“Your country is devastated. Your cities are burned down. Your fields are destroyed right before your eyes by foreigners. Your fields are devastated and taken over by foreigners.
Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob, because they are filled with Eastern influences. They are fortunetellers like the Philistines, and they make deals with foreigners.
In this way the wrongdoings of the descendants of Jacob are covered up. This is the way they will turn from their sins— when they turn all the altar stones into powdered chalk and no poles dedicated to the goddess Asherah or incense altars are left standing.
I asked, “How long, O Lord?” And he replied, “Until the cities lie in ruins with no one living in them, the houses have no people, and the land is completely desolate.
The Lord swallowed up all of Jacob’s pastures without any pity. He tore down the fortified cities of Judah in his fury. He brought the kingdom ⌞of Judah⌟ and its leaders down to the ground in dishonor.
You will say, “I’ll attack a land with unwalled villages. I will attack peaceful people who live safely. All of them live without walls, locks, or gates.
So your army will hear the noise of battle. All your fortresses will be destroyed like the time Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in battle. Mothers and their children were smashed to death.