Jeremiah 2:19-3:12

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,

24a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving— in her heat who can restrain her? Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves; at mating time they will find her.

25Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry. But you said, ‘It’s no use! I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’

26“As a thief is disgraced when he is caught, so the people of Israel are disgraced— they, their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets.

27They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’ and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; yet when they are in trouble, they say, ‘Come and save us!’

28Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble! For you, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns.

29“Why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me,” declares the LORD .

30“In vain I punished your people; they did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravenous lion.

31“You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD : “Have I been a desert to Israel or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to you no more’?

32Does a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.

33How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.

34On your clothes is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this

35you say, ‘I am innocent; he is not angry with me.’ But I will pass judgment on you because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

36Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed by Egypt as you were by Assyria. 37You will also leave that place with your hands on your head, for the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them.

1“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be completely defiled? But you have lived as a prostitute with many lovers— would you now return to me?” declares the LORD .

2“Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished? By the roadside you sat waiting for lovers, sat like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to blush with shame.

4Have you not just called to me: ‘My Father, my friend from my youth,

5will you always be angry? Will your wrath continue forever?’ This is how you talk, but you do all the evil you can.”

Unfaithful Israel 6During the reign of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there. 7I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me but she did not, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery. 9Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.

10In spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD . 11The LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

12Go, proclaim this message toward the north: “ ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will frown on you no longer, for I am faithful,’ declares the LORD, ‘I will not be angry forever.