King James VersionJeremiah3

Jeremiah

1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and be­come an­oth­er man's, shall he re­turn unto her again? shall not that land be great­ly pol­lut­ed? but thou hast played the har­lot with many lovers; yet re­turn again to me, saith the LORD. 2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Ara­bi­an in the wilder­ness; and thou hast pol­lut­ed the land with thy whore­doms and with thy wicked­ness. 3 There­fore the show­ers have been with­hold­en, and there hath been no lat­ter rain; and thou hadst a whore's fore­head, thou re­fusedst to be ashamed. 4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My fa­ther, thou art the guide of my youth? 5 Will he re­serve his anger for ev­er? will he keep it to the end? Be­hold, thou hast spo­ken and done evil things as thou couldest. 6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josi­ah the king, Hast thou seen that which back­slid­ing Is­rael hath done? she is gone up upon ev­ery high moun­tain and un­der ev­ery green tree, and there hath played the har­lot. 7 And I said af­ter she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she re­turned not. And her treach­er­ous sis­ter Ju­dah saw it. 8 And I saw, when for all the caus­es where­by back­slid­ing Is­rael com­mit­ted adul­tery I had put her away, and giv­en her a bill of di­vorce; yet her treach­er­ous sis­ter Ju­dah feared not, but went and played the har­lot al­so. 9 And it came to pass through the light­ness of her whore­dom, that she de­filed the land, and com­mit­ted adul­tery with stones and with stocks. 10 And yet for all this her treach­er­ous sis­ter Ju­dah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feigned­ly, saith the LORD. 11 And the LORD said unto me, The back­slid­ing Is­rael hath jus­ti­fied her­self more than treach­er­ous Ju­dah. 12 Go and pro­claim these words to­ward the north, and say, Re­turn, thou back­slid­ing Is­rael, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am mer­ci­ful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ev­er. 13 Only ac­knowl­edge thine in­iq­ui­ty, that thou hast trans­gressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scat­tered thy ways to the strangers un­der ev­ery green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. 14 Turn, O back­slid­ing chil­dren, saith the LORD; for I am mar­ried unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a fam­i­ly, and I will bring you to Zion: 15 And I will give you pas­tors ac­cord­ing to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowl­edge and un­der­stand­ing. 16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be mul­ti­plied and in­creased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: nei­ther shall it come to mind: nei­ther shall they re­mem­ber it; nei­ther shall they vis­it it; nei­ther shall that be done any more. 17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the na­tions shall be gath­ered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: nei­ther shall they walk any more af­ter the imag­i­na­tion of their evil heart. 18 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 have giv­en for an in­her­i­tance unto your fa­thers. 19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the chil­dren, and give thee a pleas­ant land, a good­ly her­itage of the hosts of na­tions? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My fa­ther; and shalt not turn away from me. 20 Sure­ly as a wife treach­er­ous­ly de­parteth from her hus­band, so have ye dealt treach­er­ous­ly with me, O house of Is­rael, saith the LORD. 21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weep­ing and sup­pli­ca­tions of the chil­dren of Is­rael: for they have per­vert­ed their way, and they have for­got­ten the LORD their God. 22 Re­turn, ye back­slid­ing chil­dren, and I will heal your back­slid­ings. Be­hold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God. 23 Tru­ly in vain is sal­va­tion hoped for from the hills, and from the mul­ti­tude of moun­tains: tru­ly in the LORD our God is the sal­va­tion of Is­rael. 24 For shame hath de­voured the labour of our fa­thers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daugh­ters. 25 We lie down in our shame, and our con­fu­sion cov­ereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fa­thers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.