17 It will devour your harvest and food;it will devour your sons and daughters;it will devour your flocks and herds;it will devour your vines and fig trees;it will shatter your fortified towns in which you trust—with the sword!
18 Yet even in those days, declares the Lord, I won’t completely destroy you.
19 And when they ask, "Why has the Lord our God done all these things to us?" you must reply, "Just as you have abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land not your own."
20 Declare this to the people of Jacob,announce it in Judah:
21 Listen, you foolish and senseless people,who have eyes but don’t seeand ears but don’t hear.
22 Shouldn’t you fear me,declares the Lord, and tremble before me,the one who set the shoreline for the sea,an ancient boundary that it can’t pass?Though its waves may rise and roar,they can’t pass the limits I have set.
23 And yet the people have stubborn and rebellious hearts;they turn and go their own way.