18 Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads.”
19 The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.
20 Look up and see those who are coming from the north. Where is the flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted?
21 What will you say when the Lord sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies? Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?
22 And if you ask yourself, “Why has this happened to me?”— it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.
23 Can an Ethiopian change his skin or a leopard its spots? Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 “I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.