The Polluted Land
1 “If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him and marries another man,
should he ever return to her?’
Would that land not become completely corrupted?
But you have played the prostitute with many lovers,
yet return back to me,” says the Lord.
2 “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see!
Where have you not lain with another?
You have sat waiting for them by the road
like an Arabian in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
with your prostitution and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld,
and there has been no spring rain,
yet you still have the brazen look of a prostitute,
and you refused to be ashamed.
4 Will you not begin crying to me,
‘My Father, were you not my friend from youth?
5 Will he stay angry forever?
Will he harbor it to the end?’
You have said this but continue doing evil things
and have gone your own way.”
Israel’s and Judah’s Unfaithfulness
6 Moreover, the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and has played the prostitute there. 7 I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 I saw when, for this very reason, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute. 9 Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says the Lord.
Invitation to Repentance
11 The Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord,
‘I will not look in anger on you,
for I am merciful,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not stay angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity,
that you have transgressed against the Lord your God.
You have scattered your ways to the strangers
under every green tree,
and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says the Lord.”
14 “Return, backsliding children,” says the Lord, “for I am your master. I will take one of you from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 It will come to pass, when you multiply and increase in the land, in those days,” says the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The Ark of the Lord’s Covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They will not remember it. They will not miss it, nor will another be made.
17 At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the Lord, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave as an inheritance to your fathers.
19 “But I said, ‘How I desire to treat you as my sons,
and give you a desirable land,
a good heritage among a multitude of nations!’
I said, ‘You shall call me My Father
and shall not turn away from following me.’
20 Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband,
so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says the Lord.
21 A voice is heard on the barren heights,
the weeping and the petitions of the Israelites,
because they have perverted their way.
They have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, you backsliding children,
and I will heal your backsliding.
“We have come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
23 Truly in vain is the help that is looked for
from the hills, the tumult on the mountains.
Truly the salvation of Israel
is in the Lord our God.
24 But this shameful thing
has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds,
their sons and their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame,
and let our confusion cover us,
for we have sinned against the Lord our God,
we and our fathers,
from our youth even to this day.
We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.