1“People say, ‘If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to become another man’s wife, should he take her back again?’ Wouldn’t that country become deeply polluted? But you have acted like a prostitute with many lovers; yet return to me,” says Yahweh.
2“Look up to the barren hills and see! Where have you not been involved in immoral acts? You sat by the roads waiting for them, like an Arab bandit in the desert. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and your wickedness.
3Therefore, the rain has been held back, and there has been no late rain. Yet you have the shameless look of a prostitute. You refused to be ashamed.
4From now on, will you not cry out to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth’?
5“‘Will he stay angry forever? Will he keep it until the end?’ Look, you have said and done evil things, and you have gotten your way.”
6Also, in the days of King Josiah, Yahweh said to me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and acted like a prostitute there.
7After she had done all these things, I thought, ‘She will return to me,’ but she didn’t return. And her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.
8I saw that because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery, I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce. Yet her unfaithful sister Judah was not afraid; she also went and acted like a prostitute.
9Because she took her unfaithfulness so lightly, the land became defiled. She committed adultery by worshipping idols made of stone and wood.
10Yet, for all of this, her disloyal sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only pretends to,” says Yahweh.
11Yahweh said to me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown more righteousness than disloyal Judah.
12Go and proclaim these words to the north: ‘Return, unfaithful Israel,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not look at you in anger, for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not stay angry forever.
13Only admit your guilt, that you have sinned against Yahweh your God, and have chased after foreign gods under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’ says Yahweh.”
14“Return, unfaithful children,” says Yahweh, “for I am like a husband to you. I will take one person from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15I will give you leaders who follow my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16“In those days, when you have multiplied and increased in the land,” says Yahweh, “people will no longer talk about ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It won’t even cross their minds. They won’t remember it, miss it, or make another one.
17At that time, they will call Jerusalem ‘Yahweh’s Throne,’ and all the nations will gather to it, to Yahweh’s name, in Jerusalem. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
18In those days, the people of Judah will walk with the people of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I gave to your ancestors as an inheritance.
19“But I said, ‘How I wish I could place you among my children and give you a pleasant land, a beautiful inheritance like that of mighty nations!’ And I said, ‘You will call me “My Father” and will not turn away from following me.’
20“Surely, just as a wife betrays her husband, so you, the people of Israel, have betrayed me,” says Yahweh.
21A sound is heard on the barren hilltops, the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel, because they have corrupted their ways; they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
22Return, unfaithful children, and I will heal your unfaithfulness. “Look, we have come to you, for you are Yahweh our God.
23Truly, help from the hills and the commotion on the mountains are useless. Truly, the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.
24But that shameful idol worship has wasted what our ancestors worked for from our youth—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our disgrace cover us. For we have sinned against Yahweh our God—we and our ancestors—from our youth until this very day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God.”