Jeremiah 2

1 The Lord said:

2 “This is what the Lord says: I remembered the mercy of your youth and the love of your betrothal, when you followed the Holy One of Israel, says the Lord.”

3 “Israel was holy to the Lord, the first of his harvest. All who devoured him will do wrong; disaster will come on them, says the Lord.”

4 “Hear the word of the Lord, house of Jacob, and every family of the house of Israel.”

5 “This is what the Lord says: What wrongdoing did your fathers find in me, that they strayed far from me and went after what is empty and became empty themselves?”

6 “They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who guided us through the wilderness — through an untried and trackless land, a land without water and without fruit, a land that no one ever crossed and where no son of man ever lived?’”

7 “I brought you to Carmel so you could eat its fruit and enjoy its good things. But you entered, defiled my land, and made my inheritance a detestable thing.”

8 “The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who handle the law did not know me. The shepherds were ungodly toward me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and went after what is useless.”

9 “Therefore I will still bring my case against you, says the Lord, and I will bring my case against your children’s children.”

10 “Go to the islands of Kittim and see. Send to Kedar, observe carefully, and see whether anything like this has happened.”

11 “Will nations change their gods — and they are not even gods? Yet my people has exchanged its glory for what will do them no good.”

12 “The heavens were appalled at this and shuddered greatly, says the Lord.”

13 “For my people has done two evil things: they abandoned me, the spring of the water of life, and dug out for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”

14 “Is Israel a slave, or was he born a slave in the house? Then why has he become plunder?”

15 “Lions roared against him; they raised their voice. They made his land a wilderness, and his cities were torn down and left with no one living in them.”

16 “The sons of Memphis and Tahpanhes have known you and mocked you.”

17 “Has not your forsaking me brought these things on you? says the Lord your God.”

18 “And now, what do you have to do with the road to Egypt, to drink the water of Geon? What do you have to do with the road to Assyria, to drink the water of rivers?”

19 “Your turning away will discipline you, and your wickedness will convict you. Know, then, and see how bitter it is for you that you abandoned me, says the Lord your God. I have taken no pleasure in you, says the Lord your God.”

20 “Long ago you broke your yoke and tore apart your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve, but I will go to every high hill and under every shady tree; there I will sprawl out in my whoring.’”

21 “Yet I planted you as a fruitful vine, all of it true stock. How have you turned to bitterness — a foreign vine?”

22 “Even if you wash yourself with lye and pile up soap for yourself, you are still stained by your wrongdoings before me, says the Lord.”

23 “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled, and I have not gone after Baal’? Look at your ways in the burial ground and know what you have done. In the evening her voice howled;”

24 “she spread her ways over the desert waters. She was swept along by the desires of her soul; she was handed over. Who will turn her back? All who look for her will not grow tired; they will find her in her humiliation.”

25 “Turn your foot away from the rough road and your throat away from thirst. But she said, ‘I will be strong,’ for she loved strangers and went after them.”

26 “As a thief is ashamed when he is caught, so will the people of Israel be ashamed — they and their kings and their rulers and their priests and their prophets.”

27 “They said to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’ They turned their backs to me, not their faces; yet in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Rise up and rescue us.’”

28 “And where are your gods that you made for yourself? Will they rise up and rescue you in the time of your trouble? For your gods were as many as your cities, Judah, and they sacrificed to Baal in as many streets as Jerusalem has.”

29 “Why do you speak to me? You have all been ungodly, and you have all acted lawlessly against me, says the Lord.”

30 “It was for nothing that I struck your children — you accepted no discipline. A sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion, yet you were not afraid.”

31 “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a dried-up land? Why have my people said, ‘We will not be ruled; we will not come to you anymore’?”

32 “Will a bride forget her ornaments, or a virgin the band around her chest? Yet my people has forgotten me for days without number.”

33 “What good will you still devise in your ways as you look for love? No — you too have done evil to defile your ways.”

34 “And on your hands the blood of innocent souls has been found. I did not find them breaking in — I found them at every oak.”

35 “Yet you said, ‘I am innocent — let his anger turn away from me.’ Look, I am bringing my case against you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’”

36 “How great is your contempt, that you repeat your same ways! You will be put to shame by Egypt just as you were put to shame by Assyria.”

37 “From there too you will come out with your hands on your head, because the Lord has rejected what you trusted in, and you will not prosper by it.”