Jeremiah 3:1-25
3 ** “‘Suppose a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and belongs to another man, and goes back to him again, will not that woman be absolutely polluted? but you have been prostituting yourself with many mates and coming back to me, quoth Jehovah.
2 * Raise your eyes to the scalped hills and see where you have not been lain with; you sat by roadside for them like an Arab robber in the wilderness, and polluted the country with your prostitution and vileness.
3 And showers were withheld and there was no spring rain, but you had a prostitute’s forehead, you refused to be humiliated.
4 Have you not just now been calling me “Father,” “Mate of my girlhood”?
5 *** “Will he harbor a grudge forever, or keep it up perpetually?” Here you have talked and done the bad things and made a success.’”
6 And Jehovah said to me in the time of King Josiah “Have you seen what Inconstancy Israel did? she went on every high mountain and under every verdant tree and prostituted herself there,
7 and I thought ‘After she does all this she will come back to me,’ but she did not.
8 * And her sister Faithlessness Judah saw it and saw that forasmuch as Inconstancy Israel had committed adultery I had separated from her and given her her certificate of divorce, and her sister Faithlessness Judah was not afraid but went and prostituted herself too,
9 and from the wantonness of her prostitution the country was polluted, and she went into adultery with stones and sticks.
10 And even with all this, Faithlessness Judah did not come back to me with all her heart, but insincerely,” quoth Jehovah.
11 And Jehovah said to me “Inconstancy Israel has shown herself more honorable than Faithlessness Judah.
12 * Go and call out these words northward: ‘Come back, Inconstancy Israel, quoth Jehovah: I will not scowl at you again, for I am ready to be friends, quoth Jehovah, I will not hold the grudge forever;
13 * only be conscious of your guilt, that you have rebelled against your God Jehovah and run loose for aliens under every verdant tree and you have not obeyed me, quoth Jehovah.
14 “‘Come back, truant children, quoth Jehovah, because I have a claim to you and will take you one out of a city and two out of a clan and bring you to Sion
15 and give you shepherds that are to my mind, and they shall shepherd you expertly and cannily.
16 And when you multiply and are prolific in the country in those days, quoth Jehovah, they shall not still say “The ark of the covenant of the Holy One of Israel,” nor shall it come into their mind; nor shall they mention it nor miss it, nor shall it be remade.
17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem Jehovah’s throne and all nations shall collect at Jerusalem for Jehovah’s fame, and not again follow the willful way of their wicked hearts.
18 In those days the house of Judah shall go to the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the north country to the country I established them in.
19 * “‘But I had thought I would absolutely count you among sons and give you a choice country, an estate most splendid of the splendors of nations; and I had thought you would call me “Father” and not turn back from following me;
20 * yet in fact, as a woman faithlessly forsakes her mate, so you have been faithless to me, house of Israel, quoth Jehovah.
21 ** “‘A voice is heard on the scalped hills, the weeping of the sons of Israel in supplication, because they have warped their courses, forgotten their God Jehovah.
22 * Come back, truant children, let me cure your truant habits. “Here we are, we are yours, because you are our God Jehovah.
23 * After all, the tallness of hills, the uproar of mountains, is a fraud; after all, it is in our God Jehovah that Israel’s salvation is.
24 And the Baal ate up what came of our fathers’ toil from our childhood, their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.
25 We will lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us, because we have sinned against our God Jehovah, we and our fathers, from our childhood to this day, and not obeyed our God Jehovah.”
Footnotes
^ 3:1 Var. man, will he go back to her again? will
^ 3:1 Var. would not that country
^ 3:2 Lit. an Arab in
^ 3:5 Lit. harbor forever
^ 3:5 Conj.* Those things you have said, and done the bad things, and
^ 3:5 Conj. bad things to the utmost
^ 3:8 Var. saw it, and I saw that forasmuch Var. saw it, because forasmuch
^ 3:12 Lit. hold forever
^ 3:13 Lit. scattered your roads for aliens Unc.; susp.
^ 3:19 Codd. had thought “How am I to count
^ 3:20 Var. so the house of Israel have been faithless to me, quoth
^ 3:21 Lit. the weeping of the supplications of the sons of Israel
^ 3:21 Var. their Holy One Jehovah
^ 3:22 Var. Here we have come to you, because
^ 3:23 Codd. After all, from hills the uproar of mountains It seems that some word is missing, but probably tallness is not the right word
