< Jeremiah 3 >
1 He hath said, If a man send away his wife, and she go from him and become another man’s, will he return unto her, again? would not that land be, utterly defiled? And, thou, hast been unchaste with many neighbours, and yet [thinkest] to return unto me! Declareth Yahweh.
2 Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights and see—where thou hast not been unchastely embraced! beside the ways, hast thou sat to them, like the Arabian in the desert, —and hast defiled the land with thine unchastities, and with thy wickedness.
3 Therefore have been withholden the showers, And, the latter rain, hath not come, —Yet the forehead of an unchaste woman, hast thou, Thou hast refused to be ashamed.
4 Hast thou not from this time, cried unto me, My father! the friend of my youth, art, thou?
5 Will he maintain his anger to times age-abiding? Will he keep it perpetually? Lo! thou hast spoken thus but hast done wicked things and had thy way!
6 And Yahweh said unto me, in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what apostate Israel, did? She used to go upon every high mountain and beneath every green tree, and commit unchastity there.
7 And I said, after she had been doing all these things, Unto me, shall thou return? and she returned not, —and her treacherous sister Judah saw it!
8 Though she saw that for all this, apostate Israel having committed adultery, I had sent her away, and had given a scroll of divorcement unto her, yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but, she also, went and committed unchastity.
9 Yea though it had come to pass that through the levity of her unchastity, she had defiled the land, —and committed adultery with Stone and with Tree,
10 yet, in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah returned not unto me, with all her heart, —but, falsely, Declareth Yahweh.
11 Then said Yahweh unto me, —Apostate Israel, hath justified herself, —more than treacherous Judah.
12 Go, and proclaim these words, towards the North and say—Return! thou apostate—Israel, Urgeth Yahweh, I will not lower my face against you, —for full of lovingkindness, I am, Declareth Yahweh, I will not maintain [mine anger] unto times age-abiding.
13 Only, acknowledge thine iniquity, that against Yahweh thy God, hast thou transgressed, —and hast gone hither and thither unto foreigners under every green tree, and unto my voice, ye have not hearkened Declareth Yahweh.
14 Return, ye apostate sons, Urgeth Yahweh, for, I, am become your husband, —therefore will I take you one of a city, and two of a family, and will bring you to Zion;
15 and will give you shepherds according to mine own heart, —who will feed you with knowledge and discretion.
16 And it shall come to pass when ye shall be multiplied and become fruitful in the land, in those days, Declareth Yahweh, They shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of Yahweh, Neither shall it come up on the heart, Neither shall they remember it, Neither shall they miss it, Neither shall it be made any more.
17 At that time, shall they call Jerusalem, The throne of Yahweh, and there shall be gathered unto her all the nations—to the Name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem; and they shall walk no more after the stubbornness of their own wicked heart.
18 In those days, shall the house of Judah go unto the house of Israel, —that they may enter together out of the land of the North, upon the land which I gave as an inheritance unto your fathers.
19 Though, I myself, had said, —How can I put thee among the sons, And give thee a land to be coveted, An inheritance of beauty, of the hosts of nations? Yet I said, My father, shalt thou call me, And away from me, shalt thou not turn.
20 But indeed [as] a wife goeth treacherously from her husband, so, have ye acted treacherously with me, O house of Israel, Declareth Yahweh.
21 A voice on the bare heights, is heard, The weeping of the supplications of the sons of Israel, —Because they have perverted their way, Have forgotten Yahweh their God.
22 Return ye apostate sons, I will heal your apostasies! Behold us! we have come unto thee, For thou, art Yahweh our God.
23 Surely, to falsehood, pertain the hills The noisy throng on the mountains, —Surely, in Yahweh our God, is the salvation of Israel!
24 But, the Shameful thing, hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth: Their flocks, and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We must lie down in our shame And our reproach, be our covering, For, against Yahweh our God, have we sinned, We and our fathers, from our youth even until this day, —Neither have we hearkened unto the voice of Yahweh our God.
