Jeremiah 2:2-12

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

I remember the devotion of your youth,
    your love as a bride,
how you followed me in the wilderness,
    in a land not sown.
³ Israel was holy to the Lord,
    the first fruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it were held guilty;
    disaster came upon them,
says the Lord.

What wrong did your ancestors find in me
    that they went far from me,
and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?
⁶ They did not say, “Where is the Lord
    who brought us up from the land of Egypt,
who led us in the wilderness,
    in a land of deserts and pits,
in a land of drought and deep darkness,
    in a land that no one passes through,
    where no one lives?”
⁷ I brought you into a plentiful land
    to eat its fruits and its good things.
But when you entered you defiled my land,
    and made my heritage an abomination.
⁸ The priests did not say, “Where is the Lord?”
    Those who handle the law did not know me;
the rulers^[a] transgressed against me;
    the prophets prophesied by Baal,
    and went after things that do not profit.