For you have kept the statutes of Omri, and all the works of the house of Ahab; and you have walked in their counsels; therefore I will make you a desolation, and your inhabitants objects of hissing; so you shall bear the shame of my people—the final verse of the covenant lawsuit specifies that Judah has followed the practices of the northern kingdom's worst kings (Omri and Ahab, associated with rampant idolatry and injustice). The reference to earlier northern kings whom God judged connects Judah's fate to Israel's earlier exile and shows that Judah is repeating the same patterns of rebellion. The consequence—desolation and becoming objects of hissing—indicates public shame and the loss of dignity and respect. The phrase 'shame of my people' expresses God's wounded pride at the people's apostasy. This concluding verse of the covenant lawsuit sentence judgment flowing from the broken covenant, yet the movement to chapter 7 suggests that judgment is not final.

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