11. The Lord said, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins.Jackals will make their home there.I will destroy the towns of Judahso that no one will be able to live in them.”
12. I said, “Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened?Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it?Why does the land lie in ruins?Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”
13. The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws.
14. Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to the gods called Baal, as their fathers taught them to do.
15. So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say. ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment.
16. I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords until I have destroyed them.’”