3 3:1 “If[1] a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares theLord. ²Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been ravished? By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers like an Arab in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your vile whoredom. ³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come; yet you have the forehead of a whore; you refuse to be ashamed. ⁴Have you not just now called to me, ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth— ⁵will he be angry forever, will he be indignant to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken, but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

⁶The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? ⁷And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. ⁹Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. ¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

¹¹And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

“‘Return, faithless Israel, declares theLord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares theLord; I will not be angry forever. ¹³Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares theLord. ¹⁴Return, O faithless children, declares theLord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵“‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. ¹⁷At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

¹⁹“‘I said How I would set you among my sons, and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call me, My Father, and would not turn from following me. ²⁰Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel, declares the Lord.’”

²¹A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way; they have forgotten the Lord their God. ²²“Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God. ²³Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies[2] on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. ²⁴“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

[1] Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew Saying, “If [2] Hebrew commotion

4 4:1 “If you return, O Israel, declares theLord, to me you should return. If you remove your detestable things from my presence, and do not waver, ²and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in righteousness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.” ³For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. ⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

Disaster from the North

⁵Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“Blow the trumpet through the land; cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!’ ⁶Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, stay not, for I bring disaster from the north, and great destruction. ⁷A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant. ⁸For this put on sackcloth, lament, and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us.” ⁹“In that day, declares the Lord, courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” ¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you,’ whereas the sword has reached their very life.” ¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, ¹²a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.”

¹³Behold, he comes up like clouds; his chariots like the whirlwind; his horses are swifter than eagles— woe to us, for we are ruined! ¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil, that you may be saved. How long shall your wicked thoughts lodge within you? ¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim. ¹⁶Warn the nations that he is coming; announce to Jerusalem, “Besiegers come from a distant land; they shout against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷Like keepers of a field are they against her all around, because she has rebelled against me, declares theLord. ¹⁸Your ways and your deeds have brought this upon you.

This is your doom, and it is bitter; it has reached your very heart.”

Anguish over Judah’s Desolation

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain! Oh the walls of my heart! My heart is beating wildly; I cannot keep silent, for I hear the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. ²⁰Crash follows hard on crash; the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are laid waste, my curtains in a moment. ²¹How long must I see the standard and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²“For my people are foolish; they know me not; they are stupid children; they have no understanding. They are ‘wise’—in doing evil! But how to do good they know not.”

²³I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, and all the hills moved to and fro. ²⁵I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. ²⁶I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger. ²⁷For thus says the Lord, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

²⁸“For this the earth shall mourn, and the heavens above be dark; for I have spoken; I have purposed; I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

²⁹At the noise of horseman and archer every city takes to flight; they enter thickets; they climb among rocks; all the cities are forsaken, and no man dwells in them. ³⁰And you, O desolate one, what do you mean that you dress in scarlet, that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, that you enlarge your eyes with paint? In vain you beautify yourself. Your lovers despise you; they seek your life. ³¹For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, “Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”