9 aShall I not punish them for these things?” declares Yahweh.
“On a nation such as this
Shall I not avenge Myself?
10 “For the amountains I will take up a weeping and wailing,
And for the pastures of the bwilderness a funeral lamentation,
Because they are cturned into ruin so that no one passes through,
And the lowing of the cattle is not heard;
Both the dbirds of the sky and the beasts have fled; they are gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem a aheap of ruins,
A haunt of bjackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a cdesolation, without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the awise man that may understand this? And who is he to whom bthe mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? cWhy has the land perished, turned into ruin like a desert, so that no one passes through? 13 Yahweh said, “Because they have aforsaken My law, which I set before them, and have not listened to My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have awalked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the bBaals, as their cfathers taught them,” 15 therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “behold, aI will feed them, this people, with wormwood and give them bpoisoned water to drink. 16 I will ascatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the bsword after them until I have consumed them.”