Jeremiah 3
3"When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, will the first husband return to her again?The land would be deeply polluted, would it not?Since you have committed fornication with many lovers, would you now return to me? declares the Lord.H559H376H7971H802H1980H312H376H7725H776H2610H2610H2181H7227H7453H7725H5002H30682"Look up to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been ravished?You have sat beside the road, waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. And you have polluted the land with your fornication and your wickedness.H5375H5869H8205H7200H375H7693H7901H1870H3427H6163H4057H2610H776H2184H74513This is why the rain has been withheld and there are no spring showers. Yet you have a harlot's look and you refused to be ashamed.H7241H4513H4456H2181H802H4696H3985H36374Have you not just called out to me, 'My father, you are the friend of my youth -H7121H1H441H52715will he hold on to his anger forever, will he persist in his wrath to the end? Look, you have spoken and done evil things, and you have succeeded in it."H5201H5769H8104H5331H1696H6213H7451H32016In the time of King Josiah the Lord said to me, "Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did?She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there.H3068H559H3117H2977H4428H7200H4878H3478H6213H1980H1364H2022H8478H7488H6086H21817I thought, 'After she has done all these things, she will return to me.' But she didn't return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw this.H559H310H6213H7725H7725H901H269H3063H72008I saw that even though I had sent unfaithful Israel away for all her adulteries and had given her a divorce decree, her treacherous sister Judah didn't fear, and she, too, committed adultery.H7200H182H4878H3478H5003H7971H5414H5612H3748H898H269H3063H3372H3212H21819She took her fornication so lightly that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.H6963H2184H2610H776H5003H68H608610Yet in all this her treacherous sister Judah didn't return to me with her whole heart, but rather deceptively," declares the Lord.H901H269H3063H7725H3820H8267H5002H306811Then the Lord said to me, "Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.H3068H559H4878H3478H6663H5315H898H306312Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say, 'Return, unfaithful Israel,' declares the Lord. 'I won't look on you in anger, for I am gracious,' declares the Lord. 'I won't remain angry forever.H1980H7121H1697H6828H559H7725H4878H3478H5002H3068H6440H5307H2623H5002H3068H5201H576913'Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God, and have scattered your favors to strangers under every green tree. But you haven't obeyed me,' declares the Lord.H3045H5771H6586H3068H430H6340H1870H2114H7488H6086H8085H6963H5002H306814"Return, unfaithful people," declares the Lord, "for I am your husband. I'll take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I'll bring you to Zion.H7725H7726H1121H5002H3068H1166H3947H259H5892H8147H4940H935H672615I'll give you shepherds after my own heart, and they'll shepherd you with knowledge and good sense."H5414H7462H3820H7462H1844H791916"And in those days when you increase in numbers and multiply in the land," declares the Lord, "people will no longer say, 'The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord,' and it won't come to mind, and they won't remember it or miss it, nor will it be made again.H7235H6509H776H3117H5002H3068H559H727H1285H3068H5927H3820H2142H6485H621317At that time people will call Jerusalem "The Throne of the Lord," and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. They'll no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires.H6256H7121H3389H3678H3068H1471H6960H8034H3068H3389H3212H310H8307H7451H382018In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and together they'll come to the land that I gave your ancestors as an inheritance."H3117H1004H3063H3212H1004H3478H935H3162H776H6828H776H5157H119"I said, 'How I wanted to treat you like children, and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of the nations.' I said, 'You will call me, my father, and won't turn back from following me.'H559H7896H1121H5414H2532H776H6643H5159H6635H1471H559H7121H1H7725H31020Instead, like an unfaithful wife leaves her husband, so you have been unfaithful to me, house of Israel," declares the Lord.H403H802H898H7453H898H1004H3478H5002H306821"A voice is heard on the barren heights, the weeping and pleading of the children of Israel because they have perverted their way. They have forgotten the Lord their God."H6963H8085H8205H1065H8469H1121H3478H5753H1870H7911H3068H43022"Turn back, unfaithful people, and I'll heal your unfaithfulness." "Look, we're coming to you because you are the Lord our God.H7725H7726H1121H7495H4878H857H3068H43023Truly the hills are a deception, and the mountains are confusion. Truly, in the Lord our God is Israel's salvation."H403H8267H1389H1995H2022H403H3068H430H8668H347824Since our youth the false gods have consumed the products of our ancestors' hard work, their sheep and their cattle, their sons and their daughters.H1322H398H3018H1H5271H6629H1241H1121H132325"Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us, because both we and our ancestors have sinned against the Lord our God from our youth until this present time. We haven't obeyed the Lord our God."H7901H1322H3639H3680H2398H3068H430H1H5271H3117H8085H6963H3068H430
Columbus, OH
