“They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready. But none goes to battle. For my wrath is on all their multitude. The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine inside. He who is in the field will die with the sword, and he who is in the city famine and pestilence will devour him.”
The description of their grim fate goes on. They will have made their preparations, the rallying call will have gone out, the trumpet will have sounded. But none will go out to battle. For when they see the forces arrayed against them they will know that it is useless. Whether outside or in they will die. Perhaps there is also the thought that by the time this trumpet blew they were too weak to fight. Those on the outside will perish by the sword, those on the inside by famine and pestilence, by shortage of food and water, and resulting disease. Thus anyone out in the open country will die, slain by the sword of the invaders, anyone on the inside will be devoured by food shortage and disease. And why? Because God's wrath is on the whole multitude, on all of them.
(There were, of course, always a few exceptions, including Jeremiah. But God was addressing the mass of people who were almost all in rebellion. He would in fact show mercy to the small remnant who returned to the land from exile, conditional on their not fleeing to Egypt (Jeremiah 42:8-12). But as usual they rebelled against Him. So the genuinely faithful were very few).