The result is the return to Egypt, meaning the captivity in Assyria. If the people refuse to repent, there will come a time when there will be no possibility of returning to God. Then even the prayer to God, the crying out to God, will be in vain. At first the people do not want to listen to God, but thereafter they can no longer be listened to. There is also hardening in the way of sin. Therefore God once again takes his people to a house of slavery; a devastating war is coming that will strike all the cities of the land.
5 They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me.