Mattot-Massei Haftarah

YirmeYahu 2:4-28, 3:4

YirmeYahu 2:4 Hear the word of YHVH, house of Ya`akov and all families in the house of Yisra’el;
YirmeYahu 2:5 here is what YHVH says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me to make them go so far away from me, to make them go after nothings and become themselves nothings?
YirmeYahu 2:6 They didn't ask, 'Where is YHVH, who brought us out of the land of Mitsrayim, who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and ravines, through a land of drought and death-dark shadows, through a land where no one travels and where no one ever lived?'
YirmeYahu 2:7 I brought you into a fertile land to enjoy its fruit and all its good things; but when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage loathsome.
YirmeYahu 2:8 The kohanim didn't ask, 'Where is YHVH?' Those who deal with the Torah did not know me, the people's shepherds rebelled against me; the prophets prophesied by Ba`al and went after things of no value.
YirmeYahu 2:9 "So again I state my case against you," says YHVH, "and state it against your grandchildren too.
YirmeYahu 2:10 Cross to the coasts of the Kitti'im and look; send to Kedar and observe closely; see if anything like this has happened before:
YirmeYahu 2:11 has a nation ever exchanged its gods (and theirs are not gods at all!)? Yet my people have exchanged their Esteem for something without value.
YirmeYahu 2:12 Be aghast at this, you heavens! Shudder in absolute horror!" says YHVH.
YirmeYahu 2:13 "For my people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!
YirmeYahu 2:14 "Is Yisra’el a slave, born into serfdom? If not, why has he become plunder?
YirmeYahu 2:15 The young lions are roaring at him — how loudly they are roaring! They desolate his country, demolishing and depopulating his cities.
YirmeYahu 2:16 The people of Nof and Tachpanches feed on the crown of your head.
YirmeYahu 2:17 "Haven't you brought this on yourself by abandoning YHVH your Elohim when he led you along the way?
YirmeYahu 2:18 If you go to Mitsrayim, what's in it for you? Drinking water from the Nile? If you go to Ashur, what's in it for you? Drinking water from the [Euphrates] River?
YirmeYahu 2:19 Your own wickedness will correct you, your own backslidings will convict you; you will know and see how bad and bitter it was to abandon YHVH your Elohim, and how fear of me is not in you," says YHVH Elohim-Tzva'ot.
YirmeYahu 2:20 "For long ago I broke your yoke; when I snapped your chains, you said, 'I won't sin.' Yet on every high hill, under every green tree, you sprawled and prostituted yourself.
YirmeYahu 2:21 But I planted you as a choice vine of seed fully tested and true. How did you degenerate into a wild vine for me?
YirmeYahu 2:22 Even if you scrub yourself with soda and plenty of soap, the stain of your guilt is still there before me," says YHVH Elohim.
YirmeYahu 2:23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled, I have not pursued the ba`alim'? Look at your conduct in the valley, understand what you have done. You are a restive young female camel, running here and there,
YirmeYahu 2:24 wild, accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her lust — who can control her when she's in heat? Males seeking her need not weary themselves, for at mating season they will find her.
YirmeYahu 2:25 "Stop before your shoes wear out, and your throat is dry from thirst! But you say, 'No, it's hopeless! I love these strangers, and I'm going after them.'
YirmeYahu 2:26 Just as a thief is ashamed when caught, so is the house of Yisra’el ashamed — they, their kings, their leaders, their kohanim and their prophets,
YirmeYahu 2:27 who say to a log, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave us birth.' For they have turned their backs to me instead of their faces. But when trouble comes, they will plead, 'Rouse yourself and save us!'
YirmeYahu 2:28 Where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rouse themselves, if they can save you when trouble comes. Y'hudah, you have as many gods as you have cities!
YirmeYahu 3:4 Didn't you just now cry to me, 'My father, you are my friend from my youth'? —