Jeremiah 2:8-26

8The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those who deal with the law did not know me; the leaders rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal, following worthless idols.

9“Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the Lord. “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.

10Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look, send to Kedar and observe closely; see if there has ever been anything like this:

11Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols.

12Be appalled at this, you heavens, and shudder with great horror,” declares the Lord.

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? 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,

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.