19. Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backslidings shall reprove you: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you,
20. For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not
21. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me?
22. For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,
23. How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
24. A wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs in the wind in her desire; in her mating time who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.
25. Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst: but you said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
26. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets,
27. Saying to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You have brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.
28. But where are your gods that you have made yourself? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah.
29. Why will you plead with me? you all have transgressed against me,
30. In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
31. O generation, see you the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto you?