Jeremiah 22:21

³⁰“For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only that which was evil in my sight from their youth; for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, says the LORD.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the LORD our God’s voice.”

²²For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; ²³but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ ²⁴But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. ²⁵Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. ²⁶Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

²⁷“You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. ²⁸You shall tell them, ‘This is the nation that has not listened to the LORD their God’s voice, nor received instruction. Truth has perished, and is cut off from their mouth.’

³They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. ⁴Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

⁵“Oholah played the prostitute when she was mine. She doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbors, ⁶who were clothed with blue—governors and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding on horses. ⁷She gave herself as a prostitute to them, all of them the choicest men of Assyria. She defiled herself with the idols of whomever she lusted after. ⁸She hasn’t left her prostitution since leaving Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her. They caressed her youthful nipples and they poured out their prostitution on her.

⁹“Therefore I delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians on whom she doted. ¹⁰These uncovered her nakedness. They took her sons and her daughters, and they killed her with the sword. She became a byword among women; for they executed judgments on her.

¹¹“Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more corrupt in her lusting than she, and in her prostitution which was more depraved than the prostitution of her sister. ¹²She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers—her neighbors, clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding on horses, all of them desirable young men. ¹³I saw that she was defiled. They both went the same way.

¹⁴“She increased her prostitution; for she saw men portrayed on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed with red, ¹⁵dressed with belts on their waists, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them looking like princes, after the likeness of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. ¹⁶As soon as she saw them, she lusted after them and sent messengers to them into Chaldea. ¹⁷The Babylonians came to her into the bed of love, and they defiled her with their prostitution. She was polluted with them, and her soul was alienated from them. ¹⁸So she uncovered her prostitution and uncovered her nakedness. Then my soul was alienated from her, just like my soul was alienated from her sister. ¹⁹Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt. ²⁰She lusted after their lovers, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses. ²¹Thus you called to memory the lewdness of your youth, in the caressing of your nipples by the Egyptians because of your youthful breasts.

²²“Therefore, Oholibah, the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will raise up your lovers against you, from whom your soul is alienated, and I will bring them against you on every side: ²³the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them; all of them desirable young men, governors and rulers, princes and men of renown, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a company of peoples. They will set themselves against you with buckler, shield, and helmet all around. I will commit the judgment to them, and they will judge you according to their judgments. ²⁵I will set my jealousy against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will take away your nose and your ears. Your remnant will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters; and the rest of you will be devoured by the fire. ²⁶They will also strip you of your clothes and take away your beautiful jewels. ²⁷Thus I will make your lewdness to cease from you, and remove your prostitution from the land of Egypt, so that you will not lift up your eyes to them, nor remember Egypt any more.’

²⁸“For the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I will deliver you into the hand of them whom you hate, into the hand of them from whom your soul is alienated. ²⁹They will deal with you in hatred, and will take away all your labor, and will leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your prostitution will be uncovered, both your lewdness and your prostitution. ³⁰These things will be done to you because you have played the prostitute after the nations, and because you are polluted with their idols. ³¹You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will give her cup into your hand.’

³²“The Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much. ³³You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow, with the cup of astonishment and desolation, with the cup of your sister Samaria. ³⁴You will even drink it and drain it out. You will gnaw the broken pieces of it, and will tear your breasts; for I have spoken it,’ says the Lord GOD.

³⁵“Therefore the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten me and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and your prostitution.’”

³⁶The LORD said moreover to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. ³⁷For they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have also caused their sons, whom they bore to me, to pass through the fire to them to be devoured. ³⁸Moreover this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my Sabbaths. ³⁹For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and behold, they have done this in the middle of my house.

⁹lest I be full, deny you, and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’ or lest I be poor, and steal, and so dishonor the name of my God.

⁸Yes, you didn’t hear. Yes, you didn’t know. Yes, from of old your ear was not opened, for I knew that you dealt very treacherously, and were called a transgressor from the womb.

⁸“‘“But they rebelled against me and wouldn’t listen to me. They didn’t all throw away the abominations of their eyes. They also didn’t forsake the idols of Egypt. Then I said I would pour out my wrath on them, to accomplish my anger against them in the middle of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶The LORD says, “Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, ‘Where is the good way?’ and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

¹⁵I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Every one of you must return now from his evil way, amend your doings, and don’t go after other gods to serve them. Then you will dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers;’ but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me.

⁶We have sinned with our fathers. We have committed iniquity. We have done wickedly. ⁷Our fathers didn’t understand your wonders in Egypt. They didn’t remember the multitude of your loving kindnesses, but were rebellious at the sea, even at the Red Sea. ⁸Nevertheless he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make his mighty power known. ⁹He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it was dried up; so he led them through the depths, as through a desert. ¹⁰He saved them from the hand of him who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the enemy. ¹¹The waters covered their adversaries. There was not one of them left. ¹²Then they believed his words. They sang his praise. ¹³They soon forgot his works. They didn’t wait for his counsel, ¹⁴but gave in to craving in the desert, and tested God in the wasteland. ¹⁵He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their soul. ¹⁶They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron, the LORD’s saint. ¹⁷The earth opened and swallowed up Dathan, and covered the company of Abiram. ¹⁸A fire was kindled in their company. The flame burned up the wicked. ¹⁹They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. ²⁰Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass. ²¹They forgot God, their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt, ²²wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome things by the Red Sea. ²³Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had Moses, his chosen, not stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath, so that he wouldn’t destroy them. ²⁴Yes, they despised the pleasant land. They didn’t believe his word, ²⁵but murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to the LORD’s voice. ²⁶Therefore he swore to them that he would overthrow them in the wilderness, ²⁷that he would overthrow their offspring among the nations, and scatter them in the lands. ²⁸They joined themselves also to Baal Peor, and ate the sacrifices of the dead. ²⁹Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them. ³⁰Then Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, so the plague was stopped. ³¹That was credited to him for righteousness, for all generations to come. ³²They angered him also at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was troubled for their sakes; ³³because they were rebellious against his spirit, he spoke rashly with his lips. ³⁴They didn’t destroy the peoples, as the LORD commanded them, ³⁵but mixed themselves with the nations, and learned their works. ³⁶They served their idols, which became a snare to them. ³⁷Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons. ³⁸They shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan. The land was polluted with blood. ³⁹Thus they were defiled with their works, and prostituted themselves in their deeds. ⁴⁰Therefore the LORD burned with anger against his people. He abhorred his inheritance. ⁴¹He gave them into the hand of the nations. Those who hated them ruled over them. ⁴²Their enemies also oppressed them. They were brought into subjection under their hand. ⁴³He rescued them many times, but they were rebellious in their counsel, and were brought low in their iniquity. ⁴⁴Nevertheless he regarded their distress, when he heard their cry. ⁴⁵He remembered for them his covenant, and repented according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. ⁴⁶He made them also to be pitied by all those who carried them captive. ⁴⁷Save us, LORD, our God, gather us from among the nations, to give thanks to your holy name, to triumph in your praise! ⁴⁸Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel, from everlasting even to everlasting! Let all the people say, “Amen.” Praise the LORD!