because of their evil which they have done to provoke Me, by going to burn incense by serving other mighty ones whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers.
“And it shall be, when you declare to this people all these words, and they shall say to you, ‘Why has יהוה pronounced all this great evil against us? And what is our crookedness, and what is our sin that we have committed against יהוה our Elohim?’
‘For they did not heed My words,’ declares יהוה, ‘which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, yet you did not listen,’ declares יהוה.
“Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against יהוה, and did not obey the voice of יהוה or walk in His Torah, in His laws or in His witnesses, therefore this evil did befall you, as at this day.”
by provoking Me with the works of your hands, by burning incense to other mighty ones in the land of Mitsrayim where you have gone to dwell, to cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
“And it shall be, when they say, ‘Why does יהוה our Elohim do all this to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign mighty ones in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’
Yerushalayim has sinned greatly, Therefore she has become defiled. All who esteemed her despised her Because they have seen her nakedness. She herself has sighed and turned away.
“When your brother, the son of your mother, or your son or your daughter, or the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own being, entices you secretly, saying, ‘Let us go and serve other mighty ones’– which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers,
“And it shall be said, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of יהוה Elohim of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Mitsrayim.