Jeremiah

¹ God's Message came to me. It went like this:

² 'God's Message! I remember your youthful loyalty, our love as newlyweds. You stayed with me through the wilderness years, stuck with me through all the hard places.

³ the pick of the crop. Anyone who laid a hand on her would soon wish he hadn't!' " God's Decree.

⁴ Yes, you—House of Israel!

⁵ that they drifted so far from me, Took up with Sir Windbag and turned into windbags themselves?

⁶ the God who got us out of Egypt, Who took care of us through thick and thin, those rough-and-tumble wilderness years of parched deserts and death valleys, A land that no one who enters comes out of, a cruel, inhospitable land?'

⁷ where you could eat lush fruit. But you barged in and polluted my land, trashed and defiled my dear land.

⁸ The religion experts knew nothing of me. The rulers defied me. The prophets preached god Baal And chased empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.

⁹ I'm bringing charges against you" —God's Decree— "charging you and your children and your grandchildren.

¹⁰ Sail to the western islands and look. Travel to the Kedar wilderness and look. Look closely. Has this ever happened before,

¹¹ for gods that aren't even close to gods? But my people have traded my Glory for empty god-dreams and silly god-schemes.

¹² Throw up your hands in disbelief—this can't be!" God's Decree.

¹³ they've walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns— cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.

¹⁴ born into a family with place and position? So how did she end up a piece of meat

¹⁵ There's nothing left of her but a few old bones, her towns trashed and deserted.

¹⁶ have broken your skulls.

¹⁷ Isn't it because you walked out on your God just as he was beginning to lead you in the right way?

¹⁸ Maybe a cool drink of Nile River water? Or what do you think you'll get by going off to Assyria? Maybe a long drink of Euphrates River water?

¹⁹ You'll pay dearly for your disloyal ways. Take a long, hard look at what you've done and its bitter results. Was it worth it to have walked out on your God?" God's Decree, Master God-of-the-Angel-Armies.

²⁰ You shook off all restraints. You said, 'I will not serve!' and off you went, Visiting every sex-and-religion shrine on the way, like a common whore.

²¹ from completely reliable stock. And look how you've turned out— a tangle of rancid growth, a poor excuse for a vine.

²² Scour your skin raw. The sin-grease won't come out. I can't stand to even look at you!" God's Decree, the Master's Decree.

²³ I've never chased after the Baal sex gods'! Well, look at the tracks you've left behind in the valley. How do you account for what is written in the desert dust— Tracks of a camel in heat, running this way and that,

²⁴ Sniffing the wind for the slightest scent of sex. Who could possibly corral her! On the hunt for sex, sex, and more sex— insatiable, indiscriminate, promiscuous.

²⁵ Why wear yourself out? Just what are you after anyway? But you say, 'I can't help it. I'm addicted to alien gods. I can't quit.'

²⁶ so the people of Israel are chagrined, Caught along with their kings and princes, their priests and prophets.

²⁷ They pick up a stone and say, 'My mother! You bore me!' All I ever see of them is their backsides. They never look me in the face. But when things go badly, they don't hesitate to come running, calling out, 'Get a move on! Save us!'

²⁸ Rouse them. Let them save you from your bad times. You've got more gods, Judah, than you know what to do with.

²⁹ running off to assert your 'independence'?" God's Decree.

³⁰ They've paid no attention to me, ignored my discipline. And you've gotten rid of your God-messengers, treating them like dirt and sweeping them away.

³¹ Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you? Have I let you down, Israel? Am I nothing but a dead-end street? Why do my people say, 'Good riddance! From now on we're on our own'?

³² Brides don't show up without their veils, do they? But my people forget me. Day after day after day they never give me a thought.

³³ to get the most out of life. You founded schools of sin, taught graduate courses in evil!

³⁴ except the gowns are stained with the blood of your victims! All that blood convicts you. You cut and hurt a lot of people to get where you are.

³⁵ God doesn't mind. He hasn't punished me, has he?' Don't look now, but judgment's on the way, aimed at you who say, 'I've done nothing wrong.'

³⁶ to try out another sin-project when the first one fails? But Egypt will leave you in the lurch the same way that Assyria did.

³⁷ wringing your hands. I, God, have blacklisted those you trusted. You'll get not a lick of help from them."