Jeremiah 3:1–10

Unfaithful Israel

3The Lord says, “If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife, he cannot take her back again. This would completely defile the land. But, Israel, you have had many lovers, and now you want to return to me! ²Look up at the hilltops. Is there any place where you have not acted like a prostitute? You waited for lovers along the roadside, as an Arab waits for victims in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution. ³That is why the rains were held back, and the spring showers did not come. You even look like a prostitute; you have no shame.

⁴“And now you say to me, ‘You are my father, and you have loved me ever since I was a child. ⁵You won’t always be angry; you won’t be cross with me for ever.’ Israel, that is what you said, but you did all the evil you could.”

Israel and Judah Must Repent

^6*When Josiah was king, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what Israel, that unfaithful woman, has done? She has turned away from me, and on every high hill and under every green tree she has acted like a prostitute. ⁷I thought that after she had done all this, she would surely return to me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it all. ⁸Judah also saw that I divorced Israel and sent her away because she had turned from me and had become a prostitute. But Judah, Israel’s unfaithful sister, was not afraid. She too became a prostitute ⁹and was not at all ashamed. She defiled the land, and she committed adultery by worshipping stones and trees. ¹⁰And after all this, Judah, Israel’s unfaithful sister, only pretended to return to me; she was not sincere. I, the Lord, have spoken.”