12. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, “‘Return, faithless Israel,declares the Lord.I will not look on you in anger,for I am merciful,declares the Lord; I will not be angry forever.
13. Only acknowledge your guilt,that you rebelled against the Lord your Godand scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,and that you have not obeyed my voice,declares the Lord.
14. Return, O faithless children,declares the Lord; 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. “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16. And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again.
17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.
18. In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.
19. “‘I said,How I would set you among my sons,and give you a pleasant land,a heritage most beautiful of all nations.And I thought you would call me, My Father,and would not turn from following me.
20. Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,declares the Lord.’”
21. A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sonsbecause they have perverted their way;they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22. “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”“Behold, we come to you,for you are the Lord our God.
23. Truly the hills are a delusion,the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our Godis the salvation of Israel.
24. “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.