Jeremiah 2:4–13

The Unfaithfulness of Israel’s Ancestors

⁴Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the clans^g of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says Yahweh:

“What injustice did your ancestors^h find in me

that they were far from me,

and they went after the vanity,

and they became vain?

⁶And they did not say,

‘Where is Yahweh,

the one who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

the one who led us in the desert,ⁱ

in a land of desert plains and gorges,^j

in a land of dryness and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through,^k

and no human lives there?’

⁷And I brought you to the land of the orchard,

to eat its fruit, and its good things.^l

But you entered and defiled my land,

and my inheritance you made a detestable thing.^m

⁸The priests did not say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’

and those who handle the law did not know me,

and the shepherds have rebelled against me,ⁿ

and the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and they went after things which do not profit.

The Unfaithfulness of Contemporary Israel

⁹Therefore^o I again bring a lawsuit against you,” declares^p Yahweh,

“and with your children^q I bring a lawsuit.

¹⁰For go over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,

and send to Kedar and consider very closely,

and see if there has been a thing like this:

¹¹Has a nation exchanged gods? And they are not gods!

But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.

¹²Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder;

be utterly desolate,” declares^r Yahweh.

¹³“For my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me, the source^s of living water,

to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.