¹⁷ Yet I looked on them with pity and did not destroy^(A) them or put an end to them in the wilderness.

¹⁸ I said to their children in the wilderness, “Do not follow the statutes of your parents^(A) or keep their laws or defile yourselves^(B) with their idols.

³ and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood^(A) in her midst and defiles herself by making idols,

⁴ you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed^(A) and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come.^(B) Therefore I will make you an object of scorn^(C) to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries.^(D)

⁷ She gave herself as a prostitute to all the elite of the Assyrians and defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after.^(A)