¹It is said,

‘If a man sends his wife away,

And she departs from him

And becomes another man's,

Can he return to her again?

Would that land not be badly defiled?’

But you have been promiscuous with many lovers.

Yet return to me,

Says the Lord.

²Lift up your eyes to the heights and see:

Where have you not had someone to lie with you?

You have sat for them by the roadside,

Like an Arabian in the desert,

And you have defiled the land

With your acts of prostitution

And with your wickedness.

³So the showers of rain were withheld,

And there was no latter rain,

And you have had the effrontery

Of a woman who is a prostitute;

You have refused to feel ashamed.

⁴Will you not from now on call out to me,

‘My father,

You are the family head of my youth.’

⁵Will he keep his anger age-abidingly?

Or will he retain it in perpetuity?

Look, you have spoken

And done evil things,

And you have won the day.”

⁶And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what apostate Israel has done, going to every high hill and under every luxuriant tree, committing sexual immorality there? ⁷But after she had done all these things, I said, ‘Return to me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸And I saw it, then on all the grounds that apostate Israel had committed adultery, I sent her away and gave her bill of divorce to her, but treacherous Judah her sister did not fear, and she also went and committed sexual immorality. ⁹And it came to pass, because of the frivolity of her sexual immorality, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. ¹⁰And even despite all this, neither did her treacherous sister Judah return to me with all her heart, but falsely so, says the Lord.” ¹¹And the Lord said to me, “Apostate Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go and proclaim these things in the north, and say,

‘Return, apostate Israel,

Says the Lord.

I will not rage at you,

For I am kind,

Says the Lord;

I will not keep my anger age-abidingly.

¹³But admit your iniquity,

For you have transgressed against the Lord your God,

And you have gone in all directions to foreigners,

Under every luxuriant tree,

But you have not heeded my voice,

Says the Lord.

¹⁴Return, you rebellious sons, says the Lord, for I have married you, and I have taken hold of you – one from a city, and two from a family – and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵And I will give you shepherds according to my heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and insight. ¹⁶And it will come to pass, when you multiply and are fruitful on the earth in those days, says the Lord, that they will no longer say, «The ark of the covenant of the Lord.» It will no longer come to mind, nor will they mention it, nor will they go to see it, nor will it be made any more. ¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord, and all the Gentiles will gather in it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem, and they will not walk after the evil obstinacy of their heart any more. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah will go to the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land which I have given to your fathers as an inheritance. ¹⁹But I said,

«How shall I place you among the sons,

And give you a pleasant land,

An inheritance which is the splendour of splendours of the nations?»

And I said,

«You will call me, ‹My father›,

And you will not turn back from following me.»

²⁰Surely, as a wife is unfaithful to her husband,

So you have been unfaithful to me,

O house of Israel,

Says the Lord.

²¹A sound is heard on the heights,

Weeping and supplications of the sons of Israel,

For they have taken a crooked path;

They have forgotten the Lord their God.

²²Return, you rebellious sons.

I will heal your apostatizings.’ ”

Here we are;

We have come to you,

For you are the Lord our God.

²³Truly, salvation is in vain

From hills and many mountains;

Truly, the salvation of Israel

Is in the Lord our God.

²⁴And shame has devoured

The hard work of our fathers from our youth

– Their sheep and their oxen,

Their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie in our shame,

And let our ignominy cover us,

For we have sinned against the Lord our God

– We and our fathers

From our youth up to this day.

And we have not heeded

The voice of the Lord our God.