Jeremiah 2
They Forsook the Fountain and Dug Broken Cisterns
← Jeremiah 1 · Jeremiah: all chapters · Jeremiah 3 →
I Remembered the Mercy of Your Youth
2:2And He said, Thus says the Lord: I remembered the mercy of your youth and the love of your completion, when you followed the Holy One of Israel, says the Lord.
2:3Israel is holy. To the Lord he is the first of His produce. All who devour him will offend; calamities will come upon them, declares the Lord.
What Offense Did Your Fathers Find in Me?
2:4Hear the Lord’s word, house of Jacob and every clan of the house of Israel.
2:5Thus says the Lord: What offense did your fathers find in Me, that they withdrew far from Me, followed futile things and became futile?
2:6They did not say, Where is the Lord who brought us up from Egypt’s land, who guided us in the wilderness, in a boundless and impassable land, a waterless and fruitless land, a land through which nothing passed and where no human being lived?
2:7I brought you into Carmel to eat its fruits and good things, but you entered and polluted My land and made My inheritance an abomination.
2:8The priests did not say, Where is the Lord? Those holding to the law did not know Me; the shepherds acted ungodly toward Me; the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed what is useless.
2:9Therefore I will still enter judgment with you, says the Lord, and with your children’s children I will enter judgment.
The Spring of Life Abandoned for Broken Pits
2:10Cross over to the islands of Kittim and see; send to Kedar and consider carefully. See whether such things have happened.
2:11Will nations exchange their gods, though these are not gods? But My people exchanged their glory, from which they will not benefit.
2:12Heaven was astonished at this and shuddered exceedingly, says the Lord.
2:13For My people did two evil things: they abandoned Me, a spring of water of life, and dug broken pits for themselves that cannot hold water.
Is Israel a Slave?
2:14Is Israel a slave, or is he house-born? Why has he become spoil?
2:15Lions roared over him and raised their voice. They made his land a wilderness, and his cities were demolished so that none inhabited them.
2:16The sons of Memphis and Tahpanhes knew you and mocked you.
2:17Has not your abandoning Me done these things to you? says the Lord your God.
2:18Now what have you to do with Egypt’s road, to drink Gihon’s water? And what have you to do with the Assyrians’ road, to drink river waters?
2:19Your apostasy will discipline you, and your evil will rebuke you. Know and see that abandoning Me is bitter for you, says the Lord your God; and I took no pleasure in you, says the Lord your God.
Long Ago You Shattered Your Yoke
2:20For long ago you shattered your yoke and tore apart your bonds, and said, I will not be enslaved, but I will go upon every high hill and beneath every shady tree; there I will abandon myself to my prostitution.
2:21But I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly genuine. How have you changed into bitterness, you foreign vine?
2:22Even if you wash with natron and multiply cleansing herb for yourself, you remain stained in your injustices before Me, says the Lord.
2:23How will you say, I was not polluted and did not follow Baal? See your ways in the burial ground and know what you did. Late her voice wailed; her ways
2:24she broadened upon wilderness waters. In her soul’s desires she was carried by the wind; she was handed over. Who will turn her back? All who seek her will not toil; in her humiliation they will find her.
2:25Turn your foot from a rough road and your throat from thirst. But she said, I will be strong, because she had loved strangers and went after them.
The Shame of the House of Israel
2:26As a thief is ashamed when caught, so the sons of Israel will be ashamed: they, their kings, their rulers, their priests and their prophets.
2:27They said to wood, You are my father, and to stone, You gave birth to me. They turned their backs toward Me, not their faces; and in the time of their calamities they will say, Rise and save us!
2:28Where are your gods that you made for yourself? Will they rise and save you in the time of your affliction? For your gods were as numerous as your cities, Judah, and according to the number of Jerusalem’s streets they sacrificed to Baal.
2:29Why do you speak to Me? All of you acted ungodly, and all of you acted lawlessly against Me, says the Lord.
2:30In vain I struck your children; you accepted no discipline. A sword devoured your prophets like a destroying lion, and you did not fear.
2:31Hear the Lord’s word. Thus says the Lord: Have I become a wilderness to Israel, or a land left barren? Why did My people say, We will not be ruled, and we will come to You no more?
2:32Will a bride forget her adornment, or a virgin her breastband? Yet My people forgot Me for days beyond counting.
2:33What good practice will you still pursue in your ways to seek love? Not so; you too acted wickedly to pollute your ways.
The Blood of Innocent Souls
2:34Even on your hands was found the blood of innocent lives. I did not find them in break-ins, but at every oak.
2:35And you said, I am innocent; let His fury turn away from me. Look, I enter judgment with you because you say, I did not sin.
2:36Why did you show such contempt by repeating your ways? You will also be put to shame by Egypt, as you were put to shame by Assyria.
2:37For from here too you will go out with your hands on your head, because the Lord rejected your hope, and you will not prosper in it.
← Jeremiah 1 · Jeremiah: all chapters · Jeremiah 3 →
Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.