¹⁶ But they kept ridiculing God’s messengers,^(A) despising His words,^(B) and scoffing at His prophets, until the Lord’s wrath was so stirred up against His people that there was no remedy.^(C)

¹⁷ So He brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans,^(A) who killed their choice young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; He handed them all over to him.