22  —Return, backsliding children; I will heal your backslidings. …Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art Jehovah our God. 23  Truly in vain is salvation looked for from the hills, and the multitude of mountains; truly in Jehovah our God is the salvation of Israel. 24  But shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25  We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah our God.

Chapter 4

1  If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, return unto me; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not be a wanderer; 2  —and thou shalt in truth, in justice, and in righteousness swear, As Jehovah liveth! and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

3  For thus saith Jehovah to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: Break up for you a fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 4  Circumcise yourselves for Jehovah, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my fury come forth like fire and burn, and there be none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

5  Declare ye in Judah, and cause it to be heard in Jerusalem, and say, …and blow the trumpet in the land, cry aloud and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fenced cities. 6  Set up a banner toward Zion; take to flight, stay not! For I am bringing evil from the north, and a great destruction. 7  The lion is come up from his thicket, the destroyer of the nations is on his way; he is gone forth from his place, to make thy land desolate; thy cities shall be laid waste, without inhabitant. 8  For this, gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl! for the fierce anger of Jehovah is not turned away from us.