Jeremiah 3:1-13 ▼

1 God says, “If a husband divorces his wife And she goes from him And belongs to another man, Will he still return to her? Will not that land be completely polluted? But you are a harlot with many lovers; Yet you turn to Me,” declares Yahweh.

2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see; Where have you not been ravished? By the roads you have sat for them Like an Arab in the wilderness, And you have polluted a land With your harlotry and with your evil.

3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, And the late rain has not come. Yet you had a harlot’s forehead; You refused to feel dishonor.

4 Have you not just now called to Me, ‘My Father, You are the close companion of my youth?

5 Will He be angry forever? Will He keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken And have done evil things, And you have had your way.”

6 Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there.

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

8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.

9 So it was, because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in lying,” declares Yahweh.

11 And Yahweh said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

12 Go and call out these words toward the north and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares Yahweh; ‘I will not look upon you in anger. For I am One of lovingkindness,’ declares Yahweh; ‘I will not be angry forever.

13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against Yahweh your God And have scattered your ways of harlotry to the strangers under every green tree, And you have not listened to My voice,’ declares Yahweh.