I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.
³ Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
    disaster came upon them,
says the Lord.

⁷ I brought you into a plentiful land
    to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land,
    and made my heritage an abomination.
⁸ The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
    Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers^[a] transgressed against me;
    the prophets prophesied by Baal,
    and went after things that do not profit.

¹² Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
says the Lord,
¹³ for my people have committed two evils:
    they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
    and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
    that can hold no water.

“You will indeed listen, but never understand,
    and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has grown dull,
    and their ears are hard of hearing,
        and they have shut their eyes;
        so that they might not look with their eyes,
    and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn—
    and I would heal them.”