A cry is heard on the heights! the plaintive weeping of Israel’s children, Because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord, their God.
Truly, you have forgotten the God who saves you, the Rock, your refuge, you have not remembered. Therefore, though you plant plants for the Pleasant One, and set out cuttings for a foreign one,
Whom did you dread and fear, that you told lies, And me you did not remember nor take to heart? Am I to keep silent and conceal, while you show no fear of me?
Upon every height in the wilderness marauders have appeared. The Lord has a sword that consumes the land from end to end: no peace for any living thing.
Yet my people have forgotten me: they offer incense in vain. They stumble off their paths, the ways of old, Traveling on bypaths, not the beaten track.
Raise your eyes to the heights, and look, where have men not lain with you? Along the roadways you waited for them like an Arabian in the wilderness. You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution.
With weeping they shall come, but with compassion I will guide them; I will lead them to streams of water, on a level road, without stumbling. For I am a father to Israel, Ephraim is my firstborn.
Cut off your hair and throw it away! on the heights raise a lament; The Lord has indeed rejected and cast off the generation that draws down his wrath.
Israel has forgotten his maker and has built palaces. Judah, too, has fortified many cities, but I will send fire upon his cities, to devour their strongholds.
But the angel of the Lord said to him: “Why have you beaten your donkey these three times? I have come as an adversary because this rash journey of yours is against my will.