The Sin of Israel's Ancestors
4Listen to the LORD's message, you descendants of Jacob, you tribes of Israel. 5The LORD says:
“What accusation did your ancestors bring against me?
What made them turn away from me?
They worshipped worthless idols
and became worthless themselves.
6They did not care about me,
even though I rescued them from Egypt
and led them through the wilderness:
a land of deserts and sand dunes,
a dry and dangerous land
where no one lives
and no one will even travel.
7I brought them into a fertile land,
to enjoy its harvests and its other good things.
But instead they ruined my land;
they defiled the country I had given them.
8The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’
My own priests did not know me.
The rulers rebelled against me;
the prophets spoke in the name of Baal
and worshipped useless idols.
The LORD's Case against his People
9“And so I, the LORD, will state my case against my people again.
I will bring charges against their descendants.
10Go west to the island of Cyprus,
and send someone eastwards to the land of Kedar.
You will see that nothing like this has ever happened before.
11No other nation has ever changed its gods,
even though they were not real.
But my people have exchanged me,
the God who has brought them honour,
for gods that can do nothing for them.
12And so I command the sky to shake with horror,
to be amazed and astonished,
13for 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.
