²⁵ The Lord will cause you to be defeated^(A) before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven,^(B) and you will become a thing of horror^(C) to all the kingdoms on earth.^(D)

¹⁸ They abandoned^(A) the temple of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and worshiped Asherah poles and idols.^(B) Because of their guilt, God’s anger^(C) came on Judah and Jerusalem.

⁵ Therefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hands of the king of Aram.^(A) The Arameans defeated him and took many of his people as prisoners and brought them to Damascus.

He was also given into the hands of the king of Israel, who inflicted heavy casualties on him.

⁹ I will summon^(A) all the peoples of the north^(B) and my servant^(C) Nebuchadnezzar^(D) king of Babylon,” declares the Lord, “and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy^[a](E) them and make them an object of horror and scorn,^(F) and an everlasting ruin.^(G)

¹⁸ Jerusalem^(A) and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin^(B) and an object of horror and scorn,^(C) a curse^[a](D)—as they are today;^(E)