Israel Forsakes the Lord

¹The word of the Lord came to me, saying, ²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord,

“I remember the devotion of kyour youth,

your love las a bride,

mhow you followed me in the wilderness,

nin a land not sown.

³oIsrael was holy to the Lord,

pthe firstfruits of his harvest.

qAll who ate of it incurred guilt;

disaster came upon them,

declares the Lord.”

⁴Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the clans of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says the Lord:

r“What wrong did your fathers find in me

that they went far from me,

sand went after tworthlessness, and became worthless?

⁶They did not say, u‘Where is the Lord

who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us vin the wilderness,

in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that none passes through,

where no man dwells?’

⁷wAnd I brought you into a plentiful land

to enjoy its fruits and its good things.

But when you came in, xyou defiled my land

and made my heritage an abomination.

⁸The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’

yThose who handle the law did not know me;

zthe shepherds1 transgressed against me;

athe prophets prophesied by Baal

and went after bthings that do not profit.

⁹“Therefore cI still contend with you,

declares the Lord,

and dwith your children's children I will contend.

¹⁰For cross to the coasts of eCyprus and see,

or send to fKedar and examine with care;

see if there has been such a thing.

¹¹gHas a nation changed its gods,

heven though they are no gods?

But my people ihave changed their glory

for bthat which does not profit.

¹²Be appalled, jO heavens, at this;

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

declares the Lord,

¹³for my people have committed two evils:

kthey have forsaken lme,

the fountain of mliving waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

¹⁴n“Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?

Why then has he become a prey?

¹⁵oThe lions have roared against him;

they have roared loudly.

They have made his land a waste;

his cities are in ruins, pwithout inhabitant.

¹⁶Moreover, the men of qMemphis and rTahpanhes

shave shaved2 the crown of your head.

¹⁷tHave you not brought this upon yourself

by forsaking the Lord your God,

when uhe led you in the way?

¹⁸vAnd now what do you gain by going to Egypt

to drink the waters of wthe Nile?

xOr what do you gain by going to Assyria

to drink the waters of ythe Euphrates?3

¹⁹zYour evil will chastise you,

and ayour apostasy will reprove you.

Know and see that it is evil and bbitter

for cyou to forsake the Lord your God;

the fear of me is not in you,

declares the Lord God of hosts.

²⁰“For long ago I dbroke your yoke

and burst your bonds;

but you said, e‘I will not serve.’

Yes, fon every high hill

and under every green tree

you bowed down glike a whore.

²¹hYet I planted you a choice vine,

wholly of pure seed.

iHow then have you turned degenerate

and become a wild vine?

²²Though you wash yourself with lye

and use much soap,

jthe stain of your guilt is still before me,

declares the Lord God.

²³kHow can you say, ‘I am not unclean,

I have not gone after the Baals’?

Look at your way lin the valley;

know what you have done—

a restless young camel running here and there,

²⁴ma wild donkey used to the wilderness,

in her heat sniffing the wind!

Who can restrain her lust?

None who seek her need weary themselves;

in her month they will find her.

²⁵Keep nyour feet from going unshod

and oyour throat from thirst.

But you said, ‘It is hopeless,

pfor I have loved foreigners,

and after them I will go.’

²⁶“As a thief is shamed when caught,

so the house of Israel shall be shamed:

qthey, their kings, their officials,

their priests, and their prophets,

²⁷who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’

and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’

For they have turned their back to me,

and not their face.

But rin the time of their trouble they say,

‘Arise and save us!’

²⁸But swhere are your gods

that you made for yourself?

Let them arise, tif they can save you,

in your time of trouble;

for uas many as your cities

are your gods, O Judah.

²⁹“Why do you contend with me?

You have all transgressed against me,

declares the Lord.

³⁰In vain have I vstruck your children;

they took no correction;

wyour own sword devoured your prophets

like a ravening lion.

³¹And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord.

Have I been a wilderness to Israel,

or a land of thick darkness?

Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,

we will come no more to you’?

³²xCan a virgin forget her ornaments,

or a bride her attire?

Yet ymy people have forgotten me

days without number.

³³“How well you direct your course

to seek love!

So that even to wicked women

you have taught your ways.

³⁴Also on your skirts is found

zthe lifeblood of the guiltless poor;

you did not find them abreaking in.

Yet in spite of all these things

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent;

surely his anger has turned from me.’

bBehold, I will bring you to judgment

for csaying, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶dHow much you go about,

changing your way!

You shall be eput to shame by Egypt

as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷From it too you will come away

with fyour hands on your head,

for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,

and you will not prosper by them.

¹g“If1 a man divorces his wife

and she goes from him

and becomes another man's wife,

will he return to her?

hWould not that land be greatly polluted?

iYou have played the whore with many lovers;

and would you return to me?

declares the Lord.

²Lift up your eyes to jthe bare heights, and see!

Where have you not been ravished?

kBy the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers

like an Arab in the wilderness.

hYou have polluted the land

with your vile whoredom.

³lTherefore the showers have been withheld,

and the spring rain has not come;

yet you have mthe forehead of a whore;

you refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Have you not just now ncalled to me,

‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—

⁵owill he be angry forever,

will he be indignant to the end?’

Behold, you have spoken,

but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

⁶The Lord said to me in the days of pKing Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, qhow she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there iplayed the whore? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous rsister Judah saw it. ⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, sI had sent her away with ta decree of divorce. uYet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went iand played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with vstone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me wwith her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

¹¹And the Lord said to me, x“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward ythe north, and say,

z“‘Return, faithless Israel,

declares the Lord.

I will not look on you in anger,

for aI am merciful,

declares the Lord;

bI will not be angry forever.

¹³cOnly acknowledge your guilt,

that you rebelled against the Lord your God

and scattered your favors among foreigners under devery green tree,

and that you have not obeyed my voice,

declares the Lord.

¹⁴eReturn, O faithless children,

declares the Lord;

ffor I am your master;

I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,

and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵“‘And gI will give you shepherds after my own heart, hwho will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. ¹⁷At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, iand all nations shall gather to it, jto the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ¹⁸kIn those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land lof the north to mthe land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

¹⁹“‘I said,

How I would set you among my sons,

and give you a pleasant land,

a heritage most beautiful of all nations.

And I thought you would ncall me, My Father,

and would not turn from following me.

²⁰oSurely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,

so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.’”

²¹A voice on the pbare heights is heard,

qthe weeping and pleading of Israel's sons

because they have perverted their way;

they have forgotten the Lord their God.

²²r“Return, O faithless sons;

sI will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

²³Truly tthe hills are a delusion,

the orgies2 on the mountains.

uTruly in the Lord our God

is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵vLet us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For wwe have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”