Jeremiah 3:11-25

11And the Lord said to me, “1Faithless Israel has proved herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say, ‘2Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord; ‘3I will not 4look at you in anger. For I am 5gracious,’ declares the Lord; ‘I will not be angry forever.13Only 67acknowledge your wrongdoing, That you have revolted against the Lord your God, And have 8scattered your 9favors to the strangers 10under every leafy tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.14‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the Lord; ‘For I am a 11master to you, And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, And 12bring you to Zion.’

15“Then I will give you 13shepherds 14after My own heart, who will 15feed you knowledge and understanding. 16And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will 16no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. 17At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The 17Throne of the Lord,’ and 18all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the 19name of the Lord; and they will no longer 20follow the stubbornness of their evil heart. 1821In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together 22from the land of the north to the 23land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

19“Then I said, ‘How I would set you among 24My sons And give you a pleasant land, The most 25beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You shall call Me, 26My Father, And not turn away from following Me.’20However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover, So you have 27dealt treacherously with Me, House of Israel,” declares the Lord.

21A voice is heard on the 28bare heights, The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel. Because they have perverted their way, They have 29forgotten the Lord their God.22“Return, you faithless sons, 30I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to You; For You are the Lord our God.23Certainly 31the hills are a deception, 32Commotion on the mountains. Certainly in the 33Lord our God Is the salvation of Israel.

24“But 34the shame has consumed the product of our fathers’ labor since our youth--their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25Let us lie down in our 35shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, 36from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”