Study Desk

"For long ago I broke your yoke And tore off your restraints; But you said, 'I will not serve!' For on every high hill And under every leafy tree You have lain down as a prostitute.

For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

"Yet I planted you as a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

"Although you wash yourself with lye And use much soap, The stain of your guilt is before Me," declares the Lord GOD.

For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God .