they did not comply with my advice, they spurned all my rebuke.

because they had rebelled against God’s commands, and rejected the instructions of the sovereign king.

Remember how the enemy hurls insults, O Lord, and how a foolish nation blasphemes your name!

The sin of these young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

But if the Lord does something entirely new, and the earth opens its mouth and swallows them up along with all that they have, and they go down alive to the grave, then you will know that these men have despised the Lord!”

The sinful nation is as good as dead, the people weighed down by evil deeds. They are offspring who do wrong, children who do wicked things. They have abandoned the Lord, and rejected the Holy One of Israel. They are alienated from him.

Therefore, as flaming fire devours straw, and dry grass disintegrates in the flames, so their root will rot, and their flower will blow away like dust. For they have rejected the law of the Lord who commands armies, they have spurned the commands of the Holy One of Israel.