12
Since their food supply is exhausted and their water has almost given out, they have planned to kill their livestock and have determined to use all that God by his laws has forbidden them to eat.
13
They have decided to consume the first fruits of the grain and the tithes of the wine and oil, which they had consecrated and set aside for the priests who minister in the presence of our God in Jerusalem—things it is not lawful for any of the people even to touch with their hands.
14
Since even the people in Jerusalem have been doing this, they have sent messengers there in order to bring back permission from the council of the elders.
15
When the response reaches them and they act upon it, on that very day they will be handed over to you to be destroyed.
16
"So when I, your slave, learned all this, I fled from them. God has sent me to accomplish with you things that will astonish the whole world wherever people shall hear about them.