19Your wickedness will punish you;

your backsliding will rebuke you.

Consider then and realize

how evil and bitter it is for you

when you forsake the Lord your God

and have no awe of me,”

declares the Lord, the Lord Almighty.

20“Long ago you broke off your yoke

and tore off your bonds;

you said, ‘I will not serve you!’

Indeed, on every high hill

and under every spreading tree

you lay down as a prostitute.

21I had planted you like a choice vine

of sound and reliable stock.

How then did you turn against me

into a corrupt, wild vine?

22Although you wash yourself with soda

and use an abundance of soap,

the stain of your guilt is still before me,”

declares the Sovereign Lord.

23“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;

I have not run after the Baals’?

See how you behaved in the valley;

consider what you have done.

You are a swift she-camel

running here and there,

24a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,

sniffing the wind in her craving—

in her heat who can restrain her?

Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;

at mating time they will find her.

25Do not run until your feet are bare

and your throat is dry.

But you said, ‘It’s no use!

I love foreign gods,

and I must go after them.’

26“As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,

so the house of Israel is disgraced—

they, their kings and their officials,

their priests and their prophets.

27They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’

and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’

They have turned their backs to me

and not their faces;

yet when they are in trouble, they say,

‘Come and save us!’

28Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?

Let them come if they can save you

when you are in trouble!

For you have as many gods

as you have towns, O Judah.

29“Why do you bring charges against me?

You have all rebelled against me,”

declares the Lord.

30“In vain I punished your people;

they did not respond to correction.

Your sword has devoured your prophets

like a ravening lion.

31“You of this generation, consider the word of the Lord:

“Have I been a desert to Israel

or a land of great darkness?

Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;

we will come to you no more’?

32Does a maiden forget her jewelry,

a bride her wedding ornaments?

Yet my people have forgotten me,

days without number.

33How skilled you are at pursuing love!

Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.

34On your clothes men find

the lifeblood of the innocent poor,

though you did not catch them breaking in.

Yet in spite of all this

35you say, ‘I am innocent;

he is not angry with me.’

But I will pass judgment on you

because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

36Why do you go about so much,

changing your ways?

You will be disappointed by Egypt

as you were by Assyria.

37You will also leave that place

with your hands on your head,

for the Lord has rejected those you trust;

you will not be helped by them.