swine there.

The boys numbered seven thousand from the House of David, eleven thousand from the tribe of Joseph son of Jacob and his brother Benjamin, eight thousand from the tribe of Issachar son of Jacob, fourteen thousand from the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, sons of Jacob, fourteen thousand from the tribe of Dan son of Jacob, eight thousand from the tribe of Asher son of Jacob, and two thousand from the tribe of Zebulun son of—