14 Is Israel a servant, a slave(A) by birth?
    Why then has he become plunder?
15 Lions(B) have roared;
    they have growled at him.
They have laid waste(C) his land;
    his towns are burned(D) and deserted.(E)
16 Also, the men of Memphis(F) and Tahpanhes(G)
    have cracked your skull.
17 Have you not brought this on yourselves(H)
    by forsaking(I) the Lord your God
    when he led you in the way?
18 Now why go to Egypt(J)
    to drink water from the Nile[a]?(K)
And why go to Assyria(L)
    to drink water from the Euphrates?(M)
19 Your wickedness will punish you;
    your backsliding(N) will rebuke(O) you.
Consider then and realize
    how evil and bitter(P) it is for you
when you forsake(Q) the Lord your God
    and have no awe(R) of me,”
declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:18 Hebrew Shihor; that is, a branch of the Nile

14 Is Israel a slave? Or a slave born in a house?[a]
    Why has he become plunder?
15 The young lions have roared against him,
    they have raised[b] their voices.[c]
And they have made his land as horror;
    his cities are destroyed, without[d] an inhabitant.
16 Moreover, people of Memphis and Tahpanhes
    will shave[e] your skull.[f]
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[g] the way of Egypt
    to drink the waters of the Shihor?
And why do you go[h] the way of Assyria
    to drink the waters of the Euphrates?[i]
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[j] the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:14 Literally “born of a house”
  2. Jeremiah 2:15 Literally “given”
  3. Jeremiah 2:15 Hebrew “voice”
  4. Jeremiah 2:15 Literally “from not”
  5. Jeremiah 2:16 Literally “pasture”
  6. Jeremiah 2:16 Or “crown of your head”
  7. Jeremiah 2:18 Literally “what for you”
  8. Jeremiah 2:18 Literally “what for you”
  9. Jeremiah 2:18 Literally “river”
  10. Jeremiah 2:19 Literally “a declaration of”