12 Go and proclaim these words toward zthe north, and say, dReturn, thou obacksliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not acause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am bmerciful, saith the Lord, and cI will not keep anger for ever. 13 dOnly acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast escattered thy ways to the fstrangers gunder every green tree, and hye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord. 14 iTurn, jO backsliding children, saith the Lord; for kI am married unto you: and I will take you lone of a city, and mtwo of a family, and I will bring you to Zion: 15 And nI will give you opastors according to mine heart, pwhich shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it †come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall ||that be done any more. 17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and qall the nations shall be gathered unto it, rto the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither sshall they walk any more after the ||imagination of their evil heart. 18 In those days tthe house of Judah shall walk ||with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of uthe north to vthe land that I have ||given for an inheritance unto your fathers. 19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a †pleasant land, †a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, xThou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away †from me. 20 Surely as a wife xxtreacherously departeth from her †husband, so yhave ye xxdealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.

21 A voice was heard upon zthe high places, weeping and asupplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and bthey have forgotten the Lord their God. 22 cReturn, ye backsliding children, and I dwill heal your ebackslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God. 23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for ffrom the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly gin the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. 24 For hshame hath devoured ithe 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 jour confusion covereth us: for kwe have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, lfrom our youth even unto this day, and mhave not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.

4 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, areturn unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not bremove. 2 cAnd thou shalt swear, dThe Lord liveth, ein truth, in judgment, and ein righteousness; and fthe nations shall bless themselves in him, and gin him shall they glory. 3 For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, hBreak up your ifallow ground, and ksow not among thorns. 4 lCircumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: mlest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, mnbecause of the evil of your doings. 5 Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, oBlow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, pAssemble yourselves, and let us go into qthe defenced cities. 6 rSet up the standard toward Zion: ||retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from sthe north, and a great †destruction. 7 tThe lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place uto make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, vwithout an inhabitant. 8 For this wgird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: xfor xythe fierce anger of the Lord is not turned back from us. 9 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the Lord, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall zwonder. 10 Then said I, Ah, Lord God! asurely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, bsaying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul. 11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem,

cA dry wind of dthe high places ein the wilderness toward the daughter of my people,

Not to fan, nor to cleanse,

12  Even ||a full wind from those places shall come unto me:

Now also will I †give sentence against them.

13  Behold, he shall come up as clouds,

And his chariots shall be fas a whirlwind:

His horses are gswifter than eagles.

Woe unto us! hfor we are spoiled.

14  O Jerusalem, iwash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.

How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

15  For ka voice declareth lfrom Dan,

And publisheth affliction from mmount Ephraim.

16  Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem,

That watchers come nfrom a far country,

And give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

17  oAs keepers of a field, are they against her round about;

Because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the Lord.

18  Thy way and thy doings phave procured these things unto thee;

This is thy wickedness, because qit is bitter,

Because it reacheth unto thine heart.

19  rMy bowels, my bowels! I am pained at †my very heart;

sMy heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace,

Because thou hast heard, O my soul, tthe sound of the trumpet, ttthe alarm of war.

20  uDestruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled:

Suddenly are vmy tents spoiled, and vmy curtains in a moment.

21  How long shall I see the standard, and hear tthe sound of the trumpet?

22  For my people is foolish, wthey have not known me;

They are sottish children, and they have none understanding:

xThey are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

23  yI beheld the earth, and, lo, it was zwithout form, and void;

And the heavens, and athey had no light.

24  I beheld bthe mountains, and, lo, they trembled,

And all the hills moved lightly.

25  I beheld, and, lo, cthere was no man,

And call the birds of the heavens dwere fled.

26  I beheld, and, lo, ethe fruitful place was a wilderness,

And all the cities thereof were broken down

At the presence of the Lord, and by his ffierce anger.

27  For thus hath the Lord said,

The whole land shall be desolate;

Yet gwill I not make a full end.

28  For this hshall the earth mourn, and aithe heavens above be black:

Because I have spoken it, I have purposed it,

And kwill not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

29  The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and lbowmen;

They shall go into thickets, and climb up upon mthe rocks:

Every city shall be forsaken, and nnot a man dwell therein.

30  And owhen thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do?

Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou pdeckest thee with ornaments of gold,

Though thou rentest qthy †face with painting, in vain rshalt thou make thyself fair;

Thy slovers twill despise thee, they will seek thy life.

31  For I have heard a voice as of ua woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child,

The voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that vspreadeth her hands,

wSaying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

5 aRun ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and bseek in the broad places thereof, cif ye can find a man, dif there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; eand I will pardon it. 2 And fthough they say, gThe Lord liveth; hsurely ithey swear falsely. 3 O Lord, are not kthine eyes upon the truth? thou hast lmstricken them, but they have not mgrieved; thou hast consumed them, but nthey have refused to receive correction: othey have made their faces harder than a rock; oothey have refused to return. 4 Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; pthey are foolish: for qthey know not the way of the Lord, nor qthe judgment of their God. 5 I will get me unto the great men, and will speak unto them; for qthey have known the way of the Lord, and qthe judgment of their God: but rthese have altogether broken the yoke, and rrburst the bonds. 6 Wherefore sa lion tout of the forest shall slay them, and ua wolf of the ||evenings shall spoil them, va leopard shall watch over their cities: every one that goeth out thence shall be torn in pieces: because their transgressions are many, and their wbackslidings †xare increased. 7 yHow shall I pardon thee for this? yythy children have forsaken me, and zsworn by athem that are no gods: bwhen I had fed them to the full, bbthey then committed adultery, and cassembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses. 8 They were as fed horses in the morning: every one dneighed eafter his neighbour’s wife. 9 fShall I not visit for these things? saith the Lord: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

10 gGo ye up upon her walls, and destroy; but hmake not a full end: take away her ibattlements; for they are not the Lord’s. 11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah khave dealt very treacherously against me, saith the Lord. 12 lThey have belied the Lord, and said, It is not he; neither shall evil come upon us; mneither shall we see sword nor famine: 13 And the prophets shall become nwind, and the word is not in them: thus shall it be done unto them. 14 Wherefore thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, oI will make my words in thy mouth pfire, and this people pwood, and it shall devour them. 15 Lo, I will bring qa nation upon you rfrom far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is sa mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, qa nation whose language thou knowest not, tneither understandest what they say. 16 uTheir quiver is as van open sepulchre, they are all mighty men. 17 And wthey shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters …