²⁰ From the silver and gold of the Lord’s beautiful ornaments, which were their pride, they made their abominations and their disgusting images.

Therefore, for them I will make it a place polluted by blood. ²¹ I will hand it over to foreigners as loot. I will give it to the most wicked people on earth as plunder, and they will desecrate it. ²² I will turn my face away from my people so that the enemy may desecrate my treasured place, and so that robbers may enter it and desecrate it. ²³ Prepare the chain, because the earth is full of judicial murder,^[a] and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ I will bring the most wicked of the nations, and they will take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the mighty, and their so-called sanctuaries^[b] will be desecrated.

²⁵ Terror is coming. They will seek peace, but there will be none. ²⁶ Disaster after disaster will come, and one report will follow another. They will seek a vision from the prophet, but sound instruction will vanish from the priest and the ability to give advice from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn, the prince will be clothed with horror, and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. On the basis of their own conduct I will deal with them, and by the standard they used to judge others I will judge them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.