1. Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
2. “Go, and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
3. Israel was holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,”’ says Yahweh.”
4. Hear Yahweh’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!
5. Yahweh says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?
6. They didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who 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 one passed through, and where no man lived?’
7. I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
8. The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is Yahweh?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and followed things that do not profit.
9. “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh, “and I will contend with your children’s children.
10. For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.
11. Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.
12. “Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate,” says Yahweh.
13. “For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14. Is Israel a slave? Is he born into slavery? Why has he become a captive?
15. The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
16. The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.
17. “Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, when he led you by the way?
18. Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?