What Yahweh says about returning to him

4 Yahweh says, “You Israeli people, come back to me!

If you get rid of those detestable idols

and do not turn away from me again,

2 and if you declare, ‘Just as surely as Yahweh lives, what he says is true,’

and if you start to always say what is true and act justly/fairly and righteously,

then the people in the other nations of the world will request that I bless them as I have blessed you,

and they will all come and honor/praise me.”

3 This is what Yahweh says to the people of Jerusalem and the other cities in Judah:

“Prepare yourselves to receive my messages

like farmers plow up hard ground in order that they can plant seed in it.

Just as farmers do not waste good seed by sowing seeds among thorny plants,

I do not want to waste my time telling you messages that you are not ready to receive.

4 Purify your inner beings and your minds for me.

If you do not do that, my being angry with you [MTY]

because of all the sins that you have committed

will be like a fire that will be impossible to extinguish.”