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 your youth,

your love as a bride,

how you followed me in the wilderness,

in a land not sown.

³Israel was holy to the Lord,

the firstfruits of his harvest.

All 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:

“What wrong did your fathers find in me

that they went far from me,

and went after worthlessness, and became worthless?

⁶They did not say, ‘Where is the Lord

who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us in 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?’

⁷And I brought you into a plentiful land

to enjoy its fruits and its good things.

But when you came in, you defiled my land

and made my heritage an abomination.

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

Those who handle the law did not know me;

the shepherds1 transgressed against me;

the prophets prophesied by Baal

and went after things that do not profit.

⁹“Therefore I still contend with you,

declares the Lord,

and with your children's children I will contend.

¹⁰For cross to the coasts of Cyprus and see,

or send to Kedar and examine with care;

see if there has been such a thing.

¹¹Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for that which does not profit.

¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this;

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

declares the Lord,

¹³for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living waters,

and hewed out cisterns for themselves,

broken cisterns that can hold no water.

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

Why then has he become a prey?

¹⁵The lions have roared against him;

they have roared loudly.

They have made his land a waste;

his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.

¹⁶Moreover, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes

have shaved2 the crown of your head.

¹⁷Have you not brought this upon yourself

by forsaking the Lord your God,

when he led you in the way?

¹⁸And now what do you gain by going to Egypt

to drink the waters of the Nile?

Or what do you gain by going to Assyria

to drink the waters of the Euphrates?3

¹⁹Your evil will chastise you,

and your apostasy will reprove you.

Know and see that it is evil and bitter

for you 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 broke your yoke

and burst your bonds;

but you said, ‘I will not serve.’

Yes, on every high hill

and under every green tree

you bowed down like a whore.

²¹Yet I planted you a choice vine,

wholly of pure seed.

How then have you turned degenerate

and become a wild vine?

²²Though you wash yourself with lye

and use much soap,

the stain of your guilt is still before me,

declares the Lord God.

²³How can you say, ‘I am not unclean,

I have not gone after the Baals’?

Look at your way in the valley;

know what you have done—

a restless young camel running here and there,

²⁴a 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 your feet from going unshod

and your throat from thirst.

But you said, ‘It is hopeless,

for 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:

they, 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 in the time of their trouble they say,

‘Arise and save us!’

²⁸But where are your gods

that you made for yourself?

Let them arise, if they can save you,

in your time of trouble;

for as 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 struck your children;

they took no correction;

your 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’?

³²Can a virgin forget her ornaments,

or a bride her attire?

Yet my 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

the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;

you did not find them breaking in.

Yet in spite of all these things

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent;

surely his anger has turned from me.’

Behold, I will bring you to judgment

for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’

³⁶How much you go about,

changing your way!

You shall be put to shame by Egypt

as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷From it too you will come away

with your hands on your head,

for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,

and you will not prosper by them.

¹“If1 a man divorces his wife

and she goes from him

and becomes another man's wife,

will he return to her?

Would not that land be greatly polluted?

You have played the whore with many lovers;

and would you return to me?

declares the Lord.

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

Where have you not been ravished?

By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers

like an Arab in the wilderness.

You have polluted the land

with your vile whoredom.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld,

and the spring rain has not come;

yet you have the forehead of a whore;

you refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Have you not just now called to me,

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

⁵will 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 King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

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

“‘Return, faithless Israel,

declares the Lord.

I will not look on you in anger,

for I am merciful,

declares the Lord;

I will not be angry forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt,

that you rebelled against the Lord your God

and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,

and that you have not obeyed my voice,

declares the Lord.

¹⁴Return, O faithless children,

declares the Lord;

for 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 I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who 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, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the 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 call me, My Father,

and would not turn from following me.

²⁰Surely, 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 bare heights is heard,

the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons

because they have perverted their way;

they have forgotten the Lord their God.

²²“Return, O faithless sons;

I will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

²³Truly the hills are a delusion,

the orgies2 on the mountains.

Truly 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. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we 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.”