The High Cost of Wandering Away

Israel's Unfaithfulness

1The Lord told me 2to go to Jerusalem and tell everyone that he had said:

When you were my young bride,

you loved me and followed me

through the barren desert.

3You belonged to me alone,

like the first part of the harvest,

and I severely punished

those who mistreated you.

4Listen, people of Israel,

5and I, the Lord, will speak.

I was never unfair

to your ancestors,

but they left me

and became worthless

by following worthless idols.

6Your ancestors refused

to ask for my help,

though I had rescued them

from Egypt

and led them through

a treacherous, barren desert,

where no one lives

or dares to travel.

7I brought you here to my land,

where food is abundant,

but you made my land filthy

with your sins.

8The priests who teach my laws

don't care to know me.

Your leaders rebel against me;

your prophets

give messages from Baal

and worship false gods.

The Lord Accuses His People

9I will take you to court

and accuse you

and your descendants

* 10of a crime that no nation

has ever committed before.

Just ask anyone, anywhere,

from the eastern deserts

to the islands in the west.

11You will find that no nation

has ever abandoned its gods

even though they were false.

I am the true and glorious God,

but you have rejected me

to worship idols.

12Tell the heavens

to tremble with fear!

13You, my people, have sinned

in two ways—

you have rejected me, the source

of life-giving water,

and you've tried to collect water

in cracked and leaking pits

dug in the ground.

14People of Israel,

you weren't born slaves;

you were captured in war.

15Enemies roared like lions

and destroyed your land;

towns lie burned and empty.

16Soldiers from the Egyptian towns

of Memphis and Tahpanhes

have cracked your skulls.

17It's all your own fault!

You stopped following me,

the Lord your God,

18and you trusted the power

of Egypt and Assyria.

19Your own sins will punish you,

because it was a bitter mistake

for you to reject me

without fear of punishment.

I, the Lord All-Powerful,

have spoken.

20Long ago you left me

and broke all ties between us,

refusing to be my servant.

Now you worship other gods

by having sex

on hilltops or in the shade

of large trees.

21You were a choice grapevine,

but you have become

a wild, useless vine.

Israel Is Stained with Guilt

22The Lord said:

People of Israel,

you are stained with guilt,

and no soap or bleach

can wash it away.