Jeremiah 3

¹ "If a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's,
will he return to her again?
Would not that land be utterly polluted?
But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers —
and would you return to me?"
— this is the declaration of the LORD.

² Lift your eyes to the bare heights and see —
where have you not been lain with?
By the roads you sat waiting for them
like an Arab in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
with your prostitution and your wickedness.

³ The showers have been withheld,
and the spring rain has not come.
Yet you have the forehead of a prostitute;
you refuse to be ashamed.

⁴ Have you not just now called to me,
'My father! You are the companion of my youth!'?

⁵ 'Will he keep his anger forever?
Will he hold it to the end?'
Look — you have spoken,
but you have done evil things,
and you have prevailed."

⁶ The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: "Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she prostituted herself there.

⁷ And I thought, 'After she has done all these things she will return to me.' But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸ And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid, and she too went and prostituted herself.

⁹ Because her prostitution was so casual to her, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stone and with tree.

¹⁰ And yet for all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense" — this is the declaration of the LORD.

¹¹ And the LORD said to me, "Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹² Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
'Return, faithless Israel'
— this is the declaration of the LORD —
'I will not look on you in anger,
for I am loyal,'
— this is the declaration of the LORD —
'I will not keep my anger forever.

¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt —
that you have rebelled against the LORD your God
and scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree,
and you have not obeyed my voice'
— this is the declaration of the LORD.

¹⁴ "Return, O faithless children" — this is the declaration of the LORD — "for I am your master, and I will take you, one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵ And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶ And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land in those days" — this is the declaration of the LORD — "they will no longer say, 'The ark of the covenant of the LORD.' It will not come to mind, and they will not remember it, and they will not miss it, and it will not be made again.

¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem 'The Throne of the LORD,' and all nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil hearts.

¹⁸ In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and together they will come from the land of the north to the land that I gave as an inheritance to your fathers.

¹⁹ "And I myself said,
'How I would set you among the sons
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful heritage among the nations!'
And I said, 'You will call me "My Father"
and not turn away from following me.'

²⁰ But truly, as a woman is unfaithful to her companion,
so you have been unfaithful to me, O house of Israel"
— this is the declaration of the LORD.

²¹ A voice is heard on the bare heights —
the weeping and the pleas of the children of Israel —
for they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the LORD their God.

²² "Return, O faithless children;
I will heal your faithlessness."
"Here we are! We come to you,
for you are the LORD our God.

²³ Truly the hills are a delusion,
the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the LORD our God
is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴ But the Shame has devoured
all that our fathers labored for from our youth —
their flocks and their herds,
their sons and their daughters.

²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame,
and let our disgrace cover us,
for we have sinned against the LORD our God,
we and our fathers,
from our youth even to this day,
and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."