The people of Judah are unfaithful
1The Lord asks:
‘If a man divorces his wife
and she marries another man,
do you think that the first man
will take back that wife? No, he won't.
Because if he does that,
he will make the whole land impure.
You have gone away from Me
and you have served a lot of idols,
and now you want to come back to Me?
No, I will not take you back.
2Look at all the hills that have no trees.
You have served_idols on all of them.
You were like prostitutes
sitting at the side of the road
waiting for men to have sex with you.
You wanted to serve idols
like thieves or Arabians waiting
to attack people in the desert.
You served idols and did bad things
and you have made the land impure.
3I have punished you and stopped
the winter rains and the spring rains.
They did not come to you,
but you went on like prostitutes
who have no shame.
4You always say to me:
“Our Father, You are still our good Friend.”
5You ask Me to stop being angry with you,
but you keep on doing wrong all the time.’
Come back my children
6When Josiah was king, the Lord said to me: ‘Have you seen what the Israelites have done? They have betrayed Me. They have served_idols on every high hill and under every green tree. 7I thought that they would come back to Me after they had done all these things, but they did not come back. The unfaithful people in Judah saw this and they were unfaithful too. 8I chased away the Israelites who betrayed Me, like a man who divorces his wife and chases her away after she has committed_adultery. But I saw the unfaithful people of Judah did not become afraid. They also went and served_idols. 9It was easy for the Israelites to serve_idols. They made the land impure and they turned away from Me to serve idols made of wood and stone. 10When I chased the Israelites away, the unfaithful people of Judah said that they would come back to Me, but they did not do it. They only pretended to come back.’ This is what the Lord said. 11The Lord also said to me: ‘But the Israelites who betrayed Me are not as guilty as the unfaithful people of Judah.
12Jeremiah, you must look to the north and say: The Lord says:
“Come back, Israelites
who have betrayed Me.
I am not angry with you anymore,
and I want to do what I promised
when I made a covenant with you.
I will not stay angry forever.
13But you must know this:
You have sinned.
You were rebellious_against the Lord your God,
and you served gods of other nations everywhere,
under every green tree.
You did not listen to Me.” ’
This is what the Lord said. 14The Lord also says: ‘Come back to Me, my children who have betrayed Me. You belong to Me. I will take one of you out of every town or city, and from each family I will take 2 of you, and I will bring you to Zion. 15I will give you good leaders, people who will be like I want them to be. They will know Me and they will rule like I want them to. 16There will be more and more of you in the land and you will have a lot of children. No one will ask where the covenant box of the Lord is, because the Lord will be with you. No one will think about it or want to make another box. 17Then people will say the name of Jerusalem is: “The Throne Of The Lord” and all nations will come together there where the Lord is, in Jerusalem. They will not be stubborn anymore, and they will not do what their sinful hearts tell them to do. 18At that time the people of Judah will come with the Israelites from the land far to the north. They will come to the land that I gave to their forefathers.’
You must change your hearts
19The Lord says:
‘I wanted to adopt you
to be like my own children.
I wanted to give you a wonderful land
that is more beautiful
than the most beautiful land
of the other nations.
I thought that you would say to Me:
“You are our Father.”
I thought that you would not go away from Me.
20But children of Israel,
you were unfaithful to Me
like a woman who is unfaithful to her husband.’
This is what the Lord said. 21He says:
‘I listened to the Israelites when they cried
on the hills where there were no trees.
They prayed and asked Me to listen to them
because they had done wrong,
and they had forgotten the Lord their God.
22Children who have betrayed Me,
you must come back to Me.
I will heal you
so that you will not betray Me again.’
Then the Israelites will say:
‘Here we are. We will come back to You
because You are the Lord our God.
23We have served_idols
on the mountains and hills,
but those idols did not help us.
No, it is only the Lord our God
who can save Israel.
24Baal, the god who can not help,
took the wheat harvest
of our forefathers from the beginning,
and also their sheep and goats, their cattle
and their sons and daughters.
25We are ashamed, every day and night,
because we have sinned_against
the Lord our God, we and our forefathers,
from the beginning until now.
We did not listen to the Lord our God.’
