Jeremiah 3–4

3A saying:^a ‘Look, if a man divorces his wife,

and she goes from him and she becomes another man’s wife,^b

will he return to her again?’

Will not that land be greatly defiled?

And you have prostituted yourself with many lovers,

would you now return to me?” declares^c Yahweh.

²“Lift up your eyes at the barren heights,

and see where you have not been ravished.

Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert,^d

and you have defiled the land

with your fornication

and with your wickedness.

³Therefore rain showers have been withheld,

and the spring rain has not come.

Yet you have^e the forehead of a woman prostitute,

you refuse to be ashamed.

⁴Have you not just now called to me,

‘My father, you are the close friend of my youth?

⁵Will he be angry forever?^f

Will he maintain it always’?^g

Look, you have spoken,

but you have done all the evil that you could.”^h

Yahweh Gives Israel a Letter of Divorce

⁶Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah, the king, “Have you seen what apostateⁱ Israel has done? She has gone on every high hill and under every leafy tree and she has prostituted herself there. ⁷And I thought, ‘After her doing all these things to me she will return,’ but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.^{j 8}And I saw that for this very reason, that^k on account of apostate^l Israel committing adultery I divorced her and gave the letter of divorce to her. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid and she went and prostituted herself also. ⁹And it was because of the frivolity of her fornication that she defiled the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the tree. ¹⁰Yet even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but only^m in pretense,”ⁿ declares^o Yahweh.

A Call for Repentance

¹¹Then Yahweh said to me, “Apostate^p Israel has proved herself more upright^q than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

‘Return, apostate^r Israel,’ declares^s Yahweh.

‘I will not cause my anger^t to fall on you.

For I am loyal,’ declares^u Yahweh.

‘I will not be angry forever.^v

¹³Only acknowledge your guilt,

that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled,

and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree,

and you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares^w Yahweh.”

¹⁴“Return, apostate^x children,” declares^y Yahweh. “For I am your master,^z and I will take you one from a city and two from a clan,^a and I will bring you to Zion. ¹⁵Then I will give you shepherds after my own heart and they will feed you knowledge and insight. ¹⁶And it will be when you have multiplied and become fruitful in the land in those days,” declares^b Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of Yahweh.’ And it will not come to mind,^c nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it,^d nor will it be made again. ¹⁷At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of Yahweh,’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem, and they will no longer go after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah will walk along with the house of Israel and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave as an inheritance to your ancestors.^e

¹⁹Then I thought, ‘How I would set you among the children,

and I would give you a land of desire,

an inheritance of the glory of the hosts of nations.’

And I thought, ‘You would call me, “My father,”

and you would not turn back from behind^f me.’

²⁰However, as a wife departs treacherously from her lover,

so you have dealt treacherously with me,

O house of Israel,” declares^g Yahweh.

²¹“A voice is heard on the barren heights,

the weeping of the pleas for mercy of the children of Israel,

because they have perverted their way,

they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

²²Return, O apostate^h children,

I will heal your backsliding.

‘Look, we come to you,

for you are Yahweh our God.

²³Surely, an illusion comes from the hills,

the turmoil on the mountains.

Surely, in Yahweh our God

is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴But the shameful thing has devoured

the labor of our ancestorsⁱ from our youth,

their flocks, and their cattle,

their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame,

and let our disgrace cover us.

For against Yahweh our God we have sinned,

we and our ancestors,^j

from our youth and until this day.

and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.’

4If you return, O Israel,” declares^a Yahweh,

“you return to me.

And if you remove your abominations from my presence,^b

and you do not wander,

²and you swear, ‘As Yahweh lives,’^c

in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,

then nations will be blessed by him,

and in him they will boast.”

³For thus says Yahweh

to the men^d of Judah and to Jerusalem,

“Break up for yourselves prepared virgin soil,

and you must not sow among thornbushes.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to Yahweh,

and remove the foreskins of your hearts,^e

men^f of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,

lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and burns,

and there is no one who extinguishes it,^g

because of the evil of your deeds.”

An Invasion from the North

⁵Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem and say,

“Blow a horn through the land,

call with a loud voice^h and say,

‘Be gathered and let us go into the fortified cities.’

⁶Lift up a signal toward Zion,

bring yourselves to safety; you must not remain standing,

for I am bringing evil from the north,

and a great destruction.

⁷A lion has gone up from his thicket,

and a destroyer of nations has set out.

He has gone out from his place to make your land as a horror,

your cities will go to ruin withoutⁱ inhabitant.

⁸Because of this gird yourselves with sackcloth,^j lament and wail,

for the burning anger^k of Yahweh has not turned back from us.

⁹And then on that day,” declares^l Yahweh,

“the heart of the king and the heart of the officials will be destroyed,

and the priests will be appalled,

and the prophets will be astonished.”

¹⁰Then I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It will be peace for you,’ while the sword reaches up to the throat.”

¹¹At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem,

“A hot wind from the barren heights^m in the desert,ⁿ

in the direction of^o the daughter of my people,

not to winnow and not to cleanse,

¹²a wind too strong for^p these will come for me,

now also I speak judgments against them.”

¹³Look, he comes up like the clouds,

and his chariots are like the whirlwind,

his horses are swifter than eagles,

woe to us, for we are devastated.

¹⁴Cleanse your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem,

so that you may be saved.

How long^q will your thoughts of mischief

dwell in your inner part?

¹⁵For a voice is declaring from Dan,

and is proclaiming disaster from the mountain of Ephraim.

¹⁶“Report to the nations, ‘Here they are!’

Proclaim against Jerusalem,

‘Besiegers are coming from a distant land,^r

and they raise their voice against the cities of Judah.’

¹⁷Like watchers of a field they were against her from all around,

because she has rebelled against me,” declares^s Yahweh.

¹⁸“You obtained this for yourself

because of your way and your deeds.

This is your doom, for it is bitter,

yes, it has reached up to your heart.”

¹⁹My bowels, my bowels! I writhe!

The walls of my heart!

My heart is restless within me, I cannot keep silent,

for I hear in my inner self the sound of a horn, the alarm of war.

²⁰Destruction on destruction is proclaimed,

for all of the land is devastated.

Suddenly my tents are devastated,

my tent curtains in a moment.

²¹How long must I see the banner,

and hear the sound of a horn?

²²“For my people are foolish,

they have not known me.

They are foolish children,

and they do not have insight.

They are skillful at doing evil,

and they do not know how to do good.”

²³I looked at the earth, and behold, it was wasteland and emptiness,

and to the heavens, and they were without their light.

²⁴I looked at the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,

and all of the hills were jolted to and fro.

²⁵I looked and behold, there was no person,

and all of the birds^t of the sky had fled.

²⁶I looked and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,^u

and all of its cities were ruined before Yahweh,

before the face of his burning anger.^v

²⁷For thus says Yahweh, “All of the land will be a desolation,

yet I will not make a complete desolation.

²⁸Because of this the earth will mourn,

and the heavens above will become dark.

Because I have spoken, I have planned,

and I have not relented, and I will not turn back from it.”

²⁹From the sound of a horseman and an archer^w every town flees,

they enter in the thickets and among the rocks they climb.

Every town is forsaken,

and there is no person who lives in them.

³⁰And you, O devastated one, what do you do,

that you put on crimson,

that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,

that you make your eyes look bigger with the eye make-up?

In vain you beautify yourself.

Your lovers reject you;

they seek your life.

³¹For I heard a voice like an ill woman,

anxiety like a woman who bears her first child,

the voice of the daughter of Zion.

She is gasping for breath,

she is spreading out her hands:

“Woe is me, for I am becoming tired^x before killers.”