Jeremiah 2:20–25

²⁰“For from long ago you have broken your yoke,

you tore to pieces your bonds.

And you said, ‘I will not serve!’

But on every high hill and under every leafy tree

you were lying down as a prostitute.

²¹Yet I planted you as a choice vine,

all of it a seed of trustworthiness.

How then have you altered before me

into something that is degenerate, the foreign vine?

²²For if you wash with natron,

and you use much soap,^d

your guilt is sticking as a stain before^e me,”

declares^f the Lord Yahweh.

²³“How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself,

I have not gone after the Baals?’

Look at your way in the valley,

know what you have done.

You are a young she-camel,

interweaving her ways.

²⁴A wild ass accustomed to the desert,^g

in the desire of her soul.

She gasps for wind in her rutting time.

Who can quell^h her lust?

All those who seek her will not grow weary,

in her month they will find her.

²⁵Restrain your foot from being barefoot,

and your throat from thirst.

But you said, ‘It is hopeless.

No! For I have loved strangers,

and after them I will go.’ⁱ