Jeremiah 2:4–13

⁴Hear a word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, And all ye families of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus said Jehovah: What—have your fathers found in Me perversity, That they have gone far off from Me, And go after the vanity, and become vain, ⁶And have not said, Where is Jehovah, Who bringeth us up out of the land of Egypt, Who leadeth us in a wilderness, In a land of deserts and pits, In a dry land, and of death-shade, In a land—none hath passed through it, Nor dwelt hath man there?’ ⁷Yea, I bring you in to a land of fruitful fields, To eat its fruit and its goodness, And ye come in and defile My land, And Mine inheritance have made an abomination. ⁸The priests have not said, ‘Where is Jehovah?’ And those handling the law have not known Me. And the shepherds transgressed against Me, And the prophets have prophesied by Baal, And after those who profit not have gone.

⁹Therefore, yet I plead with you, An affirmation of Jehovah, And with your sons’ sons I plead. ¹⁰For, pass to the isles of Chittim, and see, And to Kedar send, and consider well, And see if there hath been like this: ¹¹Hath a nation changed gods? (And they are no gods!) And My people hath changed its honour For that which doth not profit. ¹²Be astonished, ye heavens, at this, Yea, be frightened, be greatly wasted, An affirmation of Jehovah. ¹³For two evils hath My people done, Me they have forsaken, a fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves wells—broken wells, That contain not the waters.