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Chapter 3
1 It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but you have prostituted yourself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, said the Lord, and I will receive you.
2 Lift up your eyes on high: and see where you have not prostituted yourself: you did sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the wilderness: and you have polluted the land with your fornications, and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: you had a harlot's forehead, you would not blush.
4 Therefore at least at this time call to me: you are my father, the guide of my virginity:
5 will you be angry for ever, or will you continue until the end? Behold, you have spoken, and have done evil things, and have been able.
6 And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: have you seen what rebellious Israel have done? she has gone out of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and has played the harlot there.
7 And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,
8 That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.
9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
10 And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda has not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, said the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel has justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and you shall say: Return, O rebellious Israel, said the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, said the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.
13 But yet acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God: and you have scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree, and have not heard my voice, said the Lord.
14 Return, O ye revolting children, said the Lord: for I am your husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.
15 And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
16 And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, said the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.
17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the thrown of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.
18 In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.
19 But I said: How shall I put you among the children, and give you a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And I said: you shall call me father and shall cease to walk after me.
20 But as a woman that despises her lover, so has the house of Israel despised me, said the Lord.
21 A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions. Behold we come to you: for you are the Lord our God.
23 In very deed the hills were liars. and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 Confusion has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.