Jeremiah 3

Wages of Apostasy

1 If  * 3:1 One Hb ms, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read Saying: If a man divorces his wife

and she leaves him to marry another,

can he ever return to her?  * 3:1 Dt 24:1–4

Wouldn’t such a land  * 3:1 LXX reads woman become totally defiled?

But you!

You have prostituted yourself with many partners  * 3:1 Ezk 16:26,28  —

can you return to me?  * 3:1 Hs 2:7

This is the  Lord’s declaration.

2 Look to the barren heights  * 3:2 Dt 12:2; Ezk 16:52 and see.

Where have you not been immoral?

You sat waiting for them beside the highways  * 3:2 Gn 38:14; Pr 7:10–12; Ezk 16:25

like a nomad in the desert.

You have defiled the land

with your prostitution and wickedness.  * 3:2 Nm 14:33

3 This is why the showers haven’t come  * 3:3 Zch 14:7  —

why there has been no spring rain.

You have the brazen look  * 3:3 Ezk 3:7–8 of a prostitute  * 3:3 Lit have a prostitute’s forehead

and refuse to be ashamed.  * 3:3 Jr 6:15; 8:12

4 Haven’t you recently called to me, "My Father!  * 3:4 Ex 4:22; Is 1:2; 64:8; Hs 11:1; Gl 4:6

You were my friend in my youth.  * 3:4 Ps 71:17; Hs 2:15

5 Will he bear a grudge forever?  * 3:5 Lv 19:18; Ps 103:9; Is 57:16; Nah 1:2

Will he be endlessly infuriated? "

This is what you have said,

but you have done the evil things

you are capable of.

Unfaithful Israel, Treacherous Judah

6 In the days of King Josiah the Lord asked me, "Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there.  * 3:6 Jr 2:207 I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.’ * 3:7 Hs 14:1 But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah  * 3:7 Ezk 16:46 saw it. 8 I  * 3:8 One Hb ms, Syr read She observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce.  * 3:8 Dt 24:1–4; Is 50:1; Hs 2:2 Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself.  * 3:8 Ezk 23:119 Indifferent to  * 3:9 Lit From the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones  * 3:9 Is 57:6 and trees.  * 3:9 Dt 28:36; Jr 2:27; Ezk 20:32; Hab 2:19; Rv 9:2010 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to me with all her heart  * 3:10 Hs 7:14  — only in pretense."

This is the Lord’s declaration.

11 The Lord announced to me, "Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.  * 3:11 Ezk 16:51–52; 23:1112 Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say,

‘Return, unfaithful Israel.  * 3:12 Pr 28:13

This is the  Lord’s declaration.

I will not look on you with anger,  * 3:12 Lit not cause my face to fall on you

for I am unfailing in my love.  * 3:12 Ps 86:5; 145:17

This is the  Lord’s declaration.

I will not be angry forever.  * 3:12 Ps 103:9; Is 57:16; Mc 7:18

13 Only acknowledge your guilt  * 3:13 Lv 26:40; 1Jn 1:9  —

you have rebelled against the  Lord your God.  * 3:13 2Kg 18:20; Is 36:5; Jr 2:29

You have scattered your favors to strangers

under every green tree  * 3:13 Dt 12:2; 2Kg 16:4; 2Ch 28:4; Is 57:5; Jr 2:20; 3:6,13; Ezk 20:47

and have not obeyed me.

This is the  Lord’s declaration.

14 " ‘Return, you faithless children  * 3:14 Hs 14:1  — this is the Lord’s declaration — for I am your master,  * 3:14 Or husband,* 3:14 Hs 2:16–17 and I will take you,  * 3:14 Hs 2:19–20 one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 I will give you shepherds who are loyal to me,  * 3:15 Lit shepherds according to my heart,* 3:15 1Sm 13:14; Jr 23:4; Ezk 34:23; Ac 20:28; Eph 4:11 and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill. 16 When you multiply and increase in the land,  * 3:16 Gn 1:28; Ex 1:12 in those days — this is the Lord’s declaration — no one will say again, "The ark of the Lord’s covenant."  * 3:16 Ex 37:1–9; Dt 31:24–29; 1Kg 8:6 It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. Another one will not be made.  * 3:16 Or It will no longer be done17 At that time Jerusalem will be called The Lord’s Throne,  * 3:17 Ezk 43:7; Rv 22:1,3 and all the nations will be gathered to it,  * 3:17 Is 2:2–4; 43:9; 56:6–7; 66:18; Jr 16:19 to the name of the Lord in Jerusalem.  * 3:17 Dt 12:5 They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18 In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel,  * 3:18 Is 11:12–13; Jr 50:4–5; Ezk 37:15–22; Hs 11:1 and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I have given your ancestors to inherit.’ "  * 3:18 Am 9:15

True Repentance

19 I thought, "How I long to make you my sons

and give you a desirable land,

the most beautiful inheritance  * 3:19 Dt 32:8–9; Ps 16:6; Lm 2:15; Ezk 20:6,15 of all the nations."

I thought, "You will call me ‘My Father’

and never turn away from me."

20 However, as a woman may betray her lover,  * 3:20 Lit friend

so you have betrayed  * 3:20 Ex 21:8–9; Is 48:8; Hs 1:2; 5:7; 6:7 me, house of Israel.

This is the  Lord’s declaration.

21 A sound is heard on the barren heights:

the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,

for they have perverted their way;

they have forgotten the  Lord their God.  * 3:21 Is 17:10

22 Return, you faithless children.

I will heal your unfaithfulness.  * 3:22 Is 57:18; Hs 5:15–6:3; 14:1–3

"Here we are, coming to you,

for you are the  Lord our God.

23 Surely, falsehood comes from the hills,

commotion from the mountains,  * 3:23 Ps 121:1–2

but the salvation of Israel

is only in the  Lord our God.  * 3:23 Ps 3:8; Jr 17:5–8

24 From the time of our youth

the shameful one  * 3:24 = Baal has consumed

what our ancestors have worked for —

their flocks and their herds,

their sons and their daughters.

25 Let us lie down in our shame;

let our disgrace cover us.  * 3:25 Jb 8:22; Ezr 9:6

We have sinned against the  Lord our God,  * 3:25 Is 64:5; Jr 8:14; 14:7,20; Lm 3:42; 5:16; Dn 9:5

both we and our ancestors,

from the time of our youth even to this day.  * 3:25 Ezr 9:7; Ezk 2:3

We have not obeyed the  Lord our God."