⁸ And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ^(A)‘Why has the Lord done so to this great city?’

⁸ And as for ^(A)this house, which is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be astonished and will hiss, and say, ^(B)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and to this house?’ ⁹ Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and have embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore the Lord has brought all this ^(C)calamity on them.’ ”

^20 (A)then I will uproot them from My land which I have given them; and this house which I have ^[a]sanctified for My name I will cast out of My sight, and will make it a proverb and a ^(B)byword among all peoples.

²¹ “And as for ^(C)this ^[b]house, which ^[c]is exalted, everyone who passes by it will be ^(D)astonished and say, ^(E)‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land and this house?’ ²² Then they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and embraced other gods, and worshiped them and served them; therefore He has brought all this calamity on them.’ ”

²³ ‘The whole land is brimstone, ^(A)salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, ^(B)like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ ²⁴ All nations would say, ^(C)‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ ²⁵ Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; ²⁶ for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them.

⁷ O Lord, ^(A)righteousness belongs to You, but to us shame of face, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those near and those far off in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of the unfaithfulness which they have committed against You.

¹⁰ “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(A)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’