Jeremiah 2:27

“So it was, because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

‘Like an east wind I will scatter them Before the enemy; I will show them My back and not My face In the day of their disaster.’”

‘Alas! For that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s distress, But he will be saved from it.

Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal the son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, to Jeremiah the prophet, saying, “Please pray to Yahweh our God on our behalf.”

Then He brought me into the inner court of the house of Yahweh. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of Yahweh, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of Yahweh and their faces toward the east; and they were prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun.

“Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and cast Me behind your back, bear now the punishment of your lewdness and your harlotries.’”

“To You, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have banished them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.

My people ask their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand declares to them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.

I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will seek Me earnestly.

“What profit is the graven image when its maker has engraved it, Or a molten image, a teacher of lies? For its maker trusts in his own making When he fashions speechless idols.

“Woe to him who says to a piece of wood, ‘Awake!’ To a mute stone, ‘Arise!’ And that is your teacher? Behold, it is overlaid with gold and silver, And there is no breath at all inside it.