Jeremiah 3

MLV(i) 1 They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and become another man's, will he return to her again? Will not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers. Yet return again to me, says Jehovah.
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see. Where have you not been lain with? By the ways you have sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness and you have polluted the land with your prostitutions and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain. Yet you have a prostitute's forehead; you refused to be ashamed.
4 Will you not from this time cry to me, My Father, you are the guide of my youth? 5 Will he retain his anger everlasting? Will he keep it to the end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things and have had your way.
6 Moreover Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree and there has played the prostitute. 7 And I said after she had done all these things, She will return to me, but she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a document of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister did not fear, but she also went and played the prostitute.
9 And it happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says Jehovah.
11 And Jehovah said to me, Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says Jehovah, I will not look in anger upon you*, for I am merciful, says Jehovah. I will not keep anger everlasting.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree and you* have not obeyed my voice, says Jehovah.
14 Return, O backsliding sons, says Jehovah, for I am a husband to you*. And I will take you*, one of a city and two of a family and I will bring you* to Zion.
15 And I will give you* shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you* with knowledge and understanding.
16 And it will happen, when you* are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Jehovah, they will no more say, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah, nor will it come to mind. Neither will they remember it, nor will they miss it. Neither will it be made any more.
17 At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. Neither will they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your* fathers.
19 But I said, How I will put you among the sons and give you a desirable land, a pleasant heritage of the hosts of the nations! And I said, You* will call me My Father and will not turn away from following me.
20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you* have dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah.
21 A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel, because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten Jehovah their God.
22 Return, you* backsliding sons, I will heal your* backslidings. Behold, we have come to you, for you are Jehovah our God. 23 Truly it is in vain from the heights, the multitude on the mountains. Truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame and let our confusion cover us, for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day and we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.