Masei

This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh

Jeremiah 2:4-28, 3:4

⁴ Hear the word of the Lord, O House of Jacob,
Every clan of the House of Israel!
⁵ Thus said the Lord:
What wrong did your fathers find in Me
That they abandoned Me
And went after delusion and were deluded?
⁶ They never asked themselves, “Where is the Lord,
Who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
Who led us through the wilderness,
A land of deserts and pits,
A land of drought and darkness,
A land no man had traversed,
Where no human being had dwelt?”
⁷ I brought you to this country of farm land
To enjoy its fruit and its bounty;
But you came and defiled My land,
You made My possession abhorrent.
⁸ The priests never asked themselves, “Where is the Lord?”
The guardians of the Teaching ignored Me;
The rulers rebelled against Me,
And the prophets prophesied by Baal
And followed what can do no good.

⁹ Oh, I will go on accusing you

— declares the Lord —

And I will accuse your children’s children!
¹⁰ Just cross over to the isles of the Kittim and look,
Send to Kedar and observe carefully;
See if aught like this has ever happened:
¹¹ Has any nation changed its gods
Even though they are no-gods?
But My people has exchanged its glory
For what can do no good.
¹² Be appalled, O heavens, at this;
Be horrified, utterly dazed!

— declares the Lord —

¹³ For My people have done a twofold wrong:
They have forsaken Me, the Fount of living waters,
And hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns,
Which cannot even hold water.

¹⁴ Is Israel a bondman?
Is he a home-born slave?
Then why is he given over to plunder?
¹⁵ Lions have roared over him,
Have raised their cries.
They have made his land a waste,
His cities desolate, without inhabitants.
¹⁶ Those, too, in Noph and Tahpanhes
Will lay bare your head.
¹⁷ See, that is the price you have paid
For forsaking the Lord your God
While He led you in the way.
¹⁸ What, then, is the good of your going to Egypt
To drink the waters of the Nile?
And what is the good of your going to Assyria
To drink the waters of the Euphrates?
¹⁹ Let your misfortune reprove you,
Let your afflictions rebuke you;
Mark well how bad and bitter it is
That you forsake the Lord your God,
That awe for Me is not in you

²⁰ For long ago you broke your yoke,
Tore off your yoke-bands,
And said, “I will not work!”
On every high hill and under every verdant tree,
You recline as a whore.
²¹ I planted you with noble vines,
All with choicest seed;
Alas, I find you changed
Into a base, an alien vine!
²² Though you wash with natron
And use much lye,
Your guilt is ingrained before Me

— declares the Lord —

²³ How can you say, “I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baalim”?
Look at your deeds in the Valley,
Consider what you have done!
Like a lustful she-camel,
Restlessly running about,
²⁴ Or like a wild ass used to the desert,
Snuffing the wind in her eagerness,
Whose passion none can restrain,
None that seek her need grow weary — 
In her season, they’ll find her!

²⁵ Save your foot from going bare,
And your throat from thirst.
But you say, “It is no use.
No, I love the strangers,
And after them I must go.”
²⁶ Like a thief chagrined when he is caught,
So is the House of Israel chagrined — 
They, their kings, their officers,
And their priests and prophets.
²⁷ They said to wood, “You are my father,”
To stone, “You gave birth to me,”
While to Me they turned their backs
And not their faces.
But in their hour of calamity they cry,
“Arise and save us!”
²⁸ And where are those gods
You made for yourself?
Let them arise and save you, if they can,
In your hour of calamity.
For your gods have become, O Judah,
As many as your towns!

Chapter 3

⁴ Just now you called to Me, “Father!
You are the Companion of my youth.”

Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
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