Jeremiah 3:19-4:4

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

¹⁹ I thought
    how I would set you among my children
and give you a pleasant land,
    the most beautiful heritage of all the nations.
And I thought you would call to me, “My Father,”
    and would not turn from following me.^(A)
20 Instead, as a faithless wife leaves her husband,
    so you have been faithless to me, O house of Israel,
            says the Lord.^(B)

²¹ A voice on the bare heights^[a] is heard,
    the plaintive weeping of Israel’s children,
because they have perverted their way;
    they have forgotten the Lord their God:^(C)
22 Return, O faithless children,
    I will heal your faithlessness.

“Here we come to you,
    for you are the Lord our God.^(D)
23 Truly the hills are^[b] a delusion,
    a tumult on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
    is the salvation of Israel.^(E)

4 If you return, O Israel,
            says the Lord,
    if you return to me,
if you remove your abominations from my presence
    and do not waver,^(G)
2 and if you swear, “As the Lord lives!”
    in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,
then nations shall be blessed^[c] by you,^[d]
    and by you^[e] they shall boast.^(H)

Break up your fallow ground,
    and do not sow among thorns.^(I)
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord;
    remove the foreskin of your hearts,
    O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire
    and burn with no one to quench it,
    because of the evil of your doings.^(J)