13. “For My people have committed two evils:They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters,And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.
14. “Is Israel a servant?Is he a homeborn slave?Why is he plundered?
15. The young lions roared at him, and growled;They made his land waste;His cities are burned, without inhabitant.
16. Also the people of Noph and TahpanhesHave broken the crown of your head.
17. Have you not brought this on yourself,In that you have forsaken the Lord your GodWhen He led you in the way?
18. And now why take the road to Egypt,To drink the waters of Sihor?Or why take the road to Assyria,To drink the waters of the River?
19. Your own wickedness will correct you,And your backslidings will rebuke you.Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thingThat you have forsaken the Lord your God,And the fear of Me is not in you,”Says the Lord God of hosts.
20. “For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds;And you said, ‘I will not transgress,’When on every high hill and under every green treeYou lay down, playing the harlot.
21. Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality.How then have you turned before MeInto the degenerate plant of an alien vine?
22. For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap,Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,” says the Lord God.
23. “How can you say, ‘I am not polluted,I have not gone after the Baals’?See your way in the valley;Know what you have done:You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways,
24. A wild donkey used to the wilderness,That sniffs at the wind in her desire;In her time of mating, who can turn her away?All those who seek her will not weary themselves;In her month they will find her.