20 For long ago I[a] broke your yoke;(A)
I[b] tore off your chains.
You insisted, “I will not serve!”
On every high hill
and under every green tree(B)
you lie down like a prostitute.(C)

21 I planted you, a choice vine(D)
from the very best seed.
How then could you turn into
a degenerate, foreign vine?(E)

22 Even if you wash with lye
and use a great amount of soap,(F)
the stain of your sin is still in front of Me.(G)
This is the Lord God’s declaration.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:20 LXX reads you
  2. Jeremiah 2:20 LXX reads you

20 “For from long ago you have broken your yoke,
    you tore to pieces your bonds.
And you said, ‘I will not serve!’
    But on every high hill and under every leafy tree
    you were lying down as a prostitute.
21 Yet I planted you as a choice vine,
    all of it a seed of trustworthiness.
How then have you altered before me
    into something that is degenerate, the foreign vine?
22 For if you wash with natron,
    and you use much soap,[a]
your guilt is sticking as a stain before[b] me,”
    declares[c] the Lord Yahweh.

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Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 2:22 Literally “make numerous for yourself alkaline salt”
  2. Jeremiah 2:22 Literally “to the face of”
  3. Jeremiah 2:22 Literally “a declaration of”