1. They say, If a man sends away his wife, and she goes from him and will be for another man, will he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly defiled? But you play the harlot with many lovers; yet would you come back to Me, says Jehovah.
2. Lift up your eyes on the bare heights and see. Where have you not been lain with? By the highways you have sat for them, like an Arab in the desert. And you have defiled the land with your fornications and with your evil.
3. And the showers are withheld, and there has been no latter rain. And the forehead of a woman, a harlot, was to you; you refused to be ashamed.
4. Have you not just now called to Me, saying, My father, You are the friend of my youth?
5. Will He keep His anger forever? Or will He guard it to the end? Behold, you have spoken, and you have done all the evil things that you could.
6. Jehovah also said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what the apostate Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree, and has fornicated there.
7. And after she had done all these, I said, She will return to Me; but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8. And I watched. When for all the causes for which the apostate Israel committed adultery, I sent her away and I gave the writ of her divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and fornicated.
9. And it happened, from the wantonness of her harlotry she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with pieces of wood.
10. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, says Jehovah.
11. And Jehovah said to me, The apostate Israel has justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
12. Go and cry these words toward the north, and say, Return, O apostate Israel, says Jehovah. I will not cause My face to fall on you, for I am merciful, says Jehovah; I will not keep anger forever.
13. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have rebelled against Jehovah your God and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed My voice, says Jehovah.
14. Return, O apostate sons, declares Jehovah; for I am Lord over you. And I will take you, one from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15. And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16. And it will be, when you multiply and increase in the land in those days, says Jehovah, they will no longer say, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah! Nor shall it come to the heart, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor shall it be made any more.
17. At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah. And all nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem. And they shall not walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
18. In 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 have given for an inheritance to your fathers.
19. But I said, How gladly would I put you among the sons, and give you a pleasant land, a beautiful inheritance among the multitudes of nations! And I said, You shall call Me, My Father; and you shall not turn away from Me.
20. Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her lover, so you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, declares Jehovah.
21. A voice was heard weeping on the bare heights, pleadings of the sons of Israel; for they have perverted their way; they have forgotten Jehovah their God.
22. Return, O apostate sons; I will heal your apostasies. Behold, we come to You, for You are Jehovah our God.
23. Truly, for delusion comes from the hills, tumult on the mountains. Truly, in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel.
24. For the shameful thing has eaten up the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covers us. For we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of Jehovah our God.