⁶ On your walls, O Jerusalem,
    I have set ^(L)watchmen;
all the day and all the night
    they shall never be silent.
You who put the Lord in remembrance,
    take no rest,
⁷ and give him no rest
    until he establishes Jerusalem
    and makes it ^(M)a praise in the earth.
⁸ The Lord has sworn ^(N)by his right hand
    and by his mighty arm:
“I will not again give ^(O)your grain
    to be food for your enemies,
^(P)and foreigners shall not drink your wine
    for which you have labored;
⁹ but ^(Q)those who garner it shall eat it
    and praise the Lord,
and ^(R)those who gather it shall drink it
    in the courts of my sanctuary.”^[e]

¹⁰ Go through, go through the gates;
    ^(S)prepare the way for the people;
^(T)build up, build up the highway;
    clear it of stones;
    ^(U)lift up a signal over the peoples.
¹¹ Behold, the Lord has proclaimed
    to the end of the earth:
^(V)Say to the daughter of Zion,
    ^(W)“Behold, your salvation comes;
behold, his reward is with him,
    and his recompense before him.”
^12 (X)And they shall be called The Holy People,
    The Redeemed of the Lord;
^(Y)and you shall be called Sought Out,
    A City Not Forsaken.

“I remember the devotion of ^(A)your youth,
    your love ^(B)as a bride,
^(C)how you followed me in the wilderness,
    ^(D)in a land not sown.
^3 (E)Israel was holy to the Lord,
    ^(F)the firstfruits of his harvest.
^(G)All who ate of it incurred guilt;
    disaster came upon them,
declares the Lord.”

^(H)“What wrong did your fathers find in me
    that they went far from me,
^(I)and went after ^(J)worthlessness, and became worthless?
⁶ They did not say, ^(K)‘Where is the Lord
    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us ^(L)in the wilderness,
    in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
    in a land that none passes through,
    where no man dwells?’
^7 (M)And I brought you into a plentiful land
    to enjoy its fruits and its good things.
But when you came in, ^(N)you defiled my land
    and made my heritage an abomination.
⁸ The priests did not say, ‘Where is the Lord?’
    ^(O)Those who handle the law did not know me;
^(P)the shepherds^[a] transgressed against me;
    ^(Q)the prophets prophesied by Baal
    and went after ^(R)things that do not profit.

⁹ “Therefore ^(S)I still contend with you,
declares the Lord,
    and ^(T)with your children's children I will contend.
¹⁰ For cross to the coasts of ^(U)Cyprus and see,
    or send to ^(V)Kedar and examine with care;
    see if there has been such a thing.
^11 (W)Has a nation changed its gods,
    ^(X)even though they are no gods?
But my people ^(Y)have changed their glory
    for ^(Z)that which does not profit.
¹² Be appalled, ^(AA)O heavens, at this;
    be shocked, be utterly desolate,
declares the Lord,
¹³ for my people have committed two evils:
^(AB)they have forsaken ^(AC)me,
    the fountain of ^(AD)living waters,
and hewed out cisterns for themselves,
    broken cisterns that can hold no water.

^14 (AE)“Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?
    Why then has he become a prey?
^15 (AF)The lions have roared against him;
    they have roared loudly.
They have made his land a waste;
    his cities are in ruins, ^(AG)without inhabitant.
¹⁶ Moreover, the men of ^(AH)Memphis and ^(AI)Tahpanhes
    ^(AJ)have shaved^[b] the crown of your head.
^17 (AK)Have you not brought this upon yourself
    by forsaking the Lord your God,
    when ^(AL)he led you in the way?
^18 (AM)And now what do you gain by going to Egypt
    to drink the waters of ^(AN)the Nile?^[c]
(AO)Or what do you gain by going to Assyria
    to drink the waters of ^(AP)the Euphrates?^[d]
19 (AQ)Your evil will chastise you,
    and ^(AR)your apostasy will reprove you.
Know and see that it is evil and ^(AS)bitter
    for ^(AT)you to forsake the Lord your God;
    the fear of me is not in you,
declares the Lord God of hosts.

²⁰ “For long ago I ^(AU)broke your yoke
    and burst your bonds;
    but you said, ^(AV)‘I will not serve.’
Yes, ^(AW)on every high hill
    and under every green tree
    you bowed down ^(AX)like a whore.
^21 (AY)Yet I planted you a choice vine,
    wholly of pure seed.
^(AZ)How then have you turned degenerate
    and become a wild vine?
²² Though you wash yourself with lye
    and use much soap,
    ^(BA)the stain of your guilt is still before me,
declares the Lord God.
^23 (BB)How can you say, ‘I am not unclean,
    I have not gone after the Baals’?
Look at your way ^(BC)in the valley;
    know what you have done—
a restless young camel running here and there,
^{24     (BD)}a wild donkey used to 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.
²⁵ Keep ^(BE)your feet from going unshod
    and ^(BF)your throat from thirst.
But you said, ‘It is hopeless,
    ^(BG)for I have loved foreigners,
    and after them I will go.’

²⁶ “As a thief is shamed when caught,
    so the house of Israel shall be shamed:
^(BH)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 back to me,
    and not their face.
But ^(BI)in the time of their trouble they say,
    ‘Arise and save us!’
²⁸ But ^(BJ)where are your gods
    that you made for yourself?
Let them arise, ^(BK)if they can save you,
    in your time of trouble;
for ^(BL)as many as your cities
    are your gods, O Judah.

²⁹ “Why do you contend with me?
    You have all transgressed against me,
declares the Lord.
³⁰ In vain have I ^(BM)struck your children;
    they took no correction;
^(BN)your own sword devoured your prophets
    like a ravening lion.
³¹ And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord.
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 no more to you’?
^32 (BO)Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
    or a bride her attire?
Yet ^(BP)my people have forgotten me
    days without number.

³³ “How well you direct your course
    to seek love!
So that even to wicked women
    you have taught your ways.
³⁴ Also on your skirts is found
    ^(BQ)the lifeblood of the guiltless poor;
you did not find them ^(BR)breaking in.
    Yet in spite of all these things
³⁵ you say, ‘I am innocent;
    surely his anger has turned from me.’
^(BS)Behold, I will bring you to judgment
    for ^(BT)saying, ‘I have not sinned.’
^36 (BU)How much you go about,
    changing your way!
You shall be ^(BV)put to shame by Egypt
    as you were put to shame by Assyria.
³⁷ From it too you will come away
    with ^(BW)your hands on your head,
for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust,
    and you will not prosper by them.

² “Plead with your mother, plead—
    for ^(C)she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
that she put away ^(D)her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts;
³ lest ^(E)I strip her naked
    and make her as ^(F)in the day she was born,
and ^(G)make her like a wilderness,
    and make her like a parched land,
    and kill her with thirst.
^4 (H)Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
    ^(I)because they are children of whoredom.
⁵ For ^(J)their mother has played the whore;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For ^(K)she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who ^(L)give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
⁶ Therefore ^(M)I will hedge up her^[d] way with thorns,
    and ^(N)I will build a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
⁷ She shall pursue her lovers
    but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
    but shall not find them.
^(O)Then she shall say,
    ‘I will go and return to ^(P)my first husband,
    ^(Q)for it was better for me then than now.’
⁸ And ^(R)she did not know
    that it was ^(S)I who gave her
    ^(T)the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on ^(U)her silver and gold,
    ^(V)which they used for Baal.
⁹ Therefore ^(W)I will take back
    my grain in its time,
    and my wine in its season,
and ^(X)I will take away my wool and my flax,
    which were to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰ Now ^(Y)I will uncover her lewdness
    in the sight of her lovers,
    and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
^11 (Z)And I will put an end to all her mirth,
    her feasts, her ^(AA)new moons, her ^(AB)Sabbaths,
    and all her ^(AC)appointed feasts.
¹² And ^(AD)I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
    ^(AE)of which she said,
‘These are ^(AF)my wages,
    which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
    ^(AG)and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
¹³ And ^(AH)I will punish her for ^(AI)the feast days of the Baals
    when she burned offerings to them
and ^(AJ)adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
    and went after her lovers
    and forgot me, declares the Lord.

²¹ “And ^(AW)in that day ^(AX)I will answer, declares the Lord,
    I will answer the heavens,
    and they shall answer the earth,
²² and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and they shall answer ^(AY)Jezreel,^[g]
23     and ^(AZ)I will sow her for myself in the land.
And ^(BA)I ^(BB)will have mercy on No Mercy,^[h]
    and ^(BC)I will say to Not My People,^{[i] (BD)}‘You are my people’;
    and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”