‘“I remember the devotion of your youth,
    how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
    through a land not sown.
³ Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
    and disaster overtook them,”’
declares the Lord.

⁴ Hear the word of the Lord, you descendants of Jacob,
    all you clans of Israel.

‘What fault did your ancestors find in me,
    that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
    and became worthless themselves.
⁶ They did not ask, “Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
    through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
    a land where no one travels and no one lives?”
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
    to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
    and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸ The priests did not ask,
    “Where is the Lord?”
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
    the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
    following worthless idols.

⁹ ‘Therefore I bring charges against you again,’
declares the Lord.
    ‘And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
    send to Kedar^[a] and observe closely;
    see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹ has a nation ever changed its gods?
    (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
    for worthless idols.
¹² Be appalled at this, you heavens,
    and shudder with great horror,’
declares the Lord.
¹³ ‘My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
    the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
    broken cisterns that cannot hold water.

²⁰ ‘Long ago you broke off your yoke
    and tore off your bonds;
    you said, “I will not serve you!”
Indeed, on every high hill
    and under every spreading tree
    you lay down as a prostitute.
²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
    of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
    into a corrupt, wild vine?
²² Although you wash yourself with soap
    and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
    the stain of your guilt is still before me,’
declares the Sovereign Lord.
²³ ‘How can you say, “I am not defiled;
    I have not run after the Baals”?
See how you behaved in the valley;
    consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
    running here and there,
²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
    sniffing the wind in her craving –
    in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
    at mating time they will find her.
²⁵ Do not run until your feet are bare
    and your throat is dry.
But you said, “It’s no use!
    I love foreign gods,
    and I must go after them.”

4 ‘If you, Israel, will return,
    then return to me,’
declares the Lord.
‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
    and no longer go astray,
² and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
    you swear, “As surely as the Lord lives,”
then the nations will invoke blessings by him
    and in him they will boast.’

‘Break up your unploughed ground
    and do not sow among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
    circumcise your hearts,
    you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire
    because of the evil you have done –
    burn with no one to quench it.