Page:JPS-1917-Universal.djvu/586

2.28 :For according to the number of thy cities
 * Are thy gods, O Judah.


 * Wherefore will ye contend with Me?
 * Ye all have transgressed against Me,
 * Saith the.
 * In vain have I smitten your children—
 * They received no correction;
 * Your sword hath devoured your prophets,
 * Like a destroying lion.
 * O generation, see ye the word of the :
 * Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?
 * Or a land of thick darkness?
 * Wherefore say My people: 'We roam at large;
 * We will come no more unto Thee'?
 * Can a maid forget her ornaments,
 * Or a bride her attire?
 * Yet My people have forgotten Me
 * Days without number.


 * How trimmest thou thy way
 * To seek love!
 * Therefore—even the wicked women
 * Hast thou taught thy ways;
 * Also in thy skirts is found the blood
 * Of the souls of the innocent poor;
 * Thou didst not find them breaking in;
 * Yet for all these things
 * Thou saidst: 'I am innocent;
 * Surely His anger is turned away from me'—
 * Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee,
 * Because thou sayest: 'I have not sinned.'


 * How greatly dost thou cheapen thyself
 * To change thy way?
 * Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also,
 * As thou wast ashamed of Asshur.
 * From him also shalt thou go forth,
 * With thy hands upon thy head;
 * For the hath rejected them in whom thou didst trust,
 * And thou shalt not prosper in them.


 * . . . saying:
 * If a man put away his wife,
 * And she go from him,
 * And become another man's,
 * May he return unto her again?
 * Will not that land be greatly polluted?
 * But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers;
 * And wouldest thou yet return to Me?
 * Saith the.
 * Lift up thine eyes unto the high hills, and see:
 * Where hast thou not been lain with?
 * By the ways hast thou sat for them,
 * As an Arabian in the wilderness;
 * And thou hast polluted the land
 * With thy harlotries and with thy wickedness.
 * Therefore the showers have been withheld,
 * And there hath been no latter rain;
 * Yet thou hadst a harlot's forehead,
 * Thou refusedst to be ashamed.
 * Didst thou not just now cry unto Me: 'My father,
 * Thou art the friend of my youth.
 * Will He bear grudge for ever?
 * Will He keep it to the end?'
 * Behold, thou hast spoken, but hast done evil things,
 * And hast had thy way.