1. A saying:If a man divorces his wifeand she leaves him and marries another man,her first husband shouldn’t go back to her again.The land would become thoroughly polluted.“You have acted like a prostitute who has many lovers.And now you want to come back to me!” declares the Lord.
2. “Look at the bare hills, and see.You have had sex with men in every place.You sat by the roadside waiting for them like a nomad in the desert.You have polluted the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
3. So the rain has been withheld, and there have been no spring showers.Yet, you have the shameless look of a prostitute,and you refuse to blush.
4. But now you are calling to me.You say, ‘Father! You have been my companionever since I was young.
5. He won’t hold a grudge forever.He won’t always be angry.’You have said and done all the evil things that you could.”
6. When Josiah was king, the Lord asked me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She went up every high mountain and under every large tree, and she acted like a prostitute there.
7. I thought that after she had done all this that she would come back to me. But she didn’t come back, and her treacherous sister Judah saw her.
8. Judah saw that I sent unfaithful Israel away because of her adultery and that I gave Israel her divorce papers. But treacherous Judah, her sister, wasn’t afraid. She also acted like a prostitute.