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Chapter 2[a]

Israel’s Unfaithfulness.[b] The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Go forth and proclaim this message in the hearing of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord:

I remember the devotion you displayed in your youth,
    your love like that of a bride,
when you followed me through the desert,
    through a land that was unsown.
Israel was sacred to the Lord,
    the firstfruits of his harvest.
Any people who partook of them were deemed guilty,
    and disaster afflicted them, says the Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:1 In speaking of the covenant, which is an essential structure in the life of the Israelite people, Jeremiah uses the bold conjugal imagery of the prophet Hosea.
  2. Jeremiah 2:1 Foreign divinities are like poisoned wells. The image is a powerful one in a country in which water was rare and precious.