¹² Who is the person wise enough to understand this?^(A) Who has the Lord spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?

¹³ The Lord said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction,^(B) which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it. ¹⁴ Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts^(C) and followed the Baals as their ancestors taught them.”^{(D) 15} Therefore, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood^(E) and give them poisonous water to drink.^{(F) 16} I will scatter them among the nations^(G) that they and their ancestors have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”