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2. Israel Forsakes God

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

“This is what the LORD says:

   “‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
   how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
   through a land not sown.
³ Israel was holy to the LORD,
   the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
   and disaster overtook them,’” declares the LORD.

⁴ Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.

⁵ This is what the LORD says:

   “What fault did your ancestors find in me,
   that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
   and became worthless themselves.
⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
   who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
   through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
   a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
   to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
   and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸ The priests did not ask,
   ‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
   the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
   following worthless idols.

    ⁹ “Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the LORD.
   “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
   send to Kedar In the Syro-Arabian desert and observe closely;
   see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods?
   (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
   for worthless idols.
¹² Be appalled at this, you heavens,
   and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD.
¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
   the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
   broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
¹⁴ Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
   Why then has he become plunder?
¹⁵ Lions have roared;
   they have growled at him.
They have laid waste his land;
   his towns are burned and deserted.
¹⁶ Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
   have cracked your skull.
¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourselves
   by forsaking the LORD your God
   when he led you in the way?
¹⁸ Now why go to Egypt
   to drink water from the Nile Hebrew Shihor; that is, a branch of the Nile?
And why go to Assyria
   to drink water from the Euphrates?
¹⁹ Your wickedness will punish you;
   your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realize
   how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the LORD your God
   and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

    ²⁰ “Long ago you broke off your yoke
   and tore off your bonds;
   you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
   and under every spreading tree
   you lay down as a prostitute.
²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
   of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
   into a corrupt, wild vine?
²² Although you wash yourself with soap
   and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
   the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD.
²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
   I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
   consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
   running here and there,
²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
   sniffing the wind in her craving—
   in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
   at mating time they will find her.
²⁵ Do not run until your feet are bare
   and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!
   I love foreign gods,
   and I must go after them.’

    ²⁶ “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,
   so the people of Israel are disgraced—
they, their kings and their officials,
   their priests and their prophets.
²⁷ They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’
   and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
They have turned their backs to me
   and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
   ‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
   Let them come if they can save you
   when you are in trouble!
For you, Judah, have as many gods
   as you have towns.

    ²⁹ “Why do you bring charges against me?
   You have all rebelled against me,” declares the LORD.
³⁰ “In vain I punished your people;
   they did not respond to correction.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
   like a ravenous lion.

³¹ “You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD:

   “Have I been a desert to Israel
   or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;
   we will come to you no more’?
³² Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
   a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
   days without number.
³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love!
   Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
³⁴ On your clothes is found
   the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
   though you did not catch them breaking in.
Yet in spite of all this
    ³⁵ you say, ‘I am innocent;
   he is not angry with me.’
But I will pass judgment on you
   because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ Why do you go about so much,
   changing your ways?
You will be disappointed by Egypt
   as you were by Assyria.
³⁷ You will also leave that place
   with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust;
   you will not be helped by them.

God here confirms what is said in the last verse, and would make his people ashamed, because they valued him less than girls are wont to value their ornaments. The necklaces of young women are indeed nothing but mere trifles, and yet we see that girls are so taken with them through a foolish passion, that they value such trinkets more than their very life. “How then is it, “says God, “that my people have forgotten me? Is there to be found any such ornament? Can anything be found among the most valuable jewels and the most precious stones which can be compared with me?”

God shews by this comparison how perverted the minds of the Jews were, when they renounced and rejected a benefit so invaluable as to have God as their Father, and to be prosperous under his dominion; for nothing necessary for a blessed life had been wanting to them as long as they continued the recipients of that paternal favor, which God had manifested towards them, and wished to shew to them to the end. As then they had found God to have been so bountiful, must they not have been more than mad, when they willfully rejected his favor? while yet young women commonly set their thoughts and affections strongly and permanently on such trifles as are of no value. ⁶⁴⁶⁴     The second word, כלה, is rendered “sponsa — a bride,” in our version, by Calvin and Blayney, and so by the Vulgate, Syriac, and the Targum, but by the Septuagint, “παρθένος — a virgin:” and Parkhurst says that it never means a bride. The version then ought to be, —
   Can a maid forget her ornaments,
A virgin her bands?
   That the word קשרים means bands of some kind is evident, as the verb signifies to bind, to join closely. Bands or bandage for the breast — στηθοδεσμίδα, is the version of the Septuagint; the Arabic and the Vulgate are the same. Parkhurst considers that “head-bands” are meant. The word is found also in Isaiah 3:20; where the Septuagint render it “δακτυλίοις-rings,” and the Targum, “murenulas — chains,” which were of gold, and worn around the neck. For any practical purpose it is only necessary to know that they were embellishments which young women delighted in: and women in every age are too fond of such things, and men too; but the case is introduced here only for the sake of illustration. — Ed But the Prophet designedly used this similitude, that he might introduce what is contained in the next verse: his object was to compare the Jews to adulterous women, who being led away by unbridled lust, follow wanton lovers. As then he intended to bring this charge against the Jews, he spoke expressly of the ornaments of young women; and hence it follows —