Jeremiah 2:9-19

9Therefore, I will bring my case against you,” says the Lord. “I will even bring charges against your children’s children in the years to come.

10“Go west and look in the land of Cyprus; go east and search through the land of Kedar. Has anyone ever heard of anything as strange as this?

11Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all? Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols!

12The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay,” says the Lord.

13“For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me— the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!

14“Why has Israel become a slave? Why has he been carried away as plunder?

15Strong lions have roared against him, and the land has been destroyed. The towns are now in ruins, and no one lives in them anymore.

16Egyptians, marching from their cities of Memphis and Tahpanhes, have destroyed Israel’s glory and power.

17And you have brought this upon yourselves by rebelling against the Lord your God, even though he was leading you on the way!

18“What have you gained by your alliances with Egypt and your covenants with Assyria? What good to you are the streams of the Nile or the waters of the Euphrates River?

19Your wickedness will bring its own punishment. Your turning from me will shame you. You will see what an evil, bitter thing it is to abandon the Lord your God and not to fear him. I, the Lord, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!