14. “Return, O backsliding children,” declares Adonai. “For I am your Husband. I will choose you—one from a city and two from a clan— and will bring you to Zion.
15. I will give you shepherds after My own heart who will feed you knowledge and understanding.
16. It will be in those days when you multiply and become fruitful in the land.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “They will no longer talk about the ark of the covenant of Adonai, nor will it come to mind or be remembered. Neither will it be missed or another one made again.
17. At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of Adonai and all the nations will gather into it, to Jerusalem, in the Name of Adonai. No longer will they walk according to the stubbornness of their evil heart.
18. In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel. They will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.”
19. “Then I Myself said: ‘How gladly would I make you sons and give you a pleasant land— the most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’ I thought you would call Me—Avi!— and would not turn from following Me.
20. Yet as a woman betrays her lover, so have you betrayed Me, O house of Israel.” It is a declaration of Adonai.
21. A voice is heard on the barren hills —the weeping and supplication of the children of Israel— because they perverted their way and forgot Adonai their God.
22. “Return, backsliding children! I will heal your backsliding.” “Yes, we will come to You for You are Adonai Eloheinu.
23. Surely help from the hills is a delusion— the commotion of the mountains! Surely in Adonai Eloheinu is the salvation of Israel.
24. But the shame has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth— their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.