¹² Who is the man 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) that I set in front of them and did not obey My voice or walk according to it. ¹⁴ Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts^(C) and followed after the Baals as their fathers taught them.”^{(D) 15} Therefore, this is what the Lord of Hosts, 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 fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”