Fluent Translation · Read & Reflect
Jeremiah 3
Return, faithless Israel
“If a man sends his wife away
and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,
will he return to her again?
Would that land not be thoroughly defiled?
Yet you have prostituted yourself with many lovers—
and would you return to me?” declares the LORD.
“Lift your eyes to the bare heights and look:
where have you not been lain with?
Beside the roads you sat waiting for them,
like a desert Arab.
You defiled the land
with your prostitution and wickedness.
So showers were withheld,
and the spring rain did not come.
Yet you had a prostitute’s forehead;
you refused to be ashamed.
Have you not just called to me,
‘My Father, you are the companion of my youth!
Will he hold a grudge forever,
will he keep it always?’
Look, this is what you say,
but you do every evil you can.”
In the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She went up every high mountain and under every green tree and prostituted herself there.
I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
I saw that, although I sent faithless Israel away and gave her a divorce document because of all her adultery, her treacherous sister Judah did not fear. She too went and prostituted herself.
Treating her prostitution lightly, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.
Despite all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.
The LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
Go and proclaim these words toward the north:
‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD.
‘I will not look on you in anger,
for I am faithful in love,’ declares the LORD.
‘I will not hold a grudge forever.
Only acknowledge your guilt:
you rebelled against the LORD your God,
scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree,
and did not listen to my voice,’ declares the LORD.
‘Return, children who have turned away,’ declares the LORD,
‘for I am your husband.
I will take you, one from a city and two from a clan,
and bring you to Zion.
I will give you shepherds after my own heart,
and they will shepherd you with knowledge and understanding.
When you multiply and become fruitful in the land in those days,’ declares the LORD, ‘people will no longer say, “The ark of the LORD’s covenant.” It will not come to mind; they will not remember it or miss it, and it will not be made again.
At that time they will call Jerusalem the LORD’s Throne. All nations will gather there, to Jerusalem, for the LORD’s name. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
In those days the house of Judah will join the house of Israel. Together they will come from the northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.
I thought, “How I would place you among my sons
and give you a desirable land,
the most beautiful inheritance among the nations!”
I thought you would call me “My Father”
and would not turn away from following me.
But as a wife betrays her companion,
so you have betrayed me, house of Israel,’
declares the LORD.”
A response from the heights
A sound is heard on the bare heights,
the weeping pleas of Israel’s children,
for they have twisted their way
and forgotten the LORD their God.
“Return, children who have turned away;
I will heal your turning away.”
“Here we are! We come to you,
for you are the LORD our God.
Surely the hills are a deception,
the uproar on the mountains.
Surely in the LORD our God
is Israel’s salvation.
From our youth, Shame has devoured
what our ancestors worked for:
their flocks and cattle,
their sons and daughters.
Let us lie down in our shame;
let humiliation cover us.
We have sinned against the LORD our God,
we and our ancestors,
from our youth to this day.
We have not listened to the LORD our God.”