7. Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty says:‘See, I will refine and test them,for what else can I dobecause of the sin of my people?
8. Their tongue is a deadly arrow;it speaks deceitfully.With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbours,but in their hearts they set traps for them.
9. Should I not punish them for this?’declares the Lord.‘Should I not avenge myselfon such a nation as this?’
10. I will weep and wail for the mountainsand take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands.They are desolate and untravelled,and the lowing of cattle is not heard.The birds have all fledand the animals are gone.
11. ‘I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,a haunt of jackals;and I will lay waste the towns of Judahso that no one can live there.’
12. Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the Lord and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?
13. The Lord said, ‘It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.
14. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.’