Chapter 3
1“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers— and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD. 2“Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness. 3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed. 4Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth. 5Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.” 6Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there. 7I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it. 8She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well. 9Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD. 11And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah. 12Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever. 13Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’ ” declares the LORD. 14“Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion. 15Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.” 16“In those days, when you multiply and increase in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer discuss the ark of the covenant of the LORD. It will never come to mind, and no one will remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made. 17At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers as an inheritance. 19Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me. 20But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD. 21A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God. 22“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God. 23Surely deception comes from the hills, and commotion from the mountains. Surely the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God. 24From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for— their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters. 25Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
Chapter 4
1“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver, 2and if you can swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then the nations will be blessed by Him, and in Him they will glory.” 3For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your unplowed ground, and do not sow among the thorns. 4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and remove the foreskins of your hearts, O men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Otherwise, My wrath will break out like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it, because of your evil deeds.” 5Announce in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land. Cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble yourselves and let us flee to the fortified cities.’ 6Raise a signal flag toward Zion. Seek refuge! Do not delay! For I am bringing disaster from the north, and terrible destruction. 7A lion has gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his lair to lay waste your land. Your cities will be reduced to ruins and lie uninhabited. 8So put on sackcloth, mourn and wail, for the fierce anger of the LORD has not turned away from us.” 9“In that day,” declares the LORD, “the king and officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be astounded.” 10Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, how completely You have deceived this people and Jerusalem by saying, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at our throats.” 11At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift; 12a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I also pronounce judgments against them.” 13Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined! 14Wash the evil from your heart, O Jerusalem, so that you may be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts within you? 15For a voice resounds from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Ephraim. 16Warn the nations now! Proclaim to Jerusalem: “A besieging army comes from a distant land; they raise their voices against the cities of Judah. 17They surround her like men guarding a field, because she has rebelled against Me,” declares the LORD. 18“Your ways and deeds have brought this upon you. This is your punishment; how bitter it is, because it pierces to the heart!”