4. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all ye families of the house of Israel.
5. Thus saith the Lord: What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
6. And they have not said: Where is the Lord, that made us come up out of the land of Egypt? that led us through the desert, through a land uninhabited and unpassable, through a land of drought, and the image of death, through a land wherein no man walked, nor any man dwelt?
7. And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: ad when ye entered in, you defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination.
8. The priests did not say: Where is the Lord? and they that held the law knew me not, and the pastors transgressed against me: and the prophets prophesied in Baal, and followed idols.
9. Therefore will I yet contend in judgement with you, saith the Lord, and I will plead with your children.
10. Pass over to the isles of Cethim, and see: and send into Cedar, and consider diligently: and see if there hath been done any thing like this.
11. If a nation hath changed their gods, and indeed they are not gods,: but my people have changed their glory into an idol.
12. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and ye gates thereof, be very desolate, saith the Lord.
13. For my people have done two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
14. Is Israel a bondman, or a homeborn slave? why then is he become prey?
15. The lions have roared upon him, and have made a noise, they have made his land a wilderness: his cities are burnt down and there is none to dwell in them.
16. The children also of Memphis, and of Taphnes have deflowered thee, even to the crown of the head.