1
If 1 a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her?
Would not such a land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
+qsays the
2
Look up to the bare heights, 2 and see!
Where have you not been lain with?
By the waysides you have sat waiting for lovers,
like a nomad in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
with your whoring and wickedness.
3
Therefore the showers have been withheld,
and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have the forehead of a whore,
you refuse to be ashamed.
4
Have you not just now called to me,
"My Father, you are the friend of my youth--
5
will he be angry forever,
will he be indignant to the end?"
This is how you have spoken,
but you have done all the evil that you could.
6
The
11
Then the
12
Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:
Return, faithless Israel,
+qsays the
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
+qsays the
I will not be angry forever.
13
Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you have rebelled against the
and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree,
and have not obeyed my voice,
+qsays the
14
Return, O faithless children,
+qsays the
for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.
15
I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16
And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the
19
I thought
how I would set you among my children,
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful heritage of all the nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
20
Instead, as a faithless wife leaves her husband,
so you have been faithless to me, O house of Israel,
+qsays the
21
A voice on the bare heights 4 is heard,
the plaintive weeping of Israel's children,
because they have perverted their way,
they have forgotten the
22
Return, O faithless children,
I will heal your faithlessness.
"Here we come to you;
for you are the
23
Truly the hills are 5 a delusion,
the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the
is the salvation of Israel.
24
"But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our ancestors had labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the