Jeremiah 3

1It is said, ‘If a man sends away 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?’ declares Yahweh.

2Lift up 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, and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

3Therefore the showers were withheld, and there was no spring rain; yet you had the forehead of a prostitute—you refused 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 keep it to the end? Look, you have spoken, and you have done evil things, and you have prevailed.

6And the LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there she prostituted herself.”

7And I said, ‘After she had done all these things, she will return to me,’ but she did not return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8And I saw that because backsliding Israel had committed adultery in all these matters, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and prostituted herself.

9And because of the lightness of her prostitution, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.

10Yet in spite of all this, faithless Judah, her sister did not return to me with all her heart, but only in falsehood, declares Yahweh.

11And Yahweh 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 Yahweh. I will not look on you in anger, for I am faithful, declares Yahweh; I will not stay angry forever.

13Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against Yahweh your God and scattered your ways among strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, declares Yahweh.

14Return, O faithless children, declares Yahweh, 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.

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

16And it shall be, when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land in those days, declares Yahweh, they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of Yahweh.’ It will not come to mind, and they will not remember it or miss it, nor will it be made again.

17At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘the throne of Yahweh,’ and all the nations will gather to it, to Jerusalem, for the name of Yahweh. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

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

19And I said, ‘How I would set you among the sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of the nations' armies.’ And I said, ‘You will call me, “My Father,” and you will not turn away from following me.’

20Surely, as a woman betrays her companion, so you have betrayed me, O house of Israel, declares Yahweh.

21A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and pleas for mercy of the sons of Israel, because they have made their way crooked; they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

22Return, O backsliding children; I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.

23Surely, from the hills comes only falsehood, the tumult on the mountains; surely in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel.

24But shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth—their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

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