Jeremiah 2:1-19

¹The word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ²Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says Yahweh, I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. ³Israel [was] holiness to Yahweh, the first-fruits of his increase: all who devour him shall be held guilty; evil shall come on them, says Yahweh.

⁴Hear you the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: ⁵thus says Yahweh, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? ⁶Neither said they, Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived? ⁷I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness of it; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. ⁸The priests didn`t say, Where is Yahweh? and those who handle the law didn`t know me: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

⁹Therefore I will yet contend with you, says Yahweh, and with your children`s children will I contend. ¹⁰For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing. ¹¹Has a nation changed [its] gods, which yet are no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit. ¹²Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate, says Yahweh. ¹³For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

¹⁴Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born [slave]? why is he become a prey? ¹⁵The young lions have roared on him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. ¹⁶The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head. ¹⁷Haven`t you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way? ¹⁸Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? ¹⁹Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Hosts.