Jeremiah 3:3–10

³That’s why even the spring rains have failed.

For you are a brazen prostitute and completely shameless.

⁴Yet you say to me,

‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.

⁵Surely 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.”

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

⁶During 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. ⁷I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her faithless sister Judah saw this. ⁸She 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. ⁹Israel 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. ¹⁰But 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!”