Open English Translation JER Chapter 3

3 Listen, if a man divorced his wife and she left and married another man,

surely he wouldn’t move in with her again?

Wouldn’t the country end up totally immoral?

Now you’ve acted like a prostitute with many partners—

would you then return to me?

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

2 Look up at the barren hilltops and see.

Is there anywhere there where you haven’t given yourself?

You sat by the paths waiting for them like an Arab waiting in the wilderness,

and so you’ve polluted the nation by your acts of prostitution and wickedness.

3 That’s why the showers have been withheld

≈ and the late rains never came,

yet you have the look of a prostitute who refuses to be ashamed.

4 Even now you say that I’m your father,

or that I’m your close friend from since you were young.

5 Will he be angry forever?

≈ Or permanently keep watch?

Listen, you say that, but you do all the wicked things that you can.

6 At the time when Yoshiyah (Josiah) was king of Yehudah (Judah), Yahweh asked me, “Do you see what faithless Yisrael has done? She herself has walked up every high hill, and has been a prostitute underneath every green tree.[ref] 7 However I thought that after she’d done all those things, she’d return to me, but she hasn’t, and her treacherous sister, Yehudah, saw her. 8 So I saw that because of all those situations where faithless Yisrael had committed adultery, I had given her divorce notice to her and sent her away. But her sister Yehudah, acting treacherously, wasn’t worried and she went out and also prostituted herself. 9 Because she took her prostitution lightly, the nation became immoral and committed adultery with standing stones and trees. 10 Then after all that, that treacherous sister Yehudah didn’t return to me with sincerity, but with deception. That is Yahweh’s declaration.

11 Then Yahweh told me: Unfaithful Yisrael has actually been more upright than treacherous Yehudah! 12 Go up north and tell them:

Unfaithful Yisrael, Yahweh declares:

Return to me—

I won’t continue to be angry at you, because I’m faithful.

That’s Yahweh’s declaration.

13 However you must recognise your disobedience

because you’ve rebelled against your god, Yahweh,

and you’ve extended your connections to foreign gods under every leafy tree,

and you haven’t listened to my voice.

That’s Yahweh’s declaration.

14 Return you unfaithful children, Yahweh declares,

because I’m your husband.

Then I’ll take you all—one from a city and a couple from a clan—and I’ll bring you to Tsiyyon (Zion),

15 and I’ll give you shepherds who’ll be faithful to me,

and they will guide you with knowledge and insight.

16 Then when you’re fruitful and multiply in the land, Yahweh says,

they’ll no longer talk about having the chest containing Yahweh’s agreement.

They won’t call it to mind or remember it,

≈ and they won’t miss it or want a new one made again.

17 At that time, they’ll call Yerushalem (Jerusalem) Yahweh’s throne,

and they’ll be gathered there from all the nations to honour Yahweh’s name,

and they won’t want to behave again according to the evil in their own stubborn minds.

18 In those days, the people of Yehudah will join the people of Yisrael,

coming from the northern lands to the land that I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.

19 Then I thought to myself about how I’d accept you to be my children,

and give you a desirable land—an inheritance that all nations consider very beautiful.

I decided that you’ll all call me ‘my father’,

and then you all won’t turn away from me.

20 However, like a woman who deals treacherously with her companion,

so too you’ve all dealt treacherously with me, you Israeli people.

That is Yahweh’s declaration.

21 A sound of weeping is heard on the barren hilltops—

≈ the Israeli people begging for mercy

because they’ve followed paths of disobedience

≈ and they’ve forgotten their god, Yahweh.

22 Come back, you unfaithful children—I will cure your faithlessness.

Say, look, we’re coming back to you because you’re our god, Yahweh.

23 Deception definitely comes from the hills—a commotion of mountains.

Our god Yahweh is certainly Yisrael’s salvation.

24 From our youth, that shameful idol worship has consumed our ancestors’ hard work—

their sheep and cattle, and their sons and daughters.

25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us,

because we’ve disobeyed our god, Yahweh.

Our ancestors and then we ourselves, haven’t listened to the voice of our god, Yahweh.