1 ARST “People know that if a man divorces his wife and then she marries another man, her first husband certainly must not take her back again to be his wife again. She would be ceremonially unclean and she has broken the law of Yahweh. This nation is like this woman. But you have more idols than prostitutes have men whom they have slept with! So, why should I accept you if you return to me?” it is Yahweh who says this. BSB BSB: “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
2 ARST “Look up at the barren hilltops. On every hilltop you have given yourselves to the idols in the way a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. You sat along the roadsides like an Arab nomad who is always waiting in the desert for someone to come; but you are waiting to have sex with those who pass by. Your unfaithfulness is the worship of idols, and your prostitution is just like your idol worship. The whole land is made unacceptable to Yahweh, and your worship of idols is your prostitution and your wickedness is what made you unclean. BSB BSB: “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
3 ARST That is why I have not sent you any rain at the times of the year when you needed it. But you are like prostitutes who are not at all ashamed for what they have done. BSB BSB: Therefore the showers have been withheld, and no spring rains have fallen. Yet you have the brazen look of a prostitute; you refuse to be ashamed.
4 ARST Now each of you says to me,‘You are my father! You have loved me ever since I was young! BSB BSB: Have you not just called to Me, ‘My Father, You are my friend from youth.
5 ARST So surely you will not be angry with me forever!’ You promised you would not obey me, and you did what you said! And you sinned over and over again! But you will not quit sinning!” BSB BSB: Will He be angry forever? Will He be indignant to the end?’ This you have spoken, but you keep doing all the evil you can.”
6 ARST One day when Josiah was the king of Judah, Yahweh said to me,“Have you seen what the people of Israel have done? They have turned away from me, like a woman who has abandoned her husband and sleeps with other men. They have gone up on every hilltop and under every shady tree and worshiped idols there. BSB BSB: Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
7 ARST I thought that they would return to me, but they did not. And their brothers, the people of Judah, were watching all of this. BSB BSB: I thought that after she had done all these things, she would return to Me. But she did not return, and her unfaithful sister Judah saw it.
8 ARST So I sent the people of Israel away to other countries, as a man writes a note saying that he is divorcing his wife and then sends her away because she has committed adultery. But I realized that, just as the people of Israel, the people of Judah were not at all afraid of me. Instead, they acted just as the people of Israel had done. They also turned away from me and began worshiping idols, just as women who leave their husbands and go to other men. BSB BSB: She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.
9 ARST They did not care that worshiping idols offended me, so they have made the entire land unacceptable to me by worshiping idols of wood and stone. BSB BSB: Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
10 ARST The people of Judah have pretended to return to me, but they have not been sincere. This is true because I, Yahweh, have said it.” BSB BSB: Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.
11 ARST Then Yahweh said to me,“Jeremiah, the people of Israel have turned away from me, but what the people of Judah have done is worse. BSB BSB: And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah.
12 ARST So go and tell this to the people of Israel,‘Yahweh says this to you Israelite people who have turned away from him: I am merciful. I will not continue to be angry with you forever. So return to me. BSB BSB: Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.
13 ARST But you must admit that you are guilty, and that you have rebelled against me, Yahweh, your God, that you have worshiped idols under big trees everywhere, and you have not obeyed me. You have turned away from me. BSB BSB: Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.
14 ARST But you belong to me, so come back to me, my children! If you do, I will take you, one from each city and two from each clan, and bring you back to Jerusalem. BSB BSB: “Return, O faithless children,” declares the LORD, “for I am your master, and I will take you—one from a city and two from a family—and bring you to Zion.
15 ARST If you do that, I will appoint for you leaders with whom I am pleased who will guide you well because they will know and understand what pleases me. BSB BSB: Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.”
16 ARST And when you become very numerous in your land, you will not need to talk about the Sacred Chest that contained the Ten Commandments. You will not think about it, and you will not want to make a new one.’ BSB BSB: “In those days, when you multiply and increase in the land,” declares the LORD, “they will no longer discuss the ark of the covenant of the LORD. It will never come to mind, and no one will remember it or miss it, nor will another one be made.
17 ARST At that time people will say that my throne is in Jerusalem. People from all nations will come there to worship me, and they will no longer stubbornly do the evil things that they desire in their inner beings. BSB BSB: At that time they will call Jerusalem The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered in Jerusalem to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts.
18 ARST At that time you people of Israel and Judah will return from being exiled in lands to the north. You will return to the land that I gave to your ancestors to belong to them forever. BSB BSB: In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave to your fathers as an inheritance.
19 ARST You people of Israel, I wanted to accept you to be my children. I wanted to give you this delightful land. It is a land more desirable than the land of any other nation! I wanted you to call me your father, and I wanted you to never stop honoring me. BSB BSB: Then I said, ‘How I long to make you My sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations!’ I thought you would call Me ‘Father’ and never turn away from following Me.
21 ARST Then God said,“People will hear a noise on the barren hilltops. It will be the noise made by people weeping and pleading for God to be merciful to them. They will be admitting that they have forgotten Yahweh their God, and that they turned away from behaving as God wanted them to. BSB BSB: A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.
22 ARST You Israelite people, come back to me! If you do that, I will cause you to never turn away from me again.” The people will reply,“We are returning to you, because you are Yahweh, our God. BSB BSB: “Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.
23 ARST When we worshiped idols on the mountains, we did not get any help. Even though we shouted very loudly in our worship, every promise we believed turned out to be lies and only lies. We now know that trusting in Yahweh our God is the only way Israel will be rescued! BSB BSB: Surely deception comes from the hills, and commotion from the mountains. Surely the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God.
24 ARST From the time when we were young, the shameful god Baal has taken away from us everything that our ancestors worked hard to acquire. He has taken away their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, their sons and their daughters. BSB BSB: From our youth, that shameful god has consumed what our fathers have worked for—their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
25 ARST So, now we should lie down feeling very ashamed, because we and our ancestors have sinned against Yahweh our God, and we have never obeyed him.” BSB BSB: Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.