²⁴ “Son of man, say to the land, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.’^(A)

¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful,^(A) following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(B)(C)

¹⁵ The Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers^(D) again and again,^(E) because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked God’s messengers, despised his words and scoffed^(F) at his prophets until the wrath^(G) of the Lord was aroused against his people and there was no remedy.^(H)

²² In his time of trouble King Ahaz became even more unfaithful^(A) to the Lord.

¹³ “‘Now your impurity is lewdness. Because I tried to cleanse you but you would not be cleansed^(A) from your impurity, you will not be clean again until my wrath against you has subsided.^(B)

¹⁶ “We will not listen^(A) to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord!^{(B) 17} We will certainly do everything we said we would:^(C) We will burn incense^(D) to the Queen of Heaven^(E) and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials^(F) did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.^(G) At that time we had plenty of food^(H) and were well off and suffered no harm.^{(I) 18} But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings^(J) to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.^(K)”

¹⁹ The women added, “When we burned incense^(L) to the Queen of Heaven^(M) and poured out drink offerings to her, did not our husbands^(N) know that we were making cakes^(O) impressed with her image^(P) and pouring out drink offerings to her?”