^12 (A)Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the Lord spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined ^(B)and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? ¹³ And the Lord says: ^(C)“Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, ¹⁴ but ^(D)have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. ¹⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(E)Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them ^(F)poisonous water to drink. ^16 (G)I will scatter them among the nations ^(H)whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will ^(I)send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”