1. A saying: ‘Look, if a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and she becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her again?’ Will not that land be greatly defiled? And you have prostituted yourself with many lovers, would you now return to me?” declares Yahweh.
2. “Lift up your eyes at the barren heights, and see where you have not been ravished. Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert, and you have defiled the land with your fornication and with your wickedness.
3. Therefore rain showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come. Yet you have the forehead of a woman prostitute, you refuse to be ashamed.
4. Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the close friend of my youth?
5. Will he be angry forever? Will he maintain it always’? Look, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.”
6. Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, “Have you seen what apostate Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted herself there.
7. And I thought, ‘After her doing all these things to me she will return,’ but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8. And I saw that for this very reason, that on account of apostate Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also.
9. And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree.
10. Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares Yahweh.
11. Then Yahweh said to me, “Apostate Israel has proved herself more upright than treacherous Judah.
12. Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, apostate Israel,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not cause my anger to fall on you. For I am loyal,’ declares Yahweh. ‘I will not be angry forever.
13. Only acknowledge your guilt, that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares Yahweh.”
14. “Return, apostate children,” declares Yahweh. “For I am your master, and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan, and I will bring you to Zion.
15. Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart and they will feed you knowledge and insight.
16. And it will be when you have multiplied and become fruitful in the land in those days,” declares Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of Yahweh.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again.
17. At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of Yahweh,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem, and they will no longer go after the stubbornness of their evil heart.