The ruined vine

20For long ago I broke your yoke; I tore off your bonds. But you said, “I will not serve.” Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree, you sprawled out as a prostitute.

21Yet I planted you as a choice vine, wholly of true seed. How then have you turned for me into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?

22For though you wash with natron and use much lye, your guilt is stained before me, declares the Lord YHWH.

23How can you say, ‘I have not defiled myself; I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a swift young she-camel, twisting her ways.

24A wild donkey accustomed to the wilderness, in the craving of her appetite sniffs the wind; in her heat, who can turn her back? All who seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they will find her.

25Keep your feet from going unshod and your throat from thirst. But you said, “It is hopeless! No, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.”