Jeremiah 3:1
New King James Version
Israel Is Shameless
3 “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife,
And she goes from him
And becomes another man’s,
(A)May he return to her again?’
Would not that (B)land be greatly polluted?
But you have (C)played the harlot with many lovers;
(D)Yet return to Me,” says the Lord.
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
New King James Version
Law Concerning Divorce
24 “When a (A)man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some [a]uncleanness in her, and he writes her a (B)certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, 2 when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife, 4 (C)then her former husband who divorced her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that is [b]an abomination before the Lord, and you shall not bring sin on the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.
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- Deuteronomy 24:1 indecency, lit. nakedness of a thing
- Deuteronomy 24:4 a detestable thing
Ezekiel 16:26
New King James Version
26 You also committed harlotry with (A)the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to (B)provoke Me to anger.
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Hosea 14:1-4
New King James Version
Israel Restored at Last
14 O Israel, (A)return to the Lord your God,
For you have stumbled because of your iniquity;
2 Take words with you,
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him,
“Take away all iniquity;
Receive us graciously,
For we will offer the (B)sacrifices[a] of our lips.
3 Assyria shall (C)not save us,
(D)We will not ride on horses,
Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’
(E)For in You the fatherless finds mercy.”
4 “I will heal their (F)backsliding,
I will (G)love them freely,
For My anger has turned away from him.
Footnotes
- Hosea 14:2 Lit. bull calves; LXX fruit
Hosea 2:5-7
New King James Version
5 For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
(A)Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’
6 “Therefore, behold,
(B)I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And [a]wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will [b]chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
(C)‘I will go and return to my (D)first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
Ezekiel 23:4-49
New King James Version
4 Their names: [a]Oholah the elder and [b]Oholibah (A)her sister;
(B)They were Mine,
And they bore sons and daughters.
As for their names,
Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
The Older Sister, Samaria
5 “Oholah played the harlot even though she was Mine;
And she lusted for her lovers, the neighboring (C)Assyrians,
6 Who were clothed in purple,
Captains and rulers,
All of them desirable young men,
Horsemen riding on horses.
7 Thus she committed her harlotry with them,
All of them choice men of Assyria;
And with all for whom she lusted,
With all their idols, she defiled herself.
8 She has never given up her harlotry brought (D)from Egypt,
For in her youth they had lain with her,
Pressed her virgin bosom,
And poured out their immorality upon her.
9 “Therefore I have delivered her
Into the hand of her lovers,
Into the hand of the (E)Assyrians,
For whom she lusted.
10 They uncovered her nakedness,
Took away her sons and daughters,
And slew her with the sword;
She became a byword among women,
For they had executed judgment on her.
The Younger Sister, Jerusalem
11 “Now (F)although her sister Oholibah saw this, (G)she became more corrupt in her lust than she, and in her harlotry more corrupt than her sister’s harlotry.
12 “She lusted for the neighboring (H)Assyrians,
(I)Captains and rulers,
Clothed most gorgeously,
Horsemen riding on horses,
All of them desirable young men.
13 Then I saw that she was defiled;
Both took the same way.
14 But she increased her harlotry;
She looked at men portrayed on the wall,
Images of (J)Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,
15 Girded with belts around their waists,
Flowing turbans on their heads,
All of them looking like captains,
In the manner of the Babylonians of Chaldea,
The land of their nativity.
16 (K)As soon as her eyes saw them,
She lusted for them
And sent (L)messengers to them in Chaldea.
17 “Then the [c]Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love,
And they defiled her with their immorality;
So she was defiled by them, (M)and alienated herself from them.
18 She revealed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness.
Then (N)I (O)alienated Myself from her,
As I had alienated Myself from her sister.
19 “Yet she multiplied her harlotry
In calling to remembrance the days of her youth,
(P)When she had played the harlot in the land of Egypt.
20 For she lusted for her [d]paramours,
Whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys,
And whose issue is like the issue of horses.
21 Thus you called to remembrance the lewdness of your youth,
When the (Q)Egyptians pressed your bosom
Because of your youthful breasts.
Judgment on Jerusalem
22 “Therefore, Oholibah, thus says the Lord God:
(R)‘Behold, I will stir up your lovers against you,
From whom you have alienated yourself,
And I will bring them against you from every side:
23 The Babylonians,
All the Chaldeans,
(S)Pekod, Shoa, Koa,
(T)All the Assyrians with them,
All of them desirable young men,
Governors and rulers,
Captains and men of renown,
All of them riding on horses.
24 And they shall come against you
With chariots, wagons, and war-horses,
With a horde of people.
They shall array against you
Buckler, shield, and helmet all around.
‘I will delegate judgment to them,
And they shall judge you according to their judgments.
25 I will set My (U)jealousy against you,
And they shall deal furiously with you;
They shall remove your nose and your ears,
And your remnant shall fall by the sword;
They shall take your sons and your daughters,
And your remnant shall be devoured by fire.
26 (V)They shall also strip you of your clothes
And take away your beautiful jewelry.
27 ‘Thus (W)I will make you cease your lewdness and your (X)harlotry
Brought from the land of Egypt,
So that you will not lift your eyes to them,
Nor remember Egypt anymore.’
28 “For thus says the Lord God: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hand of (Y)those you hate, into the hand of those (Z)from whom you alienated yourself. 29 (AA)They will deal hatefully with you, take away all you have worked for, and (AB)leave you naked and bare. The nakedness of your harlotry shall be uncovered, both your lewdness and your harlotry. 30 I will do these things to you because you have (AC)gone as a harlot after the Gentiles, because you have become defiled by their idols. 31 You have walked in the way of your sister; therefore I will put her (AD)cup in your hand.’
32 “Thus says the Lord God:
‘You shall drink of your sister’s cup,
The deep and wide one;
(AE)You shall be laughed to scorn
And held in derision;
It contains much.
33 You will be filled with drunkenness and sorrow,
The cup of horror and desolation,
The cup of your sister Samaria.
34 You shall (AF)drink and drain it,
You shall break its [e]shards,
And tear at your own breasts;
For I have spoken,’
Says the Lord God.
35 “Therefore thus says the Lord God:
‘Because you (AG)have forgotten Me and (AH)cast Me behind your back,
Therefore you shall bear the penalty
Of your lewdness and your harlotry.’ ”
Both Sisters Judged
36 The Lord also said to me: “Son of man, will you (AI)judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then (AJ)declare to them their abominations. 37 For they have committed adultery, and (AK)blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons (AL)whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them. 38 Moreover they have done this to Me: They have (AM)defiled My sanctuary on the same day and (AN)profaned My Sabbaths. 39 For after they had slain their children for their idols, on the same day they came into My sanctuary to profane it; and indeed (AO)thus they have done in the midst of My house.
40 “Furthermore you sent for men to come from afar, (AP)to whom a messenger was sent; and there they came. And you (AQ)washed yourself for them, (AR)painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments. 41 You sat on a stately (AS)couch, with a table prepared before it, (AT)on which you had set My incense and My oil. 42 The sound of a carefree multitude was with her, and [f]Sabeans were brought from the wilderness with men of the common sort, who put bracelets on their [g]wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 Then I said concerning her who had grown old in adulteries, ‘Will they commit harlotry with her now, and she with them?’ 44 Yet they went in to her, as men go in to a woman who plays the harlot; thus they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the lewd women. 45 But righteous men will (AU)judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women who shed blood, because they are adulteresses, and (AV)blood is on their hands.
46 “For thus says the Lord God: (AW)‘Bring up an assembly against them, give them up to trouble and plunder. 47 (AX)The assembly shall stone them with stones and [h]execute them with their swords; (AY)they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn their houses with fire. 48 Thus (AZ)I will cause lewdness to cease from the land, (BA)that all women may be taught not to practice your lewdness. 49 They shall repay you for your lewdness, and you shall (BB)pay for your idolatrous sins. (BC)Then you shall know that I am the Lord God.’ ”
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- Ezekiel 23:4 Lit. Her Own Tabernacle
- Ezekiel 23:4 Lit. My Tabernacle Is in Her
- Ezekiel 23:17 Lit. sons of Babel
- Ezekiel 23:20 Illicit lovers
- Ezekiel 23:34 Earthenware fragments
- Ezekiel 23:42 Or drunkards
- Ezekiel 23:42 Lit. hands
- Ezekiel 23:47 Lit. cut down
Ezekiel 16:28-29
New King James Version
28 You also played the harlot with the (A)Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. 29 Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, (B)Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied.
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Jeremiah 4:1
New King James Version
Jeremiah Laments over Judah
4 “If you will return, O Israel,” says the Lord,
(A)“Return to Me;
And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight,
Then you shall not be moved.
Jeremiah 2:20
New King James Version
20 “For of old I have (A)broken your yoke and burst your bonds;
And (B)you said, ‘I will not [a]transgress,’
When (C)on every high hill and under every green tree
You lay down, (D)playing the harlot.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 2:20 Kt. serve
Deuteronomy 4:29-31
New King James Version
29 (A)But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in [a]distress, and all these things come upon you in the (B)latter days, when you (C)turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice 31 (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor (D)destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.
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- Deuteronomy 4:30 tribulation
Luke 15:16-24
New King James Version
16 And he would gladly have filled his stomach with the [a]pods that the swine ate, and no one gave him anything.
17 “But when he came to himself, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! 18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say to him, “Father, (A)I have sinned against heaven and before you, 19 and I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.” ’
20 “And he arose and came to his father. But (B)when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven (C)and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, [b]‘Bring out the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet. 23 And bring the fatted calf here and kill it, and let us eat and be merry; 24 (D)for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ And they began to be merry.
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- Luke 15:16 carob pods
- Luke 15:22 NU Quickly bring
Zechariah 1:3
New King James Version
3 Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Return (A)to Me,” says the Lord of hosts, “and I will return to you,” says the Lord of hosts.
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Hosea 1:2
New King James Version
The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
(A)“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For (B)the land has committed great [a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 1:2 Spiritual adultery
Ezekiel 33:11
New King James Version
11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord God, (A)‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked (B)turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For (C)why should you die, O house of Israel?’
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Jeremiah 8:4-6
New King James Version
The Peril of False Teaching
4 “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Will they fall and not rise?
Will one turn away and not return?
5 Why has this people (A)slidden back,
Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding?
(B)They hold fast to deceit,
(C)They refuse to return.
6 (D)I listened and heard,
But they do not speak aright.
(E)No man repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
As the horse rushes into the battle.
Jeremiah 4:14
New King James Version
14 O Jerusalem, (A)wash your heart from wickedness,
That you may be saved.
How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?
Jeremiah 3:9
New King James Version
9 So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she (A)defiled the land and committed adultery with (B)stones and trees.
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Jeremiah 2:23
New King James Version
23 “How(A) can you say, ‘I am not [a]polluted,
I have not gone after the Baals’?
See your way in the valley;
Know what you have done:
You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways,
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 2:23 defiled
Isaiah 55:6-9
New King James Version
6 (A)Seek the Lord while He may be (B)found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 (C)Let the [a]wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man (D)his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
(E)And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For(F) My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For(G) as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 55:7 Lit. man of iniquity
Judges 19:2
New King James Version
2 But his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there four whole months.
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Leviticus 18:24-28
New King James Version
24 (A)‘Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; (B)for by all these the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you. 25 For (C)the land is defiled; therefore I (D)visit[a] the punishment of its iniquity upon it, and the land (E)vomits out its inhabitants. 26 (F)You shall therefore [b]keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger who dwells among you 27 (for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were before you, and thus the land is defiled), 28 lest (G)the land vomit you out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
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- Leviticus 18:25 bring judgment for
- Leviticus 18:26 obey
Micah 2:10
New King James Version
10 “Arise and depart,
For this is not your (A)rest;
Because it is (B)defiled, it shall destroy,
Yes, with utter destruction.
Jeremiah 3:22
New King James Version
22 “Return, you backsliding children,
And I will (A)heal your backslidings.”
“Indeed we do come to You,
For You are the Lord our God.
Jeremiah 3:12-14
New King James Version
12 Go and proclaim these words toward (A)the north, and say:
‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you.
For I am (B)merciful,’ says the Lord;
‘I will not remain angry forever.
13 (C)Only acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against the Lord your God,
And have (D)scattered your [a]charms
To (E)alien deities (F)under every green tree,
And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.
14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; (G)“for I am married to you. I will take you, (H)one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to (I)Zion.
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- Jeremiah 3:13 Lit. ways
Jeremiah 2:7
New King James Version
7 I brought you into (A)a bountiful country,
To eat its fruit and its goodness.
But when you entered, you (B)defiled My land
And made My heritage an abomination.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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