Jeremias 3

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? you you have gone a-whoring with many shepherds, and have returned to me, says the Lord.

2 Lift up your eyes [to look] straight forward, and see where you have not been utterly defiled. You have sat for them by the wayside as a deserted crow, and have defiled the land with your fornications and your wickedness.

3 And you did retain many shepherds for a stumbling block to yourself: you had a whore's face, you did become shameless towards all.

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

5 Will [God's anger] continue for ever, or be preserved to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done these bad things, and had power [to do them].

6 And the Lord said to me in the days of Josias the king, Hast you 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 towards the north, and you shall say, Return to me, O house of Israel, says the Lord; and I will not set my face against you: for I am merciful, says the Lord, and I will not be angry with you for ever.

13 Nevertheless, know your iniquity, that you have sinned against the Lord your God, and have scattered your ways to strangers under every shady tree, but you did not listen to my voice, says the Lord.

14 Turn, you children that have revolted, says the Lord; for I will rule over you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you in to Sion:

15 and I will give you shepherds after my heart, and they shall certainly tend you with knowledge.

16 And it shall come to pass that when you are multiplied and increased upon the land, says the Lord, in those days they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Holy One of Israel: it shall not come to mind; it shall not be named; neither shall it be visited; nor shall [this] be done any more.

17 In those days and at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered to it: and they shall not walk any more after the imaginations of their evil heart.

18 In those days the house of Juda, shall come together to the house of Israel, and they shall come, together, from the land of the north, and from all the countries, to the land, which I caused their fathers to inherit.

19 And I said, So be it, Lord, for [you said] I will set you amongst children, and will give you a choice land, the inheritance of the Almighty God of the Gentiles: and I said, You shall call me Father; and you shall not turn away from me.

20 But as a wife acts treacherously against her husband, so has the house of Israel dealt treacherously against me, says the Lord.

21 A voice from the lips was heard, [even] of weeping and supplication of the children of Israel: for they have dealt unrighteously in their ways, they have forgotten God their Holy One.

22 Turn, you children that are given to turning, and I will heal your bruises. Behold, we will be your servants; for you are the Lord our God.

23 Truly the hills and the strength of the mountains were a lying refuge: but by the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

24 But shame has consumed the labours of our fathers from our youth; their sheep and their calves, and their sons and their daughters.

25 We have lain down in our shame, and our disgrace has covered us: because we and our fathers have sinned before our God, from our youth until this day; and we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God.