Repentance

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.

What fault did [you] find in me,that [you] strayed so far from me? [You] followed worthless idols and became worthless [yourself]. 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. 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.

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.

Long ago you broke off your yoke and tore off your bonds; you said, ‘I will not serve you!’ 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? Although you wash yourself with soap and use an abundance of cleansing powder, the stain of your guilt is still before me. Why do you bring charges against me? You have all rebelled against me.

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

Have I been a desert to [you] or a land of great darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam; we will come to you no more’? Does a young woman forget her jewelry, a bride her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number. How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways. 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 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.’ Why do you go about so much, changing your ways? You will be disappointed [...] the LORD has rejected those you trust; you will not be helped by them.

According to Jeremiah 2