Jeremiah 2:9-19

New International Version - UK

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.
¹⁴ Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
    Why then has he become plunder?
¹⁵ Lions have roared;
    they have growled at him.
They have laid waste his land;
    his towns are burned and deserted.
¹⁶ Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
    have cracked your skull.
¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourselves
    by forsaking the Lord your God
    when he led you in the way?
¹⁸ Now why go to Egypt
    to drink water from the Nile?^[b]
And why go to Assyria
    to drink water from the Euphrates?
¹⁹ Your wickedness will punish you;
    your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realise
    how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the Lord your God
    and have no awe of me,’
declares the Lord,
the Lord Almighty.