Jeremiah 2:29-37

English Standard Version

²⁹“Why do you contend with me?
    You have all transgressed against me,
declares the Lord.
³⁰In vain have I ^(A)struck your children;
    they took no correction;
^(B)your own sword devoured your prophets
    like a ravening lion.
³¹And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
    or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
    we will come no more to you’?
³²^(C)Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
Yet ^(D)my people have forgotten me
    days without number.

³³“How well you direct your course
    to seek love!
So that even to wicked women
    you have taught your ways.
³⁴Also on your skirts is found
    ^(E)the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;
you did not find them ^(F)breaking in.
    Yet in spite of all these things
³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent;
    surely his anger has turned from me.’
^(G)Behold, I will bring you to judgment
    for ^(H)saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶^(I)How much you go about,
    changing your way!
You shall be ^(J)put to shame by Egypt
    as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷From it too you will come away
    with ^(K)your hands on your head,
for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
    and you will not prosper by them.