17. “Haven’t you brought this on yourself,in that you have forsaken the Lord 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?
19. “Your own wickedness will correct you,and your backsliding will rebuke you.Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing,that you have forsaken the Lord your God,and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, the Lord of Hosts.
20. “For long ago I broke off your yoke,and burst your bonds.You said, ‘I will not serve;’for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself,playing the prostitute.
21. Yet I had planted you a noble vine,a pure and faithful seed.How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
22. For though you wash yourself with lye,and use much soap,yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord GOD.
23. “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled.I have not gone after the Baals’?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 the wind in her craving.When she is in heat, who can turn her away?All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.
25. “Keep your feet from being bare,and your throat from thirst.But you said, ‘It is in vain.No, for I have loved strangers,and I will go after them.’
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. who tell wood, ‘You are my father;’and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me:’for they have turned their back to 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 for yourselves?Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble:for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.
29. “Why will you contend with me?You all have transgressed against me,” says the Lord.