New American Standard Bible JEREMIAH 3

The Polluted Land

1 God 1says, “AIf a husband divorces his wife

And she goes from him

And belongs to another man,

Will he still return to her?

Will not that land be completely 2polluted?

But you Bare a harlot with many 3lovers;

Yet you Cturn to Me,” declares the Loʀᴅ.

2 “Lift up your eyes to the Abare heights and see;

Where have you not been violated?

By the roads you have Bsat for them

Like an Arab in the desert,

And you have Cpolluted a land

With your harlotry and with your wickedness.

3 “Therefore the Ashowers have been withheld,

And there has been no spring rain.

Yet you had a Bharlot’s forehead;

You refused to be ashamed.

4 “Have you not just now called to Me,

‘AMy Father, You are the 1 Bfriend of my Cyouth?

5 ‘AWill He be angry forever?

Will He 1be indignant to the end?’

Behold, you have spoken

And have done evil things,

And you have 2had your way.”

Faithless Israel

6 Then the Loʀᴅ said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She Awent up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 7 “AI 1thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her Btreacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 “And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and Agiven her a writ of divorce, yet her Btreacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9 “Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she Apolluted the land and committed adultery with Bstones and trees. 10 “Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in Adeception,” declares the Loʀᴅ.

God Invites Repentance

11 And the Loʀᴅ said to me, “AFaithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 “Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,

‘AReturn, faithless Israel,’ declares the Loʀᴅ;

‘BI will not 1look upon you in anger.

For I am Cgracious,’ declares the Loʀᴅ;

‘I will not be angry forever.

13 ‘Only 1 Aacknowledge your iniquity,

That you have transgressed against the Loʀᴅ your God

And have Bscattered your 2favors to the strangers Cunder every green tree,

And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Loʀᴅ.

14 ‘Return, O faithless sons,’ declares the Loʀᴅ;

‘For I am a Amaster to you,

And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,

And BI will bring you to Zion.’

15 “Then I will give you Ashepherds after My own heart, who will Bfeed you on knowledge and understanding. 16 “It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Loʀᴅ, “they will Ano longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Loʀᴅ.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 “At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The AThrone of the Loʀᴅ,’ and Ball the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the Cname of the Loʀᴅ; nor will they Dwalk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 “AIn those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together Bfrom the land of the north to the Cland that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

19 “Then I said,

‘How I would set you among 1My sons

And give you a pleasant land,

The most Abeautiful inheritance of the nations!’

And I said, ‘You shall call Me, BMy Father,

And not turn away from following Me.’

20 “Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her 1lover,

So you have Adealt treacherously with Me,

O house of Israel,” declares the Loʀᴅ.

21 A voice is heard on the Abare heights,

The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;

Because they have perverted their way,

They have Bforgotten the Loʀᴅ their God.

22 “Return, O faithless sons,

AI will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to You;

For You are the Loʀᴅ our God.

23 “Surely, Athe hills are a deception,

A tumult on the mountains.

Surely in the BLoʀᴅ our God

Is the salvation of Israel.

24 “But Athe shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 “Let us lie down in our Ashame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Loʀᴅ our God, we and our fathers, Bfrom our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Loʀᴅ our God.”

13:1 Lit saying

A3:1 Deut 24:1-4

23:1 Or alienated

B3:1 Jer 2:20; Ezek 16:26, 28, 29

33:1 Lit companions

C3:1 Jer 4:1; Zech 1:3

A3:2 Deut 12:2; Jer 2:20; 3:21; 7:29

B3:2 Gen 38:14; Ezek 16:25

C3:2 Jer 2:7

A3:3 Lev 26:19; Jer 14:3-6

B3:3 Jer 6:15; 8:12

A3:4 Jer 3:19; 31:9