God commanded me, Jeremiah, to go and plead with Jerusalem and tell them these words: “I remember the kind nation you were when you were young. I remember the love we shared when you were willing to follow Me into a wild and unsettled land. You were pure and you were Mine, and I considered you the firstfruits among all nations. Anyone that brought offense to you would experience my wrath.”
Listen, Israel, because this is what God says: “Did your ancestors find any fault in me so as to bring you to this vain pursuit of vain things? None of them sought My presence, even after I had brought them through the wilderness—a land of deserts, drought and the lonely fear of death. I brought them—I brought you—to this bountiful place to enjoy its goodness; but when you came in, you corrupted it and made My reputation an outrage. The priests no longer sought me, the teachers no longer knew me, the leaders sinned against me, and even the prophets turned to empty actions and began to prophesy in the name of Baal.”
“And still I plead with you, and with your children and grandchildren. Look over the breadth and width of your land and see if what I say is true. Do you see a nation with new gods? Truly you have become a nation with no God at all! You have taken magnificence and exchanged it for worthlessness. Be speechless, oh bleak sky, and be horrified at this tragedy. For my people have committed two great evils: they have abandoned the unending fountain of life, and they have made for themselves cisterns—broken cisterns—that cannot hold water.”
