Jeremiah:3

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* "They say , 'If a man puts away his wife , and she goes from him , and become another man 's , will he return to her again ?' Wouldn 't that land be greatly polluted ? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers ; yet return again to me ," says Yahweh . * "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights , and see ! Where have you not been lain with ? You have sat for them by the ways , as an Arabian in the wilderness . You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness . * Therefore the showers have been withheld , and there has been no latter rain ; yet you have a prostitute 's forehead , you refused to be ashamed . * Will you not from this time cry to me , 'My Father , you are the guide of my youth ?' * "'Will he retain his anger forever ? Will he keep it to the end ?' Behold , you have spoken and have done evil things , and have had your way ." * Moreover , Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king , "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done ? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree , and there has played the prostitute . * I said after she had done all these things , 'She will return to me ;' but she didn 't return ; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it . * I saw , when , for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery , I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce , yet treacherous Judah , her sister , didn 't fear ; but she also went and played the prostitute . * It happened through the lightness of her prostitution , that the land was polluted , and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks . * Yet for all this her treacherous sister , Judah , has not returned to me with her whole heart , but only in pretense ," says Yahweh . * Yahweh said to me , "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah . * Go , and proclaim these words toward the north , and say , 'Return , you backsliding Israel ,' says Yahweh ; 'I will not look in anger on you ; for I am merciful ,' says Yahweh . 'I will not keep anger forever . * Only acknowledge your iniquity , that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God , and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree , and you have not obeyed my voice ,' says Yahweh ." * "Return , backsliding children ," says Yahweh ; "for I am a husband to you . I will take you one of a city , and two of a family , and I will bring you to Zion . * I will give you shepherds according to my heart , who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding . * It shall come to pass , when you are multiplied and increased in the land , in those days ," says Yahweh , "they shall say no more , 'The ark of the covenant of Yahweh !' neither shall it come to mind ; neither shall they remember it ; neither shall they miss it ; neither shall it be made any more . * At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of Yahweh ;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it , to the name of Yahweh , to Jerusalem . Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart . * In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel , and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers . * "But I said , 'How I would put you among the children , and give you a pleasant land , a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations !' and I said , 'You shall call me "My Father ," and shall not turn away from following me .' * "Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband , so you have dealt treacherously with me , house of Israel ," says Yahweh . * A voice is heard on the bare heights , the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel ; because they have perverted their way , they have forgotten Yahweh their God . * Return , you backsliding children , I will heal your backsliding . "Behold , we have come to you ; for you are Yahweh our God . * Truly in vain is help from the hills , the tumult on the mountains . Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God . * But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth , their flocks and their herds , their sons and their daughters . * Let us lie down in our shame , and let our confusion cover us ; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God , we and our fathers , from our youth even to this day . We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God ."

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