Jeremiah 2:9-19

9“That is why I am bringing charges against you,” declares the Lord, “and I am bringing charges against your grandchildren.

10Go over to the coasts of Cyprus, and see. Send ⌞someone⌟ to Kedar, and observe closely. See if there has ever been anything like this.

11Has any nation ever exchanged gods? (Their gods aren’t really gods.) Yet, my people have exchanged their Glory for something that doesn’t help them.

12Be horrified over this, heaven. Be terribly afraid,” declares the Lord.

13“My people have done two things wrong. They have abandoned me, the fountain of life-giving water. They have also dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that can’t hold water.

14“Are the people of Israel slaves? Were they born into slavery? Why, then, have they become someone’s property?

15Young lions have roared very loudly at them. Young lions have turned the land into a wasteland. The cities have been burned down, and everyone has left.

16People from Noph and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, Israel.

17You have brought this on yourself by abandoning the Lord your God when he led you on his way.

18You won’t gain anything by going to Egypt to drink water from the Nile River. You won’t gain anything by going to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates River.

19Your own wickedness will correct you, and your unfaithful ways will punish you. You should know and see how evil and bitter it is for you if you abandon the Lord your God and do not fear me,” declares the Almighty Lord of Armies.