Jeremiah 3

¹ 'If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him and becomes someone else's, has he the right to go backto her? Has not that piece of land been total y pol uted? And you, having played the whore with many lovers, youclaim the right to come back to me! Yahweh demands.

² 'Lift your eyes to the bare heights and look! Where have you not offered your sex! You waited by theroadside for them like an Arab in the desert. You have polluted the country with your prostitution and your vices:

³ this is why the showers have been withheld, the late rains have not come. 'But you maintained aprostitute's bold front, with no trace of a blush.

⁴ From now on, do not cry out at me, "My father! My beloved ever since I was young!

⁵ Wil he keep up his anger for ever, maintain his wrath to the end?" You say this but stil go on sinning,being so obstinate.'

⁶ In the days of King Josiah, Yahweh said to me, 'Have you seen what disloyal Israel has done? How shehas made her way up every high hil and to every green tree, and played the whore there?

⁷ I thought, "After doing al this she wil come back to me." But she did not come back. Her faithless sister Judah saw this.

⁸ She also saw that I had repudiated disloyal Israel for al her adulteries and given her her divorce papers.Her faithless sister Judah, however, was not afraid: she too went and played the whore.

⁹ And with her shameless whoring, she pol uted the country; she committed adultery with stones andpieces of wood.

¹⁰ Worse than all this: Judah, her faithless sister, has come back to me not in sincerity, but only inpretence, Yahweh declares.'

¹¹ And Yahweh said to me, 'Disloyal Israel is upright, compared with faithless Judah.

¹² So go and shout words towards the north, and say: "Come back, disloyal Israel, Yahweh declares, Ishall frown on you no more, since I am merciful, Yahweh declares. I shal not keep my anger for ever.

¹³ Only acknowledge your guilt: how you have rebelled against Yahweh your God, how you haveprostituted yourself with the Strangers under every green tree and have not listened to my voice, Yahwehdeclares.

¹⁴ "Come back, disloyal children, Yahweh declares, for I alone am your Master, and I wil take you, onefrom a town, two from a family, and bring you to Zion.

¹⁵ I shal give you shepherds after my own heart, who wil pasture you wisely and discreetly.

¹⁶ Then, when you have increased and grown numerous in the country, Yahweh declares, no one wilever again say: The ark of the covenant of Yahweh! It will not enter their minds, they wil not remember it or missit, nor wil another one be made.

¹⁷ When that time comes, Jerusalem will be cal ed: The Throne of Yahweh, and al the nations willconverge on her, on Yahweh's name, on Jerusalem, and will no longer fol ow their own stubborn and wickedinclinations.

¹⁸ "When those days come, the House of Judah wil join the House of Israel; together they will come fromthe land of the north to the country I gave your ancestors as their heritage."

¹⁹ 'And I was thinking: How am I to rank you as my children? I shal give you a country of delights, thefairest heritage of al the nations! I thought: You wil cal me Father and wil never cease to fol ow me.

²⁰ But like a woman betraying her lover, House of Israel, you have betrayed me,' Yahweh declares.

²¹ A noise is heard on the bare heights: the weeping and entreaty of the Israelites, for they have gonewildly astray, have forgotten Yahweh their God.

²² 'Come back, disloyal sons, I want to cure your disloyalty.' 'We are here, we are coming to you, for youare Yahweh our God.

²³ The hil s are a delusion after al , so is the tumult of the mountains. Yahweh our God is, after al , thesaving of Israel.

²⁴ Shame has devoured what our ancestors worked for ever since we were young, their flocks and herds,their sons and their daughters.

²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, let our confusion cover us, for we have sinned against Yahweh our God,we and our ancestors, from our youth until today, and have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God.'