9. Should I not punish them for these things?This is the Lord’s declaration.Should I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?
10. I will raise weeping and a lamentover the mountains,a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,for they have been so scorchedthat no one passes through.The sound of cattle is no longer heard.From the birds of the sky to the animals, everything has fled — they have gone away.
11. I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble, a jackals’ den. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,an uninhabited place.
12. Who is the man wise enough to understand this? Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?
13. The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned My instruction that I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it.
14. Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them.”