Jeremiah 3

¹If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted ? You have played the whore with many lovers ; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.

²Lift up your eyes to the bare heights , and see ! Where have you not been ravished ? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness . You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom .

³Therefore the showers have been withheld , and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore ; you refuse to be ashamed .

⁴Have you not just now called to me, My father , you are the friend of my youth —

⁵will he be angry forever , will he be indignant to the end ? Behold , you have spoken , but you have done all the evil that you could .

⁶The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah : Have you seen what she did , that faithless one , Israel , how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree , and there played the whore ?

⁷And I thought , After she has done all this she will return to me, but she did not return , and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel , I had sent her away with a decree of divorce . Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear , but she too went and played the whore .

⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly , she polluted the land , committing adultery with stone and tree .

¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart , but in pretense , declares the Lord.

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

¹²Go , and proclaim these words toward the north , and say , Return , faithless Israel , declares the Lord. I will not look on you in anger , for I am merciful , declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever .

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt , that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree , and that you have not obeyed my voice , declares the Lord.

¹⁴Return , O faithless children , declares the Lord; for I am your master ; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family , and I will bring you to Zion .

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

¹⁶And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land , in those days , declares the Lord, they shall no more say , The ark of the covenant of the Lord. It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed ; it shall not be made again .

¹⁷At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem , and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart .

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel , and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage .

¹⁹I said , How I would set you among my sons , and give you a pleasant land , a heritage most beautiful of all nations . And I thought you would call me, My Father , and would not turn from following me .

²⁰Surely , as a treacherous wife leaves her husband , so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel , declares the Lord.

²¹A voice on the bare heights is heard , the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way ; they have forgotten the Lord their God .

²²Return , O faithless sons ; I will heal your faithlessness . Behold , we come to you, for you are the Lord our God .

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

²⁴But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored , their flocks and their herds , their sons and their daughters .

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame , and let our dishonor 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 .