Jeremiah 2:26-37 - Israel Deserves To Be Punished

²⁶ As the shame of a thief when he is found, So, hath been put to shame, the house of Israel, - They, their kings their princes, and their priests and their prophets: ²⁷ Saying, to a tree, My father, art thou! And to a stone, Thou, didst give us birth, For they have turned unto me the back and not the face, - But in the time of their calamity, they will say, Arise, and save us! ²⁸ Where then are thy gods which thou hast made for thyself? Let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy calamity, - For according to the number of thy cities, have become thy gods O Judah.

²⁹ Wherefore, should ye plead against me, All of you, have transgressed against me Declareth Yahweh. ³⁰ In vain, have I smitten your children, Correction, have they not accepted, - Your sword hath devoured your prophets, as a lion that destroyeth. ³¹ O generation see, ye, the word of Yahweh, A desert, became I unto Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Wherefore, have my people said, We have roved about, We will not come in any more unto thee? ³² Can, a virgin, forget, her ornaments, - A bride, her girdle? Yet, my people, have forgotten me, days without number. ³³ How thou dost make winsome thy way, to seek love! Therefore, even unto wicked women, hast thou taught thy ways. ³⁴ Even in thy skirts, is there found, The blood of the lives of the helpless innocents, - Not in the act of breaking in, didst thou find them, yet the blood is on all these. ³⁵ Although thou saidst, Because I am innocent, surely hath his anger turned back from me, - Behold me! entering into judgment with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned! ³⁶ How vigorously, thou goest about changing thy way! Even of Egypt, shalt thou be ashamed, just as thou wast ashamed of Assyria: ³⁷ Even from this one, shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thy head, - For Yahweh hath rejected those in whom thou confidest, and thou shalt not prosper with them.