Jeremiah 3:1-13 ▼

1 If a man put away his wife, and she depart from him, and become another man's, shall she return to him any more at all? shall not that woman be utterly defiled? ye thou hast gone a-whoring with many shepherds, and hast returned to me, saith the Lord.

2 Lift up thine eyes to look straight forward, and see where thou hast not been utterly defiled. Thou hast sat for them by the wayside as a deserted crow, and hast defiled the land with thy fornications and thy wickedness.

3 And thou didst retain many shepherds for a stumbling-block to thyself: thou hadst a whore's face, thou didst become shameless toward all.

4 Hast thou not called me as it were a home, and the father and guide of thy virgin-time?

5 Will God's anger continue for ever, or be preserved to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done these bad things, and hadst power to do them .

6 And the Lord said to me in the days of Josias the king, Hast thou seen what things the house of Israel has done to me? they have gone on every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and have committed fornication there.

7 And I said after she had committed all these acts of fornication, Turn again to me. Yet she returned not. And faithless Juda saw her faithlessness.

8 And I saw that (for all the sins of which she was convicted, wherein the house of Israel committed adultery, and I put her away, and gave into her hands a bill of divorcement,) yet faithless Juda feared not, but went and herself also committed fornication.

9 And her fornication was nothing accounted of; and she committed adultery with wood and stone.

10 And for all these things faithless Juda turned not to me with all her heart, but falsely.

11 And the Lord said to me, Israel has justified himself more than faithless Juda.

12 Go and read these words toward 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 I will not be angry with you for ever.

13 Nevertheless, know thine iniquity, that thou hast sinned against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every shady tree, but thou didst not hearken to my voice, saith the Lord.