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^(B) 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.^(C) Therefore I will make you an object of scorn^(D) to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries.^(E)

¹⁷ Then the Babylonians^(A) came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. After she had been defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust.^(B)

²⁵ “‘A priest must not defile himself by going near a dead person; however, if the dead person was his father or mother, son or daughter, brother or unmarried sister, then he may defile himself.^(A)

¹³ Then Haggai said, “If a person defiled by contact with a dead body touches one of these things, does it become defiled?”

“Yes,” the priests replied, “it becomes defiled.^(A)”