The Book of Jeremiah (WEB)
3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, will
he return to her again? Won't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute
with many lovers; yet return again to me, says Yahweh. 3:2Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and
see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the
wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
3:3Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a
prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed. 3:4Will you not from this time cry to me, My
Father, you are the guide of my youth? 3:5Will he retain his anger forever? will he keep it to the
end? Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way. 3:6Moreover
Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has
done? she is gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the
prostitute. 3:7I said after she had done all these things, She will return to me; but she didn't return:
and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 3:8I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel
had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah,
her sister, didn't fear; but she also went and played the prostitute. 3:9It happened through the
lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones
and with stocks. 3:10Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to me with her
whole heart, but only in pretense, says Yahweh. 3:11Yahweh said to me, Backsliding Israel has
shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 3:12Go, and proclaim these words toward the
north, and say, Return, you backsliding Israel, says Yahweh; I will not look in anger on you; for I
am merciful, says Yahweh, I will not keep anger forever. 3:13Only acknowledge your iniquity, that
you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers
under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice, says Yahweh. 3:14Return, backsliding
children, says Yahweh; for I am a husband to you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a
family, and I will bring you to Zion: 3:15and I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who
shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. 3:16It shall come to pass, when you are
multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says Yahweh, they shall say no more, The ark
of the covenant of Yahweh; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither
shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. 3:17At that time they shall call Jerusalem the
throne of Yahweh; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to
Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 3:18In those
days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of
the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers. 3:19But I said, How I
will put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of the
nations! and I said, You shall call me My Father, and shall not turn away from following me.
3:20Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with
me, house of Israel, says Yahweh. 3:21A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the
petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten
Yahweh their God. 3:22Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. Behold, we
are come to you; for you are Yahweh our God. 3:23Truly in vain is the help that is looked for from
the hills, the tumult on the mountains: truly in Yahweh our God is the salvation of Israel. 3:24But
the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their
herds, their sons and their daughters. 3:25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover
us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this
day; and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.
World English Bible