Jeremiah 3:6-25

6Then the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She 1went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 72I 3thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her 4treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and 5given her a writ of divorce, yet her 6treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she 7polluted the land and committed adultery with 8stones and trees. 10Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in 9deception,” declares the Lord.

11And the Lord said to me, “10Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘11Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord; ‘12I will not 13look upon you in anger. For I am 14gracious,’ declares the Lord; ‘I will not be angry forever.13Only 1516acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God And have 17scattered your 18favors to the strangers 19under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.14‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Lord; ‘For I am a 20master to you, And I will take you one from a city and two from a family, And 21I will bring you to Zion.’

15“Then I will give you 22shepherds after My own heart, who will 23feed you on knowledge and understanding. 16It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will 24no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The 25Throne of the Lord,’ and 26all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the 27name of the Lord; nor will they 28walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 1829In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together 30from the land of the north to the 31land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

19“Then I said, ‘How I would set you among 32My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most 33beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You shall call Me, 34My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’20Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her 35lover, So you have 36dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.

21A voice is heard on the 37bare heights, The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel; Because they have perverted their way, They have 38forgotten the Lord their God.22“Return, O faithless sons, 39I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to You; For You are the Lord our God.23Surely, 40the hills are a deception, A tumult on the mountains. Surely in the 41Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel.

24“But 42the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25Let us lie down in our 43shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, 44from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”