Jeremiah 2  Christian Standard Bible Anglicised

⁴ Hear the word of the Lord, house of Jacob
and all families of the house of Israel.
⁵ This is what the Lord says:

What fault did your ancestors find in me^(E)
that they went so far from me,
followed worthless idols,^(F)
and became worthless themselves?^(G)
6 They stopped asking, ‘Where is the Lord^(H)
who brought us from the land of Egypt,
who led us through the wilderness,^(I)
through a land of deserts and ravines,
through a land of drought and darkness,^[a]
a land no one travelled through
and where no one lived? ’
⁷ I brought you to a fertile land^(J)
to eat its fruit and bounty,
but after you entered, you defiled my land;^(K)
you made my inheritance^(L) detestable.
⁸ The priests stopped asking, ‘Where is the Lord? ’
The experts in the law no longer knew me,^(M)
and the rulers^(N) rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by^[b] Baal^(O)
and followed useless idols.^(P)

⁹ Therefore, I will bring a case against you again.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will bring a case against your children’s children.^(Q)
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus^[c](R) and take a look.
Send someone to Kedar^(S) and consider carefully;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹ Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?^(T)
(But they were not gods!^(U))
Yet my people have exchanged their^[d] Glory
for useless idols.^(V)
12 Be appalled at this, heavens;^(W)
be shocked and utterly desolated!
This is the Lord’s declaration.

¹³ For my people have committed a double evil:
They have abandoned me,^(X)
the fountain of living water,^(Y)
and dug cisterns for themselves – 
cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.^(Z)

²⁰ For long ago I^[h] broke your yoke;^(AJ)
I^[i] tore off your chains.
You insisted, ‘I will not serve! ’
On every high hill
and under every green tree^(AK)
you lay down like a prostitute.^(AL)

²¹ I planted you, a choice vine^(AM)
from the very best seed.
How then could you turn into
a degenerate, foreign vine?^(AN)

²² Even if you wash with lye
and use a great amount of bleach,^[j](AO)
the stain of your iniquity is still in front of me.^(AP)
This is the Lord God’s declaration.
²³ How can you protest, ‘I am not defiled;
I have not followed the Baals’?^(AQ)
Look at your behaviour in the valley;
acknowledge what you have done.^(AR)
You are a swift young camel
twisting and turning on her way,
²⁴ a wild donkey^(AS) at home^[k] in the wilderness.
She sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire.
Who can control her passion?
All who look for her will not become weary;
they will find her in her mating season.^[l]
25 Keep your feet from going bare
and your throat from thirst.
But you say, ‘It’s hopeless;^(AT)
I love strangers,^(AU)
and I will continue to follow them.’

²⁶ Like the shame of a thief when he is caught,
so the house of Israel has been put to shame.^(AV)
They, their kings, their officials,
their priests, and their prophets^(AW)
27 say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’
and to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’
For they have turned their back to me
and not their face,^(AX)
yet in their time of disaster^(AY) they beg,
‘Rise up and save us! ’
²⁸ But where are your gods you made for yourself?
Let them rise up and save you^(AZ)
in your time of disaster if they can,
for your gods are as numerous as your cities, Judah.