Jeremiah 3

1“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, 2Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and look! Is there any place where you have not had illicit sex? 3So the showers have been withheld and the spring rains have not come; 4Have you not just now called to me: 'My father! My closest friend even from my youth! 5Will he always be angry? Will he always keep his wrath to the end?' 6Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Do you see what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up every high hill and under every leafy tree, and there she has acted like a prostitute. 7I said, 'After she does all these things, she will return to me,' but she did not return. Then her faithless sister Judah saw these things. 8So I saw that, in the same way that faithless Israel had committed adultery and I had sent her away and had given a bill of divorce against her, her faithless sister Judah did not fear; she also went out and acted like a prostitute. 9Her prostitution was nothing to her; she defiled the land, and she committed adultery with stones and trees. 10Then after all of this, her faithless sister Judah returned to me, not with all her heart, but with a lie—this is Yahweh's declaration.” 11Then Yahweh said to me, “Faithless Israel has been more righteous than faithless Judah! 12Go and proclaim these words to the north. Say, 13Acknowledge your iniquity, for you have transgressed against Yahweh your God; 14Return, faithless people!—this is Yawheh's declaration—I am your husband! 15I will give you shepherds after my heart, and they will shepherd you with knowledge and insight. 16Then it will happen that you will increase and bear fruit in the land in those days—this is Yahweh's declaration-they will no longer say, “The ark of the covenant of Yahweh!” This matter will no longer come up in their hearts or be remembered; it will not be missed, and another one will not be made.' 17In that time they will proclaim about Jerusalem, 'This is Yahweh's throne,' and all the other nations will gather at Jerusalem in Yahweh's name. They will no longer walk in the stubbornness of their wicked hearts. 18In those days, the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel. They will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your ancestors as an inheritance. 19As for me, I said, 'How I want to treat you as my son and give you a pleasant land, 20But like a woman faithless to her husband, 21A voice is heard on the plains, the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel! 22“Return, faithless people! I will heal you of treachery!” 23Surely lies come from the hills, a confusing noise from the mountains; 24Yet shameful idols have consumed what our ancestors have worked for—