1. “If a man divorces a womanand she goes and marries someone else,he will not take her back again,for that would surely corrupt the land.But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers,so why are you trying to come back to me?”says the lord.
2. “Look at the shrines on every hilltop.Is there any place you have not been defiledby your adultery with other gods?You sit like a prostitute beside the road waiting for a customer.You sit alone like a nomad in the desert.You have polluted the land with your prostitutionand your wickedness.
3. That’s why even the spring rains have failed.For you are a brazen prostitute and completely shameless.
4. Yet you say to me,‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.
5. Surely you won’t be angry forever!Surely you can forget about it!’So you talk,but you keep on doing all the evil you can.”
6. During the reign of King Josiah, the lord said to me, “Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree.
7. I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her faithless sister Judah saw this.
8. She saw that I divorced faithless Israel because of her adultery. But that treacherous sister Judah had no fear, and now she, too, has left me and given herself to prostitution.
9. Israel treated it all so lightly—she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been polluted.
10. But despite all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry. I, the lord, have spoken!”
11. Then the lord said to me, “Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah!
12. Therefore, go and give this message to Israel. This is what the lord says:“O Israel, my faithless people,come home to me again,for I am merciful.I will not be angry with you forever.