4. Hear you the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
5. Thus says the LORD,
6. Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt?
7. And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
8. The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.
9. Therefore I will yet plead with you,
10. For pass over the coasts of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing.
11. Has a nation changed its gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
12. Be astonished, O you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be you very desolate,
13. For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed themselves out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14. Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he plundered?
15. The young lions roared upon him, and growled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
16. Also the children of Noph and Tahpanes have broken the crown of your head.
17. Have you not brought this unto yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?
18. And now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the river?
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;