A reading from
the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah 2:1-3, 7-8, 12-13
This word of the Lord came to me: Go, cry out this message for Jerusalem to hear!
I remember the devotion of your youth,/ how you loved me as a bride,/ Following me in the desert,/ in a land unsown./ Sacred to the Lord was Israel,/ the first fruits of his harvest;/ Should any presume to partake of them,/ evil would befall them, says the Lord.
When I brought you into the garden land/ to eat its goodly fruits,/ You entered and defiled my land,/ you made my heritage loathsome./ The priests asked not,/ “Where is the Lord?”/ Those who dealt with the law knew me not:/ the shepherds rebelled against me./ The prophets prophesied by Baal,/ and went after useless idols.
Be amazed at this, O heavens,/ and shudder with sheer horror, says the Lord./ Two evils have my people done:/ they have forsaken me, the source of living waters;/ They have dug themselves cisterns,/ broken cisterns, that hold no water.
The word of the Lord.
