for my people have committed two sins: they have turned away from me, the spring of fresh water, and they have dug cisterns, cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all.

Your own evil will punish you, and your turning from me will condemn you. You will learn how bitter and wrong it is to abandon me, the LORD your God, and no longer to remain faithful to me. I, the Sovereign LORD Almighty, have spoken."

Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? But my people have forgotten me for more days than can be counted.

A noise is heard on the hilltops: it is the people of Israel crying and pleading because they have lived sinful lives and have forgotten the LORD their God.

He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods.

LORD, you are Israel's hope; all who abandon you will be put to shame. They will disappear like names written in the dust, because they have abandoned you, the LORD, the spring of fresh water.

They are worthless and should be despised; they will be destroyed when the LORD comes to deal with them.

LORD, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, "Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

Then all the men who knew that their wives offered sacrifices to other gods, and all the women who were standing there, including the Israelites who lived in southern Egypt---a large crowd in all---said to me,

We will do everything that we said we would. We will offer sacrifices to our goddess, the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out wine offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our king and our leaders, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food, we were prosperous, and had no troubles.

And the women added, "When we baked cakes shaped like the Queen of Heaven, offered sacrifices to her, and poured out wine offerings to her, our husbands approved of what we were doing."

All these gods are useless; they can do nothing at all--- these idols are weak and powerless."

for their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They have burned incense at pagan hill shrines and spoken evil of me. So I will punish them as their past deeds deserve."

I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after her lovers. The LORD has spoken.

But the more I called to him, the more he turned away from me. My people sacrificed to Baal; they burned incense to idols.

Moneylenders oppress my people, and their creditors cheat them. My people, your leaders are misleading you, so that you do not know which way to turn.

Those who lead these people have misled them and totally confused them.

"But now you priests have turned away from the right path. Your teaching has led many to do wrong. You have broken the covenant I made with you.

they do not need to honor their father. In this way you disregard God's command, in order to follow your own teaching.

The right thing to do is to keep from eating meat, drinking wine, or doing anything else that will make other believers fall.

The LORD said to his people, "Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient paths and where the best road is. Walk in it, and you will live in peace." But they said, "No, we will not!"

and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind.

The LORD says, "Let my people return to me. Remove every obstacle from their path! Build the road and make it ready!