Jeremiah 2:28–37

²⁸But ^swhere are your gods

that you made for yourself?

Let them arise, ^tif they can save you,

in your time of trouble;

for ^uas 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 ^vstruck your children;

they took no correction;

^wyour 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’?

^32xCan a virgin forget her ornaments,

or a bride her attire?

Yet ^ymy 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

^zthe lifeblood of the guiltless poor;

you did not find them ^abreaking in.

Yet in spite of all these things

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent;

surely his anger has turned from me.’

^bBehold, I will bring you to judgment

for ^csaying, ‘I have not sinned.’

^36dHow much you go about,

changing your way!

You shall be ^eput to shame by Egypt

as you were put to shame by Assyria.

³⁷From it too you will come away

with ^fyour hands on your head,

for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,

and you will not prosper by them.