Jeremiah 3:7-25

I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.’ But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah  saw it. I  observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce.  Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.  Indifferent to  her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones  and trees.  Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to me with all her heart   — only in pretense.” This is the Lord’s declaration. The Lord announced to me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.  Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say, ‘Return, unfaithful Israel.  This is the  Lord’s declaration. I will not look on you with anger,  for I am unfailing in my love.  This is the  Lord’s declaration. I will not be angry forever.  Only acknowledge your guilt   — you have rebelled against the  Lord your God.  You have scattered your favors to strangers under every green tree  and have not obeyed me. This is the  Lord’s declaration. “ ‘Return, you faithless children   — this is the Lord’s declaration — for I am your master,  , and I will take you,  one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds who are loyal to me,  , and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill. When you multiply and increase in the land,  in those days — this is the Lord’s declaration — no one will say again, “The ark of the Lord’s covenant.”  It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. Another one will not be made.  At that time Jerusalem will be called The Lord’s Throne,  and all the nations will be gathered to it,  to the name of the Lord in Jerusalem.  They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel,  and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I have given your ancestors to inherit.’ ”  I thought, “How I long to make you my sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance  of all the nations.” I thought, “You will call me ‘My Father’ and never turn away from me.” However, as a woman may betray her lover,  so you have betrayed  me, house of Israel. This is the  Lord’s declaration. A sound is heard on the barren heights: the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, for they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the  Lord their God.  Return, you faithless children. I will heal your unfaithfulness.  “Here we are, coming to you, for you are the  Lord our God. Surely, falsehood comes from the hills, commotion from the mountains,  but the salvation of Israel is only in the  Lord our God.  From the time of our youth the shameful one  has consumed what our ancestors have worked for — their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us.  We have sinned against the  Lord our God,  both we and our ancestors, from the time of our youth even to this day.  We have not obeyed the  Lordour God.”