Jeremiah 2:23-37
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
23 How can you say, “I am not defiled;
I have not gone after the Baals”?
Look at your way in the valley;
know what you have done:
a restive young camel interlacing her tracks,(A)
24 a wild ass at home in the wilderness
in her heat sniffing the wind!
Who can restrain her lust?
None who seek her need weary themselves;
in her month they will find her.(B)
25 Keep your feet from going bare
and your throat from thirst.
But you said, “It is no use,
for I have loved strangers,
and after them I will go.”(C)
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,(D)
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!”(E)
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.(F)
29 Why do you complain against me?
You have all rebelled against me,
says the Lord.(G)
30 In vain I have struck down your children;
they accepted no correction.
Your own sword devoured your prophets
like a ravening lion.(H)
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”?(I)
32 Can a young woman forget her ornaments
or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
days without number.(J)
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](K)
35 you say, “I am innocent;
surely his anger has turned from me.”
Now I am bringing you to judgment
for saying, “I have not sinned.”(L)
36 Why do you go about so much
to change your way?
You shall be put to shame by Egypt
as you were put to shame by Assyria.(M)
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.(N)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.