18. In those days the people of Judah and Israel will leave the north together for the land that I gave their ancestors as an inheritance.
19. I thought to myself, How wonderful it would beto treat you like childrenand give you a beautiful land,an inheritance unrivaled among the nations.And I thought, You will call me father,and you won’t turn away from me.
20. But as a woman betrays her lover,so you, people of Israel, have betrayed me,declares the Lord.
21. A voice is heard on the well-traveled paths;it’s the crying and pleading of the people of Israel,who have lost their wayand forgotten the Lord their God.