¹⁸ “But even in those days”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“I will not finish you off.^{(A) 19} When people ask, ‘For what offense has the Lord our God done all these things to us?’ You will respond to them, ‘Just as you abandoned me^(B) and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’^(C)