²⁵ “When you beget children and grandchildren and have grown old in the land, and act corruptly and make a carved image in the form of anything, and ^(A)do evil in the sight of the Lord your God to provoke Him to anger,

¹⁶ lest you ^(A)act corruptly and ^(B)make for yourselves a carved image in the ^[a]form of any figure: ^(C)the likeness of male or female,

²² Or do we ^(A)provoke the Lord to jealousy? ^(B)Are we stronger than He?

¹² He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God, and ^(A)did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke from the mouth of the Lord. ¹³ And he also ^(B)rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear an oath by God; but he ^(C)stiffened his neck and hardened his heart against turning to the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁴ Moreover all the leaders of the priests and the people transgressed more and more, according to all the abominations of the nations, and defiled the house of the Lord which He had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(D)

^15 (E)And the Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But ^(F)they mocked the messengers of God, ^(G)despised His words, and ^(H)scoffed at His prophets, until the ^(I)wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

¹⁴ So I will forsake the ^(A)remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, ¹⁵ because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.’ ”

^16 (B)Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(A)according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel.

^17 (A)And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, ^(B)practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and ^(C)sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. ¹⁸ Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left ^(D)but the tribe of Judah alone.

¹⁹ Also ^(E)Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.

⁸ Now ^(A)Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died when he was one hundred and ten years old. ^9 (B)And they buried him within the border of his inheritance at ^(C)Timnath Heres, in the mountains of Ephraim, on the north side of Mount Gaash. ¹⁰ When all that generation had ^[a]been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who ^(D)did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.

Israel’s Unfaithfulness

¹¹ Then the children of Israel did ^(E)evil in the sight of the Lord, and served the Baals; ¹² and they ^(F)forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt; and they followed ^(G)other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them, and they ^(H)bowed down to them; and they provoked the Lord to anger. ¹³ They forsook the Lord ^(I)and served ^[b]Baal and the ^[c]Ashtoreths. ^14 (J)And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He ^(K)delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and ^(L)He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they ^(M)could no longer stand before their enemies. ¹⁵ Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had ^(N)sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.