14. “Return, backsliding children,” says the Lord; “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15. I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16. It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days,” says the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of the Lord’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made.
17. At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘the Lord’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the Lord’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
18. In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.
19. “But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’
20. “Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says the Lord.
21. A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22. Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding.“Behold, we have come to you; for you are the Lord our God.
23. Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.
24. But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.