²⁴ I’ll bring up the cruelest nations,
    and they will seize their houses.
    I’ll break their proud strength,
        and their sanctuaries will be defiled.

²⁵ Disaster! It has come!
        They seek peace, but there is none.
²⁶     One disaster comes after another,
        and rumor follows rumor.

They seek a vision from the prophet.
    Instruction disappears from the priest,
        and counsel from the elders.
²⁷ The king will go into mourning,
    the prince will clothe himself in despair,
        and the hands of the land’s people will tremble.
When I do to them as they have done
    and judge them by their own justice,
        they will know that I am the Lord.