The Unfaithfulness of Contemporary Israel

• 9 Therefore[fn] I again bring a lawsuit against you,” declares[fn] Yahweh, “and with your children[fn] I bring a lawsuit.
• 10 For 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:
• 11 Has a nation exchanged gods? And they are not gods! But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.
• 12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder; be utterly desolate,” declares[fn] Yahweh.
• 13 “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the source[fn] of living water,
• to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
• 14 Is Israel a slave? Or a slave born in a house ?[fn] Why has he become plunder?
• 15 The young lions have roared against him, they have raised[fn] their voices.[fn]
• And they have made his land as horror;
  • his cities are destroyed, without[fn] an inhabitant.
  • 16 Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes will shave[fn] your skull.[fn]
  • 17 Did you not do this to yourself, by forsaking Yahweh, your God,
  • at the time of your leading in the way?
  • 18 And now why do you go[fn] the way of Egypt to drink the waters of the Shihor?
• And why do you go[fn] the way of Assyria
  • to drink the waters of the Euphrates ?[fn]
  • 19 Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you.
• Therefore know and see that it is evil and bitter,
  • your forsaking of Yahweh, your God,
• and fear of me is not in you,”
  • declares[fn] the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
  • 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.
  • 21 Yet 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?
  • 22 For if you wash with natron, and you use much soap ,[fn]
• your guilt is sticking as a stain before[fn] me,”
  • declares[fn] 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.
  • 24 A wild ass accustomed to the desert,[fn] in the desire of her soul.
• She gasps for wind in her rutting time.
  • Who can quell[fn] her lust?
• All those who seek her will not grow weary,
  • in her month they will find her.
  • 25 Restrain 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.’[fn]
  • 26 As the shame of a thief when he is caught in the act, so the house of Israel will be ashamed.
• They, their kings, their officials,
  • and their priests, and their prophets.
  • 27 Those who say to the tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to the stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’
• For they have turned their backs[fn] to me, and not their faces.
  • But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us.’
  • 28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble.
• For according to the number of your towns
  • are your gods, O Judah.
  • 29 Why do you complain to me? All of you have rebelled against me ,”[fn] declares[fn] Yahweh.
  • 30 “For in vain[fn] I have struck your children. They accepted no discipline.
• Your sword devoured your prophets,
  • like a ravening[fn] lion.
  • 31 O generation, you see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a desert[fn] to Israel? Or a land of great darkness?
• Why do my people say, ‘We roam about freely,
  • we will not come again to you’?
  • 32 Can a young woman forget her ornaments?[fn] Or a bride her sashes? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
  • 33 How well you do on your way to seek love! Therefore[fn] even to the wicked woman you can teach your ways.
  • 34 Also on your skirts is found the blood of the life of the innocent, the poor.
• You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house.
  • But in spite of all these things,
  • 35 yet you say, ‘But I am innocent, surely his anger has turned away from me.’
• Look, I am entering into judgment with you
  • because of your saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
  • 36 How you go about so much changing your way! Also by Egypt you will be put to shame,
  • just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
  • 37 Also from there you will come out with your hands on your head,
• for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust ,[fn]
  • and you will not prosper through them.
  
  
  • and she goes from him and she becomes another man’s wife ,[fn]
  • will he return to her again?’
• Will not that land be greatly defiled?
• And you have prostituted yourself with many lovers,
  • would you now return to me?” declares[fn] Yahweh.
  • 2 “Lift up your eyes at the barren heights, and see where you have not been ravished.
• Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert,[fn]
  • and you have defiled the land
• with your fornication
  • and with your wickedness.
  • 3 Therefore rain showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come.
• Yet you have[fn] the forehead of a woman prostitute,
  • you refuse to be ashamed.
  • 4 Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the close friend of my youth?
  • 5 Will he be angry forever ?[fn] Will he maintain it always ’?[fn]
• Look, you have spoken,
  • but you have done all the evil that you could.”[fn]