Jeremiah 3

1 If a man divorces his wife and she goes and marries someone else, could he ever go back to her? Wouldn't the country be made totally unclean by this? But you have done worse by prostituting yourselves with many lovers, and now you want to come back to me? declares the Lord.

2 Look up at the bare hilltops. Is there anywhere that you haven't had sex? You sat at the roadside like someone from the desert waiting for your lovers to pass by. You have made the land unclean with your prostitution and evil.

3 That's why no showers have been sent, and no spring rains have fallen. But you just stare back shamelessly like a prostitute; you refuse to accept you've done anything wrong.

4 Didn't you just tell me, “My father, you've been such a close friend to me since I was little.

5 You won't be angry with me for a long time, will you? You won't go on being like that forever?” This is what you've said, but you keep on sinning as much as you can.

6 During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord told me, Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has prostituted herself on every high hill and under every green tree.

7 I hoped that after she'd done all this she'd come back to me. But she didn't come back, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw what happened.

8 She saw that because of everything unfaithful Israel had done on committing adultery, I sent her away, giving her a certificate of divorce. But her unfaithful sister Judah wasn't afraid and prostituted herself too.

9 Israel didn't care about the immorality, as she made herself and the land unclean, committing adultery by worshiping stones and trees.

10 Despite all this, her unfaithful sister Judah didn't come back to me in sincerity. She only pretended to do so, declares the Lord.

11 The Lord told me, Unfaithful Israel showed that she wasn't as guilty as unfaithful Judah.

12 Now go and announce this message to the north: Come back, unfaithful Israel, declares the Lord. I won't be angry with you anymore, because I am merciful, declares the Lord. I won't be angry forever.

13 Just admit you did wrong, that you rebelled against the Lord your God. You spread yourself around, committing adultery by worshiping foreign gods under every green tree, refusing to do what I told you, declares the Lord.

14 Come back, unfaithful children, declares the Lord, because I am married to you. I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and bring you to Zion.

15 I will give you shepherds who are like me who will feed you wisely and with understanding.

16 At that time as you increase in number in the country, declares the Lord, no one will be talking about the Ark of the Lord's Agreement anymore. People won't need to think about it or remember it or wonder what happened to it; and certainly won't need to make a new one.

17 When that time comes Jerusalem will be called the Throne of the Lord, and all the nations will come together in Jerusalem to honor the Lord. They won't be stubborn or wicked anymore.

18 At that time the people of Judah will join with the people of Israel, and they will return from the land of the north to the country I gave to your forefathers to own.

19 I said to myself, I really want you to be my children, and to give you the best country, the most beautiful place of any nation. I hoped you would call me “Father,” and never give up following me.

20 But just like a wife might betray her husband, you have betrayed me, people of Israel, declares the Lord.

21 Voices are crying on bare hilltops—the Israelites weeping and pleading for mercy, because they have gone astray and forgotten the Lord their God.

22 Come back, unfaithful children, and I will heal your unfaithfulness. “We're here! Yes, we're coming back to you, because you are the Lord our God.”

23 There's no doubt that pagan worship from the hills is pure lies; the idolatry that comes from the mountains is just noise. Israel's salvation is in the Lord our God alone.

24 All our lives pagan idolatry has destroyed what our fathers worked so hard for: their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.

25 We should lie down in shame, and have our disgrace bury us. We have sinned against the Lord our God, us and our fathers. From when we were young right up to now we have not obeyed what the Lord our God told us to do.