²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, You are a land that is ^(A)not cleansed ^(B)or rained upon in the day of indignation.

¹⁴ All the officers of the priests and the people likewise were exceedingly unfaithful, following all the abominations of the nations. And they polluted the house of the Lord that he had made holy in Jerusalem.

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their fathers, ^(A)sent persistently to them by his messengers, because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. ^16 (B)But they kept mocking the messengers of God, ^(C)despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, ^(D)until the wrath of the Lord rose against his people, until there was no remedy.

Ahaz's Idolatry

²² In the time of his distress he became yet more faithless to the Lord—this same King Ahaz.

¹³ On account of your unclean lewdness, because I would have cleansed you and you were not cleansed from your uncleanness, ^(A)you shall not be cleansed anymore till ^(B)I have satisfied my fury upon you.

¹⁶ “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, ^(A)we will not listen to you. ^17 (B)But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to ^(C)the queen of heaven ^(D)and pour out drink offerings to her, ^(E)as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. ¹⁸ But since we left off making offerings to ^(F)the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything ^(G)and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” ¹⁹ And the women said,^[a] “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven ^(H)and poured out drink offerings to her, was it ^(I)without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”