After addressing the neighboring nations, the prophetic focus turns inward to the Kingdom of Judah. Their greatest failure is that, despite receiving the Torah, they abandoned the word of God in favor of foreign worship. This focus on Judah serves as a prelude, setting up a broader argument for the central prophecy directed at the Kingdom of Israel [ביאור שטיינזלץ, אברבנאל].
The severe crimes of Judah are understood in two primary ways. Conceptually, the first three crimes represent the grave sins of idolatry, sexual immorality, and bloodshed, which were sins also common among other nations. However, Judah added a fourth, distinct transgression: the complete and utter rejection of the Torah [מלבי"ם, אברבנאל]. Alternatively, this progression is viewed historically. God showed patience toward three wicked kings in Judah, delaying disaster, but during the reign of the fourth king, Zedekiah, the final judgment for the destruction of the Temple was sealed [רד"ק].
The failure to observe the commandments did not stem from simple human weakness or physical temptation, but rather from deep-rooted heresy and profound disrespect [מלבי"ם]. Because the people no longer valued the Torah, it lost its spiritual power to protect them from their evil inclinations, causing them to plunge further into sin [חומת אנך]. This rejection was so absolute that they made no attempt to combine the worship of God with their new practices; they abandoned Him entirely [אברבנאל]. Even the priests, who were meant to be the spiritual guides of the nation, actively participated in this departure [אבן עזרא]. The accountability demanded of Judah is especially severe. Unlike the neighboring Kingdom of Israel, Judah possessed the written Torah and the Temple, yet they ignored their heritage until it was completely forgotten [רד"ק]. Within this abandoned heritage, they neglected both the traditional, ceremonial laws as well as the rational, logical commandments [רד"ק בשם רב סעדיה גאון].
The root cause of this departure was a reliance on lies that led the people to stray from the right path [מצודת ציון]. These deceptions came from the words of false prophets [מצודת דוד, רד"ק], alongside the superstitions and idol worship they chose to embrace [מלבי"ם, אברבנאל]. Tragically, the people of Judah clung to these false beliefs simply because they inherited them. Even though their ancestors had followed false prophets and idols to their own ruin, the current generation failed to learn from history, choosing instead to continue blindly down the same destructive path [מצודת דוד, מלבי"ם].