New Revised Standard Version
If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not such a land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? says the LORD.

Contemporary English Version
The LORD said to the people of Israel: If a divorced woman marries, can her first husband ever marry her again? No, because this would pollute the land. But you have more gods than a prostitute has lovers. Why should I take you back?

New American Bible
If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and then becomes the wife of another, Can she return to the first? Would not this land be wholly defiled? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers, and yet you would return to me!—oracle of the LORD.

Douay-Rheims Bible
It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.

It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.

they say.

Deuteronomy 24:1-4 If a man take a wife, and have her, and she find not favour in his eyes, for some uncleanness: he shall write a bill of divorce, and shall give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. . . .

shall not that

Jeremiah 3:9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.

Jeremiah 2:7 And I brought you into the land of Carmel, to eat the fruit thereof, and the best things thereof: and when ye entered in, you defiled my land and made my inheritance an abomination.

Leviticus 18:24-28 Defile not yourselves with any of these things with which all the nations have been defiled, which I will cast out before you, . . .

Isaiah 24:5 And the earth is infected by the inhabitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.

Micah 2:10 You have cast out the women of my people from their houses, in which they took delight: you have taken my praise forever from their children.

but thou hast

Jeremiah 2:20,23 Of old time thou hast broken my yoke, thou hast burst my bands, and thou saidst: I will not serve. For on every high hill, and under every green tree thou didst prostitute thyself. . . .

Deuteronomy 22:21 They shall cast her out of the doors of her father's house, and the men of the city shall stone her to death, and she shall die: because she hath done a wicked thing in Israel, to play the whore in her father's house: and thou shalt take away the evil out of the midst of thee.

Judges 19:2 And she left him, and returned to her father's house in Bethlehem, and abode with him four months.

Ezekiel 16:26,28,29 And thou hast committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, men of large bodies, and hast multiplied thy fornications to provoke me. . . .

Ezekiel 23:4 And their names were Oolla the elder, and Ooliba her younger sister: and I took them, and they bore sons and daughters. Now for their names, Samaria is Oolla, and Jerusalem is Ooliba.

Hosea 1:2 The beginning of the Lord's speaking by Hosea: and the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord.

Hosea 2:5-7 For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink. . . .

yet return

Jeremiah 3:12-14,22 Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever. . . .

Jeremiah 4:1,14 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if thou wilt take away thy stumblingblocks out of my sight, thou shalt not be moved. . . .

Jeremiah 8:4-6 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Shall not he that falleth, rise again? and he that is turned away, shall he not turn again? . . .

Deuteronomy 4:29-31 And when thou shalt seek there the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him: yet so, if thou seek him with all thy heart, and all the affliction of thy soul. . . .

Isaiah 55:6-9 Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found: call upon him, while he is near. . . .

Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God, I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live. Turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: and why will you die, O house of Israel?

Hosea 14:1-4 Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God: for thou hast fallen down by thy iniquity. . . .

Zechariah 1:3 And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: Turn ye to me, saith the Lord of hosts: and I will turn to you, saith the Lord of hosts.

Luke 15:16-24 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. . . .