Jeremiah 2:9-Jeremiah 3:5 - The Unfaithfulness Of Contemporary Israel
9 {Therefore} I again bring a lawsuit against you," {declares} Yahweh, "and with {your children} I bring a lawsuit. 10 For go over [to] the coasts of Cyprus and look, and send [to] Kedar and consider very closely, and see if there has been [a thing] like this: 11 Has a nation exchanged gods? And they [are] not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit. 12 Be appalled, heavens, at this, and shudder; be utterly desolate," {declares} Yahweh.
13 "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, [the] source of living water, to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
14 [Is] Israel a slave? Or {a slave born in a house}? Why has he become plunder? 15 [The] young lions have roared against him, they have {raised} their voices. And they have made his land as horror; his cities are destroyed, {without} an inhabitant. 16 Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes will {shave} your skull. 17 Did you not do this to yourself, [by] forsaking Yahweh, your God, at the time of your leading in the way? 18 And now {why do you go} the way of Egypt to drink the waters of the Shihor? And {why do you go} the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the {Euphrates}? 19 Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that [it is] evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me [is] not in you," {declares} the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
20 "For from long ago you have broken your yoke, you tore to pieces your bonds. And you said, 'I will not serve!' But on every high hill and under every leafy tree you [were] lying down [as] a prostitute.
21 Yet I planted you [as] a choice vine, all of it a seed of trustworthiness. How then have you altered before me [into something that is] degenerate, the foreign vine?
22 For if you wash with natron, and you {use much soap}, your guilt [is] sticking as a stain {before} me," {declares} the Lord Yahweh. 23 "How can you say, 'I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals?' Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. [You are] a young she-camel, interweaving her ways. 24 A wild ass accustomed to [the] desert, in the desire of her soul. She gasps [for] wind [in] her rutting time. Who can quell her [lust]? All [those who] seek her will not grow weary, in her month they will find her. 25 Restrain your foot from [being] barefoot, and your throat from thirst. But you said, '[It is] hopeless. No! For I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.'
26 As [the] shame of a thief when he is caught in the act, so the house of Israel will be ashamed. They, their kings, their officials, and their priests, and their prophets. 27 [Those who] say to the tree, 'You [are] my father,' and to the stone, 'You gave birth [to] me.' For they have turned [their] {backs} to me, and not [their] faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, 'Arise and save us.' 28 But where [are] your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For [according to] the number of your towns are your gods, Judah.
29 Why do you complain to me? All of you have {rebelled against me}," {declares} Yahweh. 30 "For {in vain} I have struck your children. They accepted no discipline. Your sword devoured your prophets, like a ravening lion. 31 O generation, you see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a desert to Israel? Or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, 'We roam about freely, we will not come again to you'? 32 Can a young woman forget her ornaments? [Or] a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. 33 How well you do [on] your way to seek love! {Therefore} even [to] the wicked [woman] you can teach your ways. 34 Also on your skirts is found [the] blood of [the] life of [the] innocent, [the] poor. You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house. But in spite of all these [things], 35 yet you say, 'But I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me.' Look, I [am] entering into judgment with you because of your saying, 'I have not sinned.' 36 How you go about so much changing your way! Also by Egypt you will be put to shame, just as you were put to shame by Assyria. 37 Also from there you will come out with your hands on your head, for Yahweh has rejected {those in whom you trust}, and you will not prosper through them.
1 A {saying}: 'Look, [if] a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him {and she becomes another man's wife}, will he return to her again?' Will not that land be greatly defiled? And you have prostituted [yourself] [with] many lovers, [would] you now return to me?" {declares} Yahweh. 2 "Lift up your eyes at [the] barren heights, and see where you have not been ravished. Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert, and you have defiled [the] land with your fornication and with your wickedness. 3 Therefore rain showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come. Yet {you have} [the] forehead of a woman prostitute, you refuse to be ashamed. 4 Have you not just now called to me, 'My father, you [are] the close friend of my youth? 5 Will he be angry {forever}? Will he maintain [it] {always}'? Look, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could."