Jeremiah 3:12-4:4
New American Standard Bible
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north and say,
‘(A)Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the Lord;
‘(B)I will not [a]look at you in anger.
For I am (C)gracious,’ declares the Lord;
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only [b](D)acknowledge your wrongdoing,
That you have revolted against the Lord your God,
And have (E)scattered your [c]favors to the strangers (F)under every leafy tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ declares the Lord.
14 ‘Return, you faithless sons,’ declares the Lord;
‘For I am a (G)master to you,
And I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
And (H)bring you to Zion.’
15 “Then I will give you (I)shepherds [d]after My own heart, who will (J)feed you knowledge and understanding. 16 And it shall be in those days when you become numerous and are fruitful in the land,” declares the Lord, “they will (K)no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it, nor miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The (L)Throne of the Lord,’ and (M)all the nations will assemble at it, at Jerusalem, for the (N)name of the Lord; and they will no longer (O)follow the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 (P)In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together (Q)from the land of the north to the (R)land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
19 “Then I said,
‘How I would set you among [e]My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most (S)beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, (T)My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’
20 However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover,
So you have (U)dealt treacherously with Me,
House of Israel,” declares the Lord.
21 A voice is heard on the (V)bare heights,
The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel.
Because they have perverted their way,
They have (W)forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Return, you faithless sons,
(X)I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.
23 Certainly (Y)the hills are a deception,
[f]Commotion on the mountains.
Certainly in the (Z)Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
24 “But (AA)the shame has consumed the product of our fathers’ labor since our youth—their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our (AB)shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, (AC)from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
Judah Threatened with Invasion
4 “If you will (AD)return, Israel,” declares the Lord,
“Then you should return to Me.
And (AE)if you will put away your detestable things from My presence,
And will not waver,
2 And if you will (AF)swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
(AG)In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;
Then the (AH)nations will bless themselves in Him,
And (AI)in Him they will boast.”
3 For this is what the Lord says to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:
“[g](AJ)Break up your uncultivated ground,
And (AK)do not sow among thorns.
4 (AL)Circumcise yourselves to the Lord
And remove the foreskins of your hearts,
Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
Or else My (AM)wrath will spread like fire
And burn with (AN)no one to quench it,
Because of the evil of your deeds.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 3:12 Lit make My face fall
- Jeremiah 3:13 Lit know
- Jeremiah 3:13 Lit ways
- Jeremiah 3:15 I.e., with hearts like Mine
- Jeremiah 3:19 Lit the
- Jeremiah 3:23 I.e., from idolatrous rituals
- Jeremiah 4:3 Lit Plow for yourselves plowed ground
New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.
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