2 Chronicles 7:20-22

New Catholic Bible

²⁰ then I will uproot the people from the land which I have given them. I will cast from my sight this temple which I have consecrated for my name, cast it out of my sight, and make it a byword and an object of ridicule for all people.

²¹ “And in regard to this temple that was once so exalted, everyone who passes by it will be appalled at the sight and ask: ‘Why has the Lord allowed this to happen^[a] to this land and to this house?’ ²² Then others will reply: ‘Because the people abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt. Instead, they adopted other gods, whom they worshiped and served. That is why the Lord has brought all these disasters upon them.’ ”