3 A saying:^[a] ‘Look, if a man divorces his wife,
    and she goes from him and she becomes another man’s wife,^[b]
    will he return to her again?’
Will not that land be greatly defiled?
And you have prostituted yourself with many lovers,
    would you now return to me?” declares^[c] Yahweh.
² “Lift up your eyes at the barren heights,
    and see where you have not been ravished.
Beside the roads you sat for them like an Arab in the desert,^[d]
    and you have defiled the land
with your fornication
    and with your wickedness.
³ Therefore rain showers have been withheld,
    and the spring rain has not come.
Yet you have^[e] the forehead of a woman prostitute,
    you refuse to be ashamed.
⁴ Have you not just now called to me,
    ‘My father, you are the close friend of my youth?
⁵ Will he be angry forever?^[f]
    Will he maintain it always’?^[g]
Look, you have spoken,
    but you have done all the evil that you could.”^[h]

‘Return, apostate^[r] Israel,’ declares^[s] Yahweh.
‘I will not cause my anger^[t] to fall on you.
For I am loyal,’ declares^[u] Yahweh.
‘I will not be angry forever.^[v]
13 Only acknowledge your guilt,
that against Yahweh your God you have rebelled,
and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every leafy tree,
and you have not obeyed my voice,’ declares^[w] Yahweh.”

¹⁹ Then I thought, ‘How I would set you among the children,
    and I would give you a land of desire,
an inheritance of the glory of the hosts of nations.’
And I thought, ‘You would call me, “My father,”
    and you would not turn back from behind^[af] me.’
²⁰ However, as a wife departs treacherously from her lover,
    so you have dealt treacherously with me,
O house of Israel,” declares^[ag] Yahweh.
²¹ “A voice is heard on the barren heights,
    the weeping of the pleas for mercy of the children of Israel,
because they have perverted their way,
    they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
²² Return, O apostate^[ah] children,
    I will heal your backsliding.
‘Look, we come to you,
    for you are Yahweh our God.
²³ Surely, an illusion comes from the hills,
    the turmoil on the mountains.
Surely, in Yahweh our God
    is the salvation of Israel.
²⁴ But the shameful thing has devoured
    the labor of our ancestors^[ai] from our youth,
their flocks, and their cattle,
    their sons and their daughters.
²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame,
    and let our disgrace cover us.
For against Yahweh our God we have sinned,
    we and our ancestors,^[aj]
from our youth and until this day.
    and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.’