Jeremy 3

¹It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she departing from him marry another man, will he return to her any more? Shall not that woman be polluted and contaminated? But thou hast committed fornication with many lovers: nevertheless return unto me, saith our Lord, and I will receive thee.

²Lift up thine eyes direct, and see where thou hast not been polluted: thou didst sit in the ways, expecting them as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land in thy fornications, and in thy malices.

³For which thing the drops of rain were kept back, and there was no lateward shower: thou hadst an harlot's forehead, thou wouldest not blush.

⁴Therefore at the least from henceforth call me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity.

⁵Why, wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou persevere unto the end? Lo, thou hast spoken, and hast done evils, and hast prevailed.

⁶And our Lord said to me in the days of Josias the king: Hast thou seen what things the revolter Israel hath done? She hath gone of herself upon every high mountain, and under every thick green tree and hath fornicated there.

⁷And I said, when she had done all these things: Return to me, & she returned not. And Juda her transgressing sister saw,

⁸because the rebel Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: and Juda her transgressing sister was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.

⁹And with the facility of her fornication she contaminated the land, played the harlot with stone & wood.

¹⁰And in all these things Juda her transgressing sister hath not returned to me in her whole heart, but in falsehood, saith our Lord.

¹¹And our Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul, in comparison of the transgressor Juda.

¹²Go, and cry these words against the North, and thou shalt say: Return, o rebellious Israel, saith our Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: because I am holy, saith our Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.

¹³But yet know thou thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast dispersed thy ways to strangers under every thick green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith our Lord.

¹⁴Return, o ye revolting children, saith our Lord: because I am your husband: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.

¹⁵And I will give you Pastors according to my heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.

¹⁶And when you shall be multiplied and increase in the land in those days, saith our Lord, they shall say no more: The Ark of the Testament of our Lord: neither shall it ascend upon their heart, neither shall they be mindful thereof, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.

¹⁷In that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of our Lord: & all Gentiles shall be gathered together to it, in the name of our Lord into Jerusalem, & they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.

¹⁸In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, & they shall come together from the land of the North to the land which I gave to your fathers.

¹⁹But I said: How shall I make thee as children, and give thee a land worthy to be desired, the goodly inheritance of the hosts of the Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father, & shalt not cease to walk after me.

²⁰But as if a woman should contemn her lover, so hath the house of Israel contemned me, saith our Lord.

²¹A voice was heard in the ways, weeping & howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way unjust, they have forgotten our Lord their God.

²²Return ye revolting children, & I will heal your revoltings. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.

²³In very deed the little hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: verily in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴Confusion hath eaten the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks, and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵We shall sleep in our confusion, and our ignominy shall cover us, because we have sinned to the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day: and we have not heard the voice of the Lord our God.