Jeremiah 3:19-4:4

New International Version - UK

‘“How gladly would I treat you like my children
    and give you a pleasant land,
    the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.”
I thought you would call me “Father”
    and not turn away from following me.
²⁰ But like a woman unfaithful to her husband,
    so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,’
declares the Lord.

²¹ A cry is heard on the barren heights,
    the weeping and pleading of the people of Israel,
because they have perverted their ways
    and have forgotten the Lord their God.

²² ‘Return, faithless people;
    I will cure you of backsliding.’

‘Yes, we will come to you,
    for you are the Lord our God.
²³ Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills
    and mountains is a deception;
surely in the Lord our God
    is the salvation of Israel.
²⁴ From our youth shameful gods have consumed
    the fruits of our ancestors’ labour –
their flocks and herds,
    their sons and daughters.
²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame,
    and let our disgrace cover us.
We have sinned against the Lord our God,
    both we and our ancestors;
from our youth till this day
    we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’

4 ‘If you, Israel, will return,
    then return to me,’
declares the Lord.
‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sight
    and no longer go astray,
² and if in a truthful, just and righteous way
    you swear, “As surely as the Lord lives,”
then the nations will invoke blessings by him
    and in him they will boast.’

‘Break up your unploughed ground
    and do not sow among thorns.
⁴ Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,
    circumcise your hearts,
    you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or my wrath will flare up and burn like fire
    because of the evil you have done –
    burn with no one to quench it.