²⁶ As a thief is shamed when caught,
    so the house of Israel shall be shamed—
they, their kings, their officials,
    their priests, and their prophets,
²⁷ who say to a tree, ‘You are my father’,
    and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
For they have turned their backs to me,
    and not their faces.
But in the time of their trouble they say,
    ‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ But where are your gods
    that you made for yourself?
Let them come, if they can save you,
    in your time of trouble;
for you have as many gods
    as you have towns, O Judah.

²⁹ Why do you complain against me?
    You have all rebelled against me,
says the Lord.
³⁰ In vain I have struck down your children;
    they accepted no correction.
Your own sword devoured your prophets
    like a ravening lion.
³¹ And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord!^[a]
Have I been a wilderness to Israel,
    or a land of thick darkness?
Why then do my people say, ‘We are free,
    we will come to you no more’?
³² Can a girl forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
    days without number.

³³ How well you direct your course
    to seek lovers!
So that even to wicked women
    you have taught your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found
    the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
though you did not catch them breaking in.
    Yet in spite of all these things^[b]
35 you say, ‘I am innocent;
    surely his anger has turned from me.’
Now I am bringing you to judgement
    for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ How lightly you gad about,
    changing your ways!
You shall be put to shame by Egypt
    as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ From there also you will come away
    with your hands on your head;
for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
    and you will not prosper through them.

⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts;
    let your face shine, that we may be saved.

⁸ You brought a vine out of Egypt;
    you drove out the nations and planted it.
⁹ You cleared the ground for it;
    it took deep root and filled the land.
¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shade,
    the mighty cedars with its branches;
¹¹ it sent out its branches to the sea,
    and its shoots to the River.
¹² Why then have you broken down its walls,
    so that all who pass along the way pluck its fruit?
¹³ The boar from the forest ravages it,
    and all that move in the field feed on it.

¹⁴ Turn again, O God of hosts;
    look down from heaven, and see;
have regard for this vine,
¹⁵     the stock that your right hand planted.^[a]