¹⁹ And when the people ask,^(A) ‘Why has the Lord our God done all this to us?’ you will tell them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods^(B) in your own land, so now you will serve foreigners^(C) in a land not your own.’

⁴⁷ Because you did not serve^(A) the Lord your God joyfully and gladly^(B) in the time of prosperity, ⁴⁸ therefore in hunger and thirst,^(C) in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke^(D) on your neck^(E) until he has destroyed you.

⁸ “People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’^{(A) 9} And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.^(B)’”

¹³ So I will throw you out of this land^(A) into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known,^(B) and there you will serve other gods^(C) day and night, for I will show you no favor.’^(D)

¹⁰ “When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’^{(A) 11} then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped^(B) them. They forsook me and did not keep my law.^(C)

²⁴ All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land?^(A) Why this fierce, burning anger?”

²⁵ And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.^{(B) 26} They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. ²⁷ Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.^{(C) 28} In furious anger and in great wrath^(D) the Lord uprooted^(E) them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”