¹² Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster^(A) on Jerusalem and Judah that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.^{(B) 13} I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line used against Samaria and the plumb line^(C) used against the house of Ahab. I will wipe^(D) out Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. ¹⁴ I will forsake^(E) the remnant^(F) of my inheritance and give them into the hands of enemies. They will be looted and plundered by all their enemies; ¹⁵ they have done evil^(G) in my eyes and have aroused^(H) my anger from the day their ancestors came out of Egypt until this day.”

¹⁸ They abandoned^(A) the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols.^(B) Because of their guilt, God’s anger^(C) came on Judah and Jerusalem.

⁵ “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.^{(A) 6} Yet in her wickedness she has rebelled against my laws and decrees more than the nations and countries around her. She has rejected my laws and has not followed my decrees.^(B)

⁷ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: You have been more unruly than the nations around you and have not followed my decrees or kept my laws. You have not even^[a] conformed to the standards of the nations around you.^(C)

⁸ “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will inflict punishment on you in the sight of the nations.^(D)