Jeremiah 2:13-23

13“My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

14Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth? Why then has he become plunder?

15Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted.

16Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skull.

17Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way?

18Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile Hebrew Shihor; that is, a branch of the Nile ? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates?

19Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

20“Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every spreading tree you lay down as a prostitute.

21I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?

22Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD .

23“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled; I have not run after the Baals’? See how you behaved in the valley; consider what you have done. You are a swift she-camel running here and there,