¹⁴ Is Israel some common slave, born into bondage?
Why has he been carted off as if he were the spoil of battle?
¹⁵ The nations have circled him like hungry young lions,
    roaring and growling their war cries.
They have left Israel a wasteland—
    the cities destroyed and the people scattered.
¹⁶ Even your Egyptian allies, from Memphis and Tahpanhes,
    have stripped you of land and your crowning glory.
¹⁷ Is there anyone to blame but yourself?
    Weren’t you the ones who abandoned the Eternal,
Your True God, even as He led you on this journey?

¹⁸ Eternal One: What do you hope to accomplish by going to Egypt
        and drinking from the waters of the Nile?
    What do you think you will gain by traveling to Assyria
        and drinking from the waters of the Euphrates?
¹⁹     It is your wickedness that will punish you
        and your desertion of My ways that will convict you.
    See the evil and taste the bitterness of forsaking the one True God, the Eternal.
        At the core of this evil is the sad truth that you have forgotten the wonder and terror of who I am.