Chapter 2
1The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2Go proclaim to Jerusalem: Thus said the Lord:
I accounted to your favor
The devotion of your youth,
Your love as a bride—
How you followed Me in the wilderness,
In a land not sown.
3Israel was holy to the Lord,
The first fruits of His harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
Disaster befell them
4Hear the word of the Lord, O House of Jacob,
Every clan of the House of Israel!
5Thus said the Lord:
What wrong did your fathers find in Me
That they abandoned Me
And went after delusion and were deluded?
6They never asked themselves, “Where is the Lord,
Who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,
A land of deserts and pits,
A land of drought and darkness,
A land no man had traversed,
Where no human being had dwelt?”
7I brought you to this country of farm land
To enjoy its fruit and its bounty;
But you came and defiled My land,
You made My possession abhorrent.
8The priests never asked themselves, “Where is the Lord?”
The guardians of the Teaching ignored Me;
The rulers rebelled against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And followed what can do no good.
9Oh, I will go on accusing you
And I will accuse your children’s children!
10Just cross over to the isles of the Kittim and look,
Send to Kedar and observe carefully;
See if aught like this has ever happened:
11Has any nation changed its gods
Even though they are no-gods?
But My people has exchanged its glory
For what can do no good.
12Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
Be horrified, utterly dazed!
13For My people have done a twofold wrong:
They have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters,
And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,
Which cannot even hold water.
14Is Israel a bondman?
Is he a home-born slave?
Then why is he given over to plunder?
15Lions have roared over him,
Have raised their cries.
They have made his land a waste,
His cities desolate, without inhabitants.
16Those, too, in Noph and Tahpanhes
a
Will lay bare your head.
17See, that is the price you have paid
For forsaking the Lord your God
While He led you in the way.
18What, then, is the good of your going to Egypt
To drink the waters of the Nile?
And what is the good of your going to Assyria
To drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19Let your misfortune reprove you,
Let your afflictions rebuke you;
Mark well how bad and bitter it is
That you forsake the Lord your God,
That awe for Me is not in you
—declares the Lord God of Hosts. [ . . . ]
23How can you say, “I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baalim”?
Look at your deeds in the Valley,
bConsider what you have done!
Like a lustful she-camel,
Restlessly running about,
24Or like a wild ass used to the desert,
Snuffing the wind in her eagerness,
Whose passion none can restrain,
None that seek her need grow weary—
In her season, they’ll find her!
25Save your foot from going bare,
And your throat from thirst.
But you say, “It is no use.
No, I love the strangers,
cAnd after them I must go.”
26Like a thief chagrined when he is caught,
So is the House of Israel chagrined—
They, their kings, their officers,
And their priests and prophets.
27They said to wood, “You are my father,”
To stone, “You gave birth to me,”
While to Me they turned their backs
And not their faces.
But in their hour of calamity they cry,
“Arise and save us!”
28And where are those gods
You made for yourself?
Let them arise and save you, if they can,
In your hour of calamity.
For your gods have become, O Judah,
As many as your towns!
29Why do you call Me to account?
You have all rebelled against Me
—declares the Lord. [ . . . ]
Chapter 3
6The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what Rebel Israel did, going to every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and whoring there? 7I thought: After she has done all these things, she will come back to Me. But she did not come back; and her sister, Faithless Judah, saw it. 8I noted: Because Rebel Israel had committed adultery, I cast her off and handed her a bill of divorce; yet her sister, Faithless Judah, was not afraid—she too went and whored. 9Indeed, the land was defiled by her casual immorality, as she committed adultery with stone and with wood.d 10And after all that, her sister, Faithless Judah, did not return to Me wholeheartedly, but insincerely—declares the Lord.
11And the Lord said to me: Rebel Israel has shown herself more in the right than Faithless Judah. 12Go, make this proclamation toward the north, and say: Turn back, O Rebel Israel—declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am compassionate—declares the Lord; I do not bear a grudge for all time. 13Only recognize your sin; for you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and scattered your favors among strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not heeded Me—declares the Lord.
14Turn back, rebellious children—declares the Lord. Since I have espoused you, I will take you, one from a town and two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. 15And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will pasture you with knowledge and skill.
16And when you increase and are fertile in the land, in those days—declares the Lord—men shall no longer speak of the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, nor shall it come to mind. They shall not mention it, or miss it, or make another. 17At that time, they shall call Jerusalem “Throne of the Lord,” and all nations shall assemble there, in the name of the Lord, at Jerusalem. Theye shall no longer follow the willfulness of their evil hearts. 18In those days, the House of Judah shall go with the House of Israel; they shall come together from the land of the north to the land I gave your fathers as a possession.
