Jeremiah 3
1IF a man divorce his wife and she depart from him and marry another, can she return again to him? Would not such a wife be altogether polluted? Yet thou hast played the harlot with many shepherds and hast returned to Me, saith the Lord.
2Raise thine eyes, look forward and take a view! where is there a place in which thou hast not prostituted thyself? In the highways thou hast sat for them like a deserted daw, and polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wicked acts,
3and retained many shepherds for a stumbling block to thyself: yet with the face of a harlot and behaving indecently before them all,
4hast thou not returned home and called Me Father and the guide of thy youth?
5Will anger continue forever? Shall it be kept up to the last? Behold thou hast spoken and done these evil things: yet thou hast prevailed.
6Again the Lord said to me in the days of Josias the king, Hast thou seen what the house of Israel have done to Me? They have gone up upon every high mountain and under every shady tree and have there committed whoredom—
7and after she had committed all these acts of whoredom I said, Return to Me; but she returned not. And the treacherous Juda saw this treachery;
8and I saw that when for all the whoredoms which Israel had committed and in which she had been caught, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce in her hands, the treacherous Juda was not terrified, but went and committed the like herself.
9Indeed the other’s fornication was as nothing; she committed adultery with stocks and stones,
10and for all this the treacherous Juda turned not to Me with her whole heart but only feignedly.
11Then the Lord said to me: Israel hath justified herself more than the treacherous Juda.
12Go and proclaim these words to the north and thou shalt say, Return to Me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not set My face against you. For I am merciful, saith the Lord and will not be angry with you forever.
13Nevertheless acknowledge thine iniquity—that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and opened thy ways for strangers under every shady tree; and hast not hearkened to My voice, saith the Lord.
14Return, O apostate children, saith the Lord: for I will exercise dominion over you, and take one of a city and two of a family and bring you to Sion:
15and I will give you pastors according to Mine own heart, and they shall tend and feed you with knowledge.
16And when you are multiplied and increased in the land, saith the Lord,—in those days they shall no more say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Holy Israel.’ It shall no more come to mind nor be named; nor shall it be covered nor made any more.
17In those days and at that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations shall be gathered to it. And they shall no more follow the desires of their own wicked heart.
18In those days the house of Juda shall unite with the house of Israel, and they shall come together from the land of the north and from all those countries, to the land which I put in possession of their fathers.
19(p)* (Whereupon I said, so be it, O Lord.) (J) Because I am to rank thee among children and give thee a choice land—the heritage of God the Supreme Ruler of nations; therefore I said, Call Me Father, and, From Me you shall not turn away.
20But as a wife dealeth treacherously with her husband, so the house of Israel dealt treacherously with Me, saith the Lord.
21A $ound from thellips was heard, of the wailing and supplication of the children of Israel; because they had transgressed in their ways-had forgotten God their Holy One.
22Return, return, O children, and I will heal your bruises. (c) Behold we will be Thy servants for Thou art the Lord our God.
23False indeed have been the hills and the strength of the mountains, but from the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24This shame consumed the labours of our fathers from our youth-their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25We lay down in our shame and our dishonour covered us; because we sinned against our God-both we and our fathers from our youth to this day; and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord our God.