Jeremiah 3
3
1A saying:
If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him and marries another man,
her first husband shouldn’t go back to her again.
The land would become thoroughly polluted.
“You have acted like a prostitute who has many lovers.
And now you want to come back to me!” declares the Lord.
2“Look at the bare hills, and see.
You have had sex with men in every place.
You sat by the roadside waiting for them like a nomad in the desert.
You have polluted the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
3So the rain has been withheld, and there have been no spring showers.
Yet, you have the shameless look of a prostitute,
and you refuse to blush.
4But now you are calling to me.
You say, ‘Father! You have been my companion
ever since I was young.
5He won’t hold a grudge forever.
He won’t always be angry.’
You have said and done all the evil things that you could.”
The LORD Offers to Forgive the Ten Tribes of Israel despite Their Idolatry
6When Josiah was king, the Lord asked me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She went up every high mountain and under every large tree, and she acted like a prostitute there. 7I thought that after she had done all this that she would come back to me. But she didn’t come back, and her treacherous sister Judah saw her. 8Judah saw that I sent unfaithful Israel away because of her adultery and that I gave Israel her divorce papers. But treacherous Judah, her sister, wasn’t afraid. She also acted like a prostitute. 9Because she wasn’t concerned about acting like a prostitute, she polluted the land and committed adultery with standing stones and wood pillars. 10Even after all this, Israel’s treacherous sister Judah didn’t wholeheartedly come back to me. She was deceitful,” declares the Lord.
11Then the Lord said to me, “Unfaithful Israel was less guilty than treacherous Judah. 12Go and proclaim these things to the north:
“ ‘Come back, unfaithful Israel.
It is the Lord speaking.
I will no longer frown on you
because I’m merciful,’ declares the Lord.
‘I will no longer be angry with you.
13Admit that you’ve done wrong!
You have rebelled against the Lord your God.
You have given yourself to strangers under every large tree.
You have not obeyed me,’ declares the Lord.
14“Come back, you rebellious people,” declares the Lord. “I’m your husband. I will take you, one from every city and two from every family, and bring you to Zion. 15I will give you shepherds after my own heart. They will be shepherds who feed you with knowledge and insight. 16In those days you will be fertile, and your population will increase in the land,” declares the Lord. “People will no longer talk about the ark of the Lord’s promise. It will no longer come to mind. They won’t remember it, miss it, or make another one. 17At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. All nations will gather in Jerusalem because the name of the Lord will be found there. They will no longer follow their own stubborn, evil ways. 18In those days the nation of Judah will live with the nation of Israel. They will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave their ancestors as their own property.
19“I wanted to treat you like children
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful property among the nations.
I thought that you would call me Father and wouldn’t turn away from me.
20But like a wife who betrays her husband,
so you, nation of Israel, betrayed me,” declares the Lord.
21The sound of crying is heard on the hills.
It is the crying and the pleading of the people of Israel.
They have become crooked
and have forgotten the Lord their God.
22“Come back, you rebellious people,
and I will forgive you for being unfaithful.”
Here we are!
We have come to you because you are the Lord our God.
23Truly, the noise from the hills, from the mountains,
is the noise of false worship.
Truly, the Lord our God will rescue us.
24Ever since we were young,
the shameful worship ⌞of Baal⌟
has taken everything our ancestors worked for,
their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
25We must lie down in our shame
and be covered by our disgrace.
Ever since we were young, we and our ancestors have sinned
against the Lord our God.
We haven’t obeyed the Lord our God.
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GOD'S WORD® Translation ©1995, 2003, 2013, 2014, 2019, 2020 by God's Word to the Nations Mission Society. All rights reserved.
Jeremiah 3
3
1 "It is commonly said: 'If a man has divorced his wife, and she departs from him, she will marry another man.' So why would he return to her again? Is not that woman polluted and defiled? But you have fornicated yourself with many lovers. Even so, return to me, says the Lord, and I will accept you.
2 Lift your eyes straight up, and see where you did not debase yourself. You were sitting in the roadways, waiting for them, like a robber in the wilderness. And you have polluted the land by your fornications and by your wickedness.
3 For this reason, the rain showers were withheld, and there were no late season rains. You made your face like that of a promiscuous woman; you were not willing to blush.
4 Therefore, at least from this moment on, call out to me: 'You are my father, the guide of my virginity.'
5 Why should you be angry unceasingly? And will you continue in this to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil, for you were able to do so."
6 And, in the days of king Josiah, the Lord said to me: "Have you not seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has brought herself up to every lofty mountain, and she has lain down under every leafy tree, and she has committed fornication there.
7 And when she had done all these things, I said: 'Return to me.' But she did not return. And her deceitful sister Judah saw this:
8 that because the apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had dismissed her and had given her a bill of divorce. Yet her deceitful sister Judah was not afraid. But she, too, went and committed fornication herself.
9 And by the act of her fornication, she defiled the land. For she committed adultery with that which is stone and wood.
10 And after all these things, her deceitful sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but with lies, says the Lord."
11 And the Lord said to me: "The apostate Israel has justified her own soul by comparing herself to the deceitful Judah.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and you shall say: Return, O apostate Israel, says the Lord. For I will not avert my face from you. For I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever.
13 So then, truly acknowledge your iniquity, that you have betrayed the Lord your God, and that you have spread your ways to strangers, under every leafy tree, and that you have not listened to my voice, says the Lord.
14 Convert, O rebellious sons, says the Lord. For I am your leader. And so, I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will lead you into Zion.
15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart. And they will feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
16 And when you have been multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, they will no longer say: 'The Ark of the covenant of the Lord!' And it will not enter into the heart, and they will not call it to mind. It will neither be visited, nor made use of, any longer.
17 In that time, Jerusalem will be called: 'The Throne of the Lord.' And all the nations will be gathered to it, in the name of the Lord, in Jerusalem. And they will not walk after the depravity of their own most wicked heart.
18 In those days, the house of Judah will go to the house of Israel, and they will come from the land of the north, at the same time, to the land that I gave to your fathers.
19 But I said: How shall I place you among the sons, and distribute to you a desirable land, the preeminent inheritance of the host of the Gentiles? And I said: You will call me Father, and you will not cease to walk after me.
20 But, in the same way that a woman spurns her lover, so also has the house of Israel spurned me, says the Lord."
21 A voice has been heard in the highways, the weeping and wailing of the sons of Israel. For they have made their own ways sinful; they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 "Convert, O rebellious sons! And I will heal your rebelliousness." "Behold, we are returning to you. For you are the Lord our God!
23 Truly, the hills were liars, with the multitude of the mountains. Truly, the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.
24 Confusion has devoured the labor of our fathers, from our youth, with their flocks and their herds, with their sons and their daughters.
25 We will sleep in our confusion, and our disgrace will cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God: we and our fathers, from our youth, even to this day. And we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God."
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