⁴ I will also stretch out My hand over Judah and over all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place and the name of the idol priests with the [false] priests,

⁵ And those who worship the starry host of the heavens upon their housetops and those who [pretend to] worship the Lord and swear by and to Him and yet swear by and to [the heathen god Molech or] Malcam [their idol king],

⁶ And those who have drawn back from following the Lord and those who have not sought the Lord nor inquired for, inquired of, and required the Lord [as their first necessity].

¹³ Just as it is written in the Law of Moses as to all this evil [that would surely come upon transgressors], so it has come upon us. Yet we have not earnestly begged for forgiveness and entreated the favor of the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities and have understanding and become wise in Your truth.^(A)

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord has kept ready the calamity (evil) and has brought it upon us, for the Lord our God is [uncompromisingly] righteous and rigidly just in all His works which He does [keeping His word]; and we have not obeyed His voice.

¹³ Woe to them, for they have wandered from Me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled and trespassed against Me! Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.

¹⁴ They do not cry to Me from their heart, but they wail upon their beds; they gash and distress and assemble themselves [in mourning] for grain and new wine; they rebel against Me.

¹³ My sacrificial gifts they sacrifice [as a mere form]; yes, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but the Lord does not accept them. Now He will [earnestly] remember their guilt and iniquity and will punish their sins. They shall return to [another] Egypt [Assyria].^(A)

¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces and idol temples, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities and it shall devour his palaces and fortified buildings.^(B)