Yirmeyahu (Jer) 2:1-13

The word of ADONAI came to me: “Go and shout in the ears of Yerushalayim that this is what ADONAI says: ‘I remember your devotion when you were young; how, as a bride, you loved me; how you followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. “‘Isra’el is set aside for ADONAI, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devour him will incur guilt; evil will befall them,” says ADONAI. Hear the word of ADONAI, house of Ya‘akov and all families in the house of Isra’el; here is what ADONAI says: “What did your ancestors find wrong with me to make them go so far away from me, to make them go after nothings and become themselves nothings? They didn’t ask, ‘Where is ADONAI, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and ravines, through a land of drought and death-dark shadows, through a land where no one travels and where no one ever lived?’ I brought you into a fertile land to enjoy its fruit and all its good things; but when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage loathsome. The cohanim didn’t ask, ‘Where is ADONAI?’ Those who deal with the Torah did not know me, the people’s shepherds rebelled against me; the prophets prophesied by Ba‘al and went after things of no value. “So again I state my case against you,” says ADONAI, “and state it against your grandchildren too. Cross to the coasts of the Kitti’im and look; send to Kedar and observe closely; see if anything like this has happened before: has a nation ever exchanged its gods (and theirs are not gods at all!)? Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for something without value. Be aghast at this, you heavens! Shudder in absolute horror!” says ADONAI. “For my people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!