¹⁵ But My people have forgotten Me, to a vain thing they make perfume, And they cause them to stumble in their ways -- paths of old, To walk in paths -- a way not raised up,

¹⁶ Thus said Jehovah: Stand ye by the ways and see, and ask for paths of old, Where `is' this -- the good way? and go ye in it, And find rest for yourselves. And they say, `We do not go.'

¹⁴ And he hath said, `Raise up, raise up, prepare a way, Lift a stumbling-block out of the way of My people.'

¹⁵ Vanity `are' they, work of erring ones, In the time of their inspection they perish.

³² Doth a virgin forget her ornaments? A bride her bands? And My people have forgotten Me days without number.

¹³ For two evils hath My people done, Me they have forsaken, a fountain of living waters, To hew out for themselves wells -- broken wells, That contain not the waters.

¹³ The hope of Israel `is' Jehovah, All forsaking Thee are ashamed, And `My apostates' in the earth are written, For they have forsaken Jehovah, A fountain of living waters.

¹⁵ And they answer Jeremiah -- all the men who are knowing that their wives are making perfume to other gods, and all the women who are remaining, a great assembly, even all the people who are dwelling in the land of Egypt, in Pathros -- saying:

¹⁶ `The word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of Jehovah -- we are not hearkening unto thee;

¹⁷ for we certainly do everything that hath gone out of our mouth, to make perfume to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our heads, in cities of Judah, and in streets of Jerusalem, and -- we are satisfied with bread, and we are well, and evil we have not seen.

¹⁸ `And from the time we have ceased to make perfume to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations, we have lacked all, and by sword and by famine we have been consumed,

¹⁹ and when we are making perfume to the queen of the heavens, and pouring out to her libations -- without our husbands have we made for her cakes to idolize her, and to pour out to her libations?'

¹³ And I have charged on her the days of the Baalim, To whom she maketh perfume, And putteth on her ring and her ornament, And goeth after her lovers, And Me forgat -- an affirmation of Jehovah.

² They have called to them rightly, They have gone from before them, To lords they do sacrifice, And to graven images they make perfume.

⁸ And ye, ye have turned from the way, Ye have caused many to stumble in the law, Ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, Said Jehovah of Hosts.

¹⁹ O Jehovah, my strength, and my fortress, And my refuge in a day of adversity, Unto Thee nations do come from the ends of earth, And say, Only falsehood did our fathers inherit, Vanity, and none among them is profitable.

²⁵ This `is' thy lot, the portion of thy measures from Me -- an affirmation of Jehovah, Because thou hast forgotten me, And dost trust in falsehood.

²¹ A voice on high places is heard -- weeping, Supplications of the sons of Israel, For they have made perverse their way, They have forgotten Jehovah their God.

⁷ Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, said Jehovah, Who have made perfume on the mountains, And on the heights have reproached Me, And I have measured their former work into their bosom.'

²⁹ `Lo, all of them `are' vanity, Nought `are' their works, Wind and emptiness their molten images!'

¹⁶ And the eulogists of this people are causing to err, And its eulogised ones are consumed.

¹⁰ Pass ye on, pass on through the gates, Prepare ye the way of the people, Raise up, raise up the highway, clear it from stones, Lift up an ensign over the peoples.

¹⁹ Instruct thee doth thy wickedness, And thy backslidings reprove thee, Know and see that an evil and a bitter thing `Is' thy forsaking Jehovah thy God, And My fear not being on thee, An affirmation of the Lord Jehovah of Hosts.

⁵ and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons with fire, burnt-offerings to Baal, that I commanded not, nor spake of, nor did it come up on My heart.

²⁵ Thus spake Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, saying: Ye and your wives both speak with your mouth, and with your hands have fulfilled, saying: We certainly execute our vows that we have vowed, to make perfume to the queen of the heavens, and to pour out to her libations, ye do certainly establish your vows, and certainly execute your vows.

⁶ and he may not honour his father or his mother, and ye did set aside the command of God because of your tradition.

²¹ Right `it is' not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to `do anything' in which thy brother doth stumble, or is made to fall, or is weak.

¹² My people -- its exactors `are' sucklings, And women have ruled over it. My people -- thy eulogists are causing to err, And the way of thy paths swallowed up.