17. Did you not do this to yourself, by forsaking Yahweh, your God, at the time of your leading in the way?
18. And now why do you go the way of Egypt to drink the waters of the Shihor? And why do you go the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19. Your wickedness will chastise you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Therefore know and see that it is evil and bitter, your forsaking of Yahweh, your God, and fear of me is not in you,” declares the Lord, Yahweh of hosts.
20. “For from long ago you have broken your yoke, you tore to pieces your bonds. And you said, ‘I will not serve!’ But on every high hill and under every leafy tree you were lying down as a prostitute.
21. Yet I planted you as a choice vine, all of it a seed of trustworthiness. How then have you altered before me into something that is degenerate, the foreign vine?
22. For if you wash with natron, and you use much soap, your guilt is sticking as a stain before me,” declares the Lord Yahweh.
23. “How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself, I have not gone after the Baals?’ Look at your way in the valley, know what you have done. You are a young she-camel, interweaving her ways.
24. A wild ass accustomed to the desert, in the desire of her soul. She gasps for wind in her rutting time. Who can quell her lust? All those who seek her will not grow weary, in her month they will find her.
25. Restrain your foot from being barefoot, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is hopeless. No! For I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.’
26. As the shame of a thief when he is caught in the act, so the house of Israel will be ashamed. They, their kings, their officials, and their priests, and their prophets.
27. Those who say to the tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to the stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’ For they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces. But in the time of their trouble they say, ‘Arise and save us.’
28. But where are your gods that you made for yourself? Let them arise if they can save you in the time of your trouble. For according to the number of your towns are your gods, O Judah.
29. Why do you complain to me? All of you have rebelled against me,” declares Yahweh.
30. “For in vain I have struck your children. They accepted no discipline. Your sword devoured your prophets, like a ravening lion.