Jeremiah 3

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
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.	1 “It is commonly said: ‘If a man has divorced his wife, and she departs from him, she will marry another man.’ So why would he return to her again? Is not that woman polluted and defiled? But you have fornicated yourself with many lovers. Even so, return to me, says the Lord, and I will accept you.
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:	2 Lift your eyes straight up, and see where you did not debase yourself. You were sitting in the roadways, waiting for them, like a robber in the wilderness. And you have polluted the land by your fornications and by your wickedness.
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.	3 For this reason, the rain showers were withheld, and there were no late season rains. You made your face like that of a promiscuous woman; you were not willing to blush.
4 From now on, do not cry out at me, "My father! My beloved ever since I was young!	4 Therefore, at least from this moment on, call out to me: ‘You are my father, the guide of my virginity.’
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.'	5 Why should you be angry unceasingly? And will you continue in this to the end? Behold, you have spoken and done evil, for you were able to do so.”
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?	6 And, in the days of king Josiah, the Lord said to me: “Have you not seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has brought herself up to every lofty mountain, and she has lain down under every leafy tree, and she has committed fornication 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.	7 And when she had done all these things, I said: ‘Return to me.’ But she did not return. And her deceitful 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.	8 that because the apostate Israel had committed adultery, I had dismissed her and had given her a bill of divorce. Yet her deceitful sister Judah was not afraid. But she, too, went and committed fornication herself.
9 And with her shameless whoring, she pol uted the country; she committed adultery with stones andpieces of wood.	9 And by the act of her fornication, she defiled the land. For she committed adultery with that which is stone and wood.
10 Worse than all this: Judah, her faithless sister, has come back to me not in sincerity, but only inpretence, Yahweh declares.'	10 And after all these things, her deceitful sister Judah has not returned to me with her whole heart, but with lies, says the Lord.”
11 And Yahweh said to me, 'Disloyal Israel is upright, compared with faithless Judah.	11 And the Lord said to me: “The apostate Israel has justified her own soul by comparing herself to the deceitful 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.	12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and you shall say: Return, O apostate Israel, says the Lord. For I will not avert my face from you. For I am holy, says the Lord, and I will not be angry forever.
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.	13 So then, truly acknowledge your iniquity, that you have betrayed the Lord your God, and that you have spread your ways to strangers, under every leafy tree, and that you have not listened to my voice, says the Lord.
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.	14 Convert, O rebellious sons, says the Lord. For I am your leader. And so, I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will lead you into Zion.
15 I shal give you shepherds after my own heart, who wil pasture you wisely and discreetly.	15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart. And they will feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
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.	16 And when you have been multiplied and increased in the land in those days, says the Lord, they will no longer say: ‘The Ark of the covenant of the Lord!’ And it will not enter into the heart, and they will not call it to mind. It will neither be visited, nor made use of, any longer.
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.	17 In that time, Jerusalem will be called: ‘The Throne of the Lord.’ And all the nations will be gathered to it, in the name of the Lord, in Jerusalem. And they will not walk after the depravity of their own most wicked heart.
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."	18 In those days, the house of Judah will go to the house of Israel, and they will come from the land of the north, at the same time, to the land that I gave to your fathers.
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.	19 But I said: How shall I place you among the sons, and distribute to you a desirable land, the preeminent inheritance of the host of the Gentiles? And I said: You will call me Father, and you will not cease to walk after me.
20 But like a woman betraying her lover, House of Israel, you have betrayed me,' Yahweh declares.	20 But, in the same way that a woman spurns her lover, so also has the house of Israel spurned me, says the Lord.”
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.	21 A voice has been heard in the highways, the weeping and wailing of the sons of Israel. For they have made their own ways sinful; they have forgotten the Lord 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.	22 “Convert, O rebellious sons! And I will heal your rebelliousness.” “Behold, we are returning to you. For you are the Lord 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.	23 Truly, the hills were liars, with the multitude of the mountains. Truly, the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.
24 Shame has devoured what our ancestors worked for ever since we were young, their flocks and herds,their sons and their daughters.	24 Confusion has devoured the labor of our fathers, from our youth, with their flocks and their herds, with 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.'	25 We will sleep in our confusion, and our disgrace will cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God: we and our fathers, from our youth, even to this day. And we have not listened to the voice of the Lord our God.”