4 Listen to Yahweh’s message you descendants of Ya’akov (Jacob),

≈ and all you clans that are part of Yisrael (Israel).

5 Yahweh asks: what injustices did you ancestors find in me,

that caused them to become distant from me.

They chased after vanity and became vain.

6 They didn’t try to find out where Yahweh was—

the one brought led them out of Mitsrayim (Egypt)

then led them through the wilderness with its pits and desert areas.

It was a region of deep darkness without water—

an area that no one passes through, let alone lives in.

7 Then I took you to the Karmel region

to eat its fruit and other good things.

However you came and defiled my land

≈ and made the inheritance that I gave you into something detestable.

8 The priests didn’t ask where Yahweh was,

and the handlers of the law didn’t know me.

The shepherds rebelled against me,

and the prophets prophesied by Ba’al

and they went after things that wouldn’t profit them.