Jeremiah 2:8-26

8The priests quit asking, “Where is the Lord?” The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

9Therefore, I will bring a case against you again. This is the Lord’s declaration. I will bring a case against your children’s children.

10Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and take a look. Send someone to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this:

11Has a nation ever exchanged its gods? (But they were not gods!) Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.

12Be appalled at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly desolated! This is the Lord’s declaration.

13For my people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves — cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.

14Is Israel a slave? Was he born into slavery? Why else has he become a prey?

15The young lions have roared at him; they have roared loudly. They have laid waste his land. His cities are in ruins, without inhabitants.

16The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have also broken your skull.

17Have you not brought this on yourself by abandoning the Lord your God while he was leading you along the way?

18Now what will you gain by traveling along the way to Egypt to drink the water of the Nile? What will you gain by traveling along the way to Assyria to drink the water of the Euphrates?

19Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Recognize how evil and bitter it is for you to abandon the Lord your God and to have no fear of me. This is the declaration of the Lord God of Armies.

20For long ago I broke your yoke; I tore off your chains. You insisted, “I will not serve!” On every high hill and under every green tree you lay down like a prostitute.

21I planted you, a choice vine from the very best seed. How then could you turn into a degenerate, foreign vine?

22Even if you wash with lye and use a great amount of bleach, the stain of your iniquity is still in front of me. This is the Lord God’s declaration.

23How can you protest, “I am not defiled; I have not followed the Baals”? Look at your behavior in the valley; acknowledge what you have done. You are a swift young camel twisting and turning on her way,

24a wild donkey at home in the wilderness. She sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire. Who can control her passion? All who look for her will not become weary; they will find her in her mating season.

25Keep your feet from going bare and your throat from thirst. But you say, “It’s hopeless; I love strangers, and I will continue to follow them.”

26Like the shame of a thief when he is caught, so the house of Israel has been put to shame. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets