Jeremiah 2
International Standard Version
Israel’s Initial Fidelity
2 This message from the Lord came to me:
2 “Go and announce to Jerusalem:
‘This is what the Lord says:
“I remember the loyal devotion of your youth,
your love as a bride.
You followed me in the desert,
in a land that was not planted.
3 Israel was consecrated[a] to the Lord,
she was the first fruits[b] of his produce.
All who devoured her became guilty
and disaster came on them,”
declares the Lord.’”
Her Rejection of God’s Love
4 Listen to this message from the Lord,
you descendants of Jacob
and all the families of the descendants of Israel.
5 This is what the Lord says:
“What did your ancestors find wrong with me
that they left me,
and pursued worthless things,[c]
and so they became worthless?
6 “They didn’t ask, ‘Where is the Lord
who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us through the wilderness,
through the land of desert and pits,
through the land of dryness and deep darkness,
a land that people don’t pass through,
and where no one lives?’
7 “I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit
and its good things.
But you came in, defiled my land,
and made my inheritance into an abomination.
8 “The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
and those handling the Law didn’t know me.
The rulers transgressed against me,
the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and they followed that which does not profit.[d]
9 “Therefore I’ll again accuse you,”
declares the Lord,
“and I’ll accuse your grandchildren.”
10 “Indeed, go over to the coasts of Cyprus and see,
send to Kedar and pay very close attention.
See if there has ever been such a thing as this!
11 Has a nation ever changed gods
when they aren’t even gods?
But my people have exchanged their glory
for that which does not profit.
12 Heavens, be appalled at this,
be shocked, be utterly[e] devastated,”
declares the Lord.
13 “Indeed, my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living water,[f]
and they have dug cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that cannot hold water.”
Consequences of Israel’s Unfaithfulness
14 “Is Israel a slave, or was he born a servant?[g]
Why then has he become plunder?
15 Young lions roar at him, they cry out loudly.
They have made his land into a wasteland,
and his cities are destroyed
so they are without inhabitants.
16 Also, people from Memphis and Tahpanhes[h]
have broken[i] your skull.
17 You have done this to yourselves, have you not,
by forsaking the Lord your God, when he
is the one who led you on the way?
18 Now, what are you doing on the road to Egypt,
to drink the waters of the Nile?
And what are you doing on the road to Assyria,
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19 Your wickedness will be punished,
and you will be corrected due to your acts of apostasy.
Know and see that it’s evil and bitter for you
to forsake the Lord your God,
but the fear of me is not in you,”
declares the Lord God of the Heavenly Armies.
20 “For long ago I broke your yoke
and tore off your bonds,
But you said, ‘I won’t serve you!’
Instead, on every high hill
and under every green tree,
you bend down to commit fornication.
21 I planted you myself as a choice vine,
from the very best seed.[j]
How did you turn against me
into a degenerate and foreign vine?
22 Though you wash yourself with lye
and use much soap,
the stain of your guilt is still before me,”
declares the Lord God.
Israel’s Passion for Sin
23 “How can you say, ‘I’m not defiled.
I haven’t gone after the Baals.’?[k]
Look at what you’ve done[l] in the valley.
Know what you have done.
You are a swift young camel galloping aimlessly;
24 a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
sniffing the wind in her passion.
When she’s in heat,
who can turn her away?
None of the males who pursue her need to tire themselves out,
for in her month[m] they’ll find her.”
25 “Don’t run until your feet are bare
and your throat is dry.[n]
But you say, ‘It’s hopeless!
Because I love foreign gods,[o] I’ll go after them!’”
26 “As a thief is disgraced when he’s caught,
so the house of Israel is disgraced—
they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets,
27 who say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’
and to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’
They have turned their back to me,
but not their faces.
In the time of their trouble, they’ll say,
‘Rise up! Deliver us!’”
28 “But where are your gods
that you made for yourselves?
Let them rise up, if they can deliver you
in the time of your trouble.
You have as many gods as you have towns, Judah.
29 Why do you contend with me?
You have rebelled against me,”
declares the Lord.
30 “I’ve punished your children with no results,[p]
they have accepted no discipline.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
like a destroying lion.”
31 “You, generation,
pay attention to[q] this message from the Lord!
Am I the desert to Israel,
or a land of gloom?
Why do my people say, ‘We’re free to roam?
We won’t come to you anymore.’
32 Will a young woman forget her wedding[r] ornaments,
or a bride her attire?
But my people have forgotten me
days without number.
33 How well you perfect your techniques[s] for seeking love.
Therefore you can teach even the most immoral women[t] your techniques.[u]
34 On your skirts is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
even though you didn’t catch them breaking in.
Yet despite all these things,
35 you say, ‘I’m innocent.
Surely his anger has turned away from me.’”
“I’m about to bring charges against you[v]
because you say, ‘I haven’t sinned.’
36 Why do you go about changing your mind so much?
You will also be disappointed[w] by Egypt,
just as you were disappointed[x] by Assyria.
37 You will also go out from this place
with your hands over your heads.[y]
For the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
and you won’t prosper through them.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 2:3 Or set apart
- Jeremiah 2:3 I.e. the first and best
- Jeremiah 2:5 I.e. idols or false gods
- Jeremiah 2:8 I.e. idols or false gods
- Jeremiah 2:12 Lit. very
- Jeremiah 2:13 I.e. fresh water
- Jeremiah 2:14 Lit. was he a home born servant (cf. Exod 21:4)
- Jeremiah 2:16 I.e. Egyptian cities
- Jeremiah 2:16 Or shaved
- Jeremiah 2:21 Lit. faithful seed
- Jeremiah 2:23 I.e. images of the Canaanite storm god
- Jeremiah 2:23 Lit. at your way
- Jeremiah 2:24 I.e. at mating time
- Jeremiah 2:25 Lit. Hold back your feet from being bare and your throat from being dry
- Jeremiah 2:25 Or foreigners
- Jeremiah 2:30 Lit. in vain
- Jeremiah 2:31 Or see
- Jeremiah 2:32 The Heb. lacks wedding
- Jeremiah 2:33 Lit. your way
- Jeremiah 2:33 Lit. the wicked women
- Jeremiah 2:33 Lit. your ways
- Jeremiah 2:35 Lit. enter into judgment with you
- Jeremiah 2:36 Or put to shame
- Jeremiah 2:36 Or put to shame
- Jeremiah 2:37 I.e. in a gesture indicating mourning
Jeremiah 2
Lexham English Bible
Yahweh Remembers Israel’s Faithfulness
2 And the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,[a] 2 “Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying,[b] ‘Thus says Yahweh,
“I remember concerning you the loyal love of your childhood,[c]
the love of your betrothal-time,
your going[d] after me in the desert,[e]
in the land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to Yahweh,
the first fruit of his produce.
All those who ate it were held guilty;
disaster came to them,” declares[f] Yahweh.’”
The Unfaithfulness of Israel’s Ancestors
4 Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the clans[g] of the house of Israel. 5 Thus says Yahweh:
“What injustice did your ancestors[h] find in me
that they were far from me,
and they went after the vanity,
and they became vain?
6 And they did not say,
‘Where is Yahweh,
the one who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
the one who led us in the desert,[i]
in a land of desert plains and gorges,[j]
in a land of dryness and deep darkness,
in a land that no one passes through,[k]
and no human lives there?’
7 And I brought you to the land of the orchard,
to eat its fruit, and its good things.[l]
But you entered and defiled my land,
and my inheritance you made a detestable thing.[m]
8 The priests did not say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’
and those who handle the law did not know me,
and the shepherds have rebelled against me,[n]
and the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and they went after things which do not profit.
The Unfaithfulness of Contemporary Israel
9 Therefore[o] I again bring a lawsuit against you,” declares[p] Yahweh,
“and with your children[q] I bring a lawsuit.
10 For go over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
and send to Kedar and consider very closely,
and see if there has been a thing like this:
11 Has a nation exchanged gods? And they are not gods!
But my people have exchanged their glory for that which does not profit.
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this, and shudder;
be utterly desolate,” declares[r] Yahweh.
13 “For my people have committed two evils:
they have forsaken me, the source[s] of living water,
to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water.
14 Is Israel a slave? Or a slave born in a house?[t]
Why has he become plunder?
15 The young lions have roared against him,
they have raised[u] their voices.[v]
And they have made his land as horror;
his cities are destroyed, without[w] an inhabitant.
16 Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes
will shave[x] your skull.[y]
17 Did you not do this to yourself,
by forsaking Yahweh, your God,
at the time of your leading in the way?
18 And now why do you go[z] the way of Egypt
to drink the waters of the Shihor?
And why do you go[aa] the way of Assyria
to drink the waters of the Euphrates?[ab]
19 Your wickedness will chastise you,
and your apostasies will reprove you.
Therefore know and see that it is evil and bitter,
your forsaking of Yahweh, your God,
and fear of me is not in you,”
declares[ac] the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
20 “For from long ago you have broken your yoke,
you tore to pieces your bonds.
And you said, ‘I will not serve!’
But on every high hill and under every leafy tree
you were lying down as a prostitute.
21 Yet I planted you as a choice vine,
all of it a seed of trustworthiness.
How then have you altered before me
into something that is degenerate, the foreign vine?
22 For if you wash with natron,
and you use much soap,[ad]
your guilt is sticking as a stain before[ae] me,”
declares[af] the Lord Yahweh.
23 “How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself,
I have not gone after the Baals?’
Look at your way in the valley,
know what you have done.
You are a young she-camel,
interweaving her ways.
24 A wild ass accustomed to the desert,[ag]
in the desire of her soul.
She gasps for wind in her rutting time.
Who can quell[ah] her lust?
All those who seek her will not grow weary,
in her month they will find her.
25 Restrain your foot from being barefoot,
and your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless.
No! For I have loved strangers,
and after them I will go.’[ai]
26 As the shame of a thief when he is caught in the act,
so the house of Israel will be ashamed.
They, their kings, their officials,
and their priests, and their prophets.
27 Those who say to the tree, ‘You are my father,’
and to the stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’
For they have turned their backs[aj] to me, and not their faces.
But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us.’
28 But where are your gods that you made for yourself?
Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble.
For according to the number of your towns
are your gods, O Judah.
29 Why do you complain to me?
All of you have rebelled against me,”[ak] declares[al] Yahweh.
30 “For in vain[am] I have struck your children.
They accepted no discipline.
Your sword devoured your prophets,
like a ravening[an] lion.
31 O generation, you see the word of Yahweh.
Have I been a desert[ao] to Israel? Or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We roam about freely,
we will not come again to you’?
32 Can a young woman forget her ornaments?[ap] Or a bride her sashes?
Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
33 How well you do on your way to seek love!
Therefore[aq] even to the wicked woman you can teach your ways.
34 Also on your skirts is found
the blood of the life of the innocent, the poor.
You did not find them in the act of breaking into a house.
But in spite of all these things,
35 yet you say, ‘But I am innocent,
surely his anger has turned away from me.’
Look, I am entering into judgment with you
because of your saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
36 How you go about so much changing your way!
Also by Egypt you will be put to shame,
just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
37 Also from there you will come out
with your hands on your head,
for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust,[ar]
and you will not prosper through them.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 2:1 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 2:2 Literally “to say”
- Jeremiah 2:2 Or “youth”
- Jeremiah 2:2 Or “walking”
- Jeremiah 2:2 Or “wilderness”
- Jeremiah 2:3 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 2:4 Or “families”
- Jeremiah 2:5 Or “fathers”
- Jeremiah 2:6 Or “wilderness”
- Jeremiah 2:6 Hebrew “gorge”
- Jeremiah 2:6 Literally “no man passes through in it”
- Jeremiah 2:7 Hebrew “good thing”
- Jeremiah 2:7 Or “abomination”
- Jeremiah 2:8 Literally “broken with me”
- Jeremiah 2:9 Literally “To thus”
- Jeremiah 2:9 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 2:9 Literally “sons of your sons”
- Jeremiah 2:12 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 2:13 Or “fountain”
- Jeremiah 2:14 Literally “born of a house”
- Jeremiah 2:15 Literally “given”
- Jeremiah 2:15 Hebrew “voice”
- Jeremiah 2:15 Literally “from not”
- Jeremiah 2:16 Literally “pasture”
- Jeremiah 2:16 Or “crown of your head”
- Jeremiah 2:18 Literally “what for you”
- Jeremiah 2:18 Literally “what for you”
- Jeremiah 2:18 Literally “river”
- Jeremiah 2:19 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 2:22 Literally “make numerous for yourself alkaline salt”
- Jeremiah 2:22 Literally “to the face of”
- Jeremiah 2:22 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 2:24 Or “wilderness”
- Jeremiah 2:24 Or “restrain”
- Jeremiah 2:25 Or “walk”
- Jeremiah 2:27 Literally “neck”
- Jeremiah 2:29 Literally “broken with me”
- Jeremiah 2:29 Literally “a declaration of”
- Jeremiah 2:30 Literally “the vanity”
- Jeremiah 2:30 Or “destroying”
- Jeremiah 2:31 Or “wilderness”
- Jeremiah 2:32 Or “jewelry”
- Jeremiah 2:33 Literally “To thus”
- Jeremiah 2:37 Literally “in your objects of trust”
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