“How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways.

Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things

you say, ‘I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.’ Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, ‘I have not sinned.’

How much you go about, changing your way! You shall be put to shame by Egypt as you were put to shame by Assyria.

From it too you will come away with your hands on your head, for the class="small-caps" >Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.

“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the class="small-caps" >Lord.

Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom.

Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed.

Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—

will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

The class="small-caps" >Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore?

And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.

Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.

Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord.”

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord; I will not be angry forever.

Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the class="small-caps" >Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord.

Return, O faithless children, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the class="small-caps" >Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.

At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the class="small-caps" >Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the class="small-caps" >Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.

In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

“‘I said, How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me.

Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the class="small-caps" >Lord.’”

A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the class="small-caps" >Lord their God.

“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the class="small-caps" >Lord our God.