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God Pleads with Israel to Repent

The word of the Lord came to me, saying: Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord:

I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.(A)
Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
    disaster came upon them,
            says the Lord.(B)

Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. Thus says the Lord:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me
    that they went far from me
and went after worthless things and became worthless themselves?(C)
They did not say, “Where is the Lord,
    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
    in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
    in a land that no one passes through,
    where no one lives?”(D)
I brought you into a plentiful land
    to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land
    and made my heritage an abomination.(E)
The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
    Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers[a] transgressed against me;
    the prophets prophesied by Baal
    and went after things that do not profit.(F)

Therefore once more I accuse you,
            says the Lord,
    and I accuse your children’s children.(G)
10 Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look;
    send to Kedar and examine with care;
    see if there has ever been such a thing.
11 Has a nation changed its gods,
    even though they are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory
    for something that does not profit.(H)
12 Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
    be shocked; be utterly desolate,
            says the Lord,
13 for my people have committed two evils:
    they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living water,
    and dug out cisterns for themselves,
cracked cisterns
    that can hold no water.(I)

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Footnotes

  1. 2.8 Heb shepherds