3. Therefore the showers were withheld,the spring rain did not fall.But because you have a prostitute’s brow,you refused to be ashamed.
4. Even now do you not call me, “My father,you are the bridegroom of my youth?
5. Will he keep his wrath forever,will he hold his grudge to the end?”This is what you say; yet you doall the evil you can.
6. The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Do you see what rebellious Israel has done? She has gone up every high mountain, and under every green tree she has played the prostitute.
7. And I thought: After she has done all this, she will return to me. But she did not return. Then, even though that traitor her sister Judah, saw
8. that, in response to all the adulteries rebel Israel had committed, I sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce, nevertheless Judah, the traitor, her sister, was not frightened; she too went off and played the prostitute.
9. With her casual prostitution, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and wood.
10. In spite of all this, Judah, the traitor, her sister, did not return to me wholeheartedly, but insincerely—oracle of the Lord.
11. Then the Lord said to me: Rebel Israel is more just than traitor Judah.
12. Go, proclaim these words toward the north, and say:Return, rebel Israel—oracle of the Lord—I will not remain angry with you;For I am merciful, oracle of the Lord,I will not keep my anger forever.