Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.
The LORD will leave a remnant who escape the sword when scattered among the nations.
This verse preserves hope within judgment.
8Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands. 9Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me — how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations. 10And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them. 11This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague. 12He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them. 13Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak— the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols. 14I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’”