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For according to the number of thy cities

Are thy gods, O Judah.

 

²⁹Wherefore will ye contend with Me?

Ye all have transgressed against Me,

Saith the Lord.

³⁰In vain have I smitten your children—

They received no correction;

Your sword hath devoured your prophets,

Like a destroying lion.

³¹O generation, see ye the word of the Lord:

Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?

Or a land of thick darkness?

Wherefore say My people: 'We roam at large;

We will come no more unto Thee'?

³²Can a maid forget her ornaments,

Or a bride her attire?

Yet My people have forgotten Me

Days without number.

 

³³How trimmest thou thy way

To seek love!

Therefore—even the wicked women

Hast thou taught thy ways;

³⁴Also in thy skirts is found the blood

Of the souls of the innocent poor;

Thou didst not find them breaking in;

Yet for all these things

³⁵Thou saidst: 'I am innocent;

Surely His anger is turned away from me'—

Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee,

Because thou sayest: 'I have not sinned.'

 

³⁶How greatly dost thou cheapen thyself

To change thy way?

Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also,

As thou wast ashamed of Asshur.

³⁷From him also shalt thou go forth,

With thy hands upon thy head;

For the Lord hath rejected them in whom thou didst trust,

And thou shalt not prosper in them.

 

3⁠. . . saying:

If a man put away his wife,

And she go from him,

And become another man's,

May he return unto her again?

Will not that land be greatly polluted?

But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers;

And wouldest thou yet return to Me?

Saith the Lord.

²Lift up thine eyes unto the high hills, and see:

Where hast thou not been lain with?

By the ways hast thou sat for them,

As an Arabian in the wilderness;

And thou hast polluted the land

With thy harlotries and with thy wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld,

And there hath been no latter rain;

Yet thou hadst a harlot's forehead,

Thou refusedst to be ashamed.

⁴Didst thou not just now cry unto Me: 'My father,

Thou art the friend of my youth.

⁵Will He bear grudge for ever?

Will He keep it to the end?'

Behold, thou hast spoken, but hast done evil things,

And hast had thy way.

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