Jeremiah 3:1-8

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.

²“Lift up your eyes to ^(E)the desolate heights and see:
Where have you not ^[a]lain with men?
^(F)By the road you have sat for them
Like an Arabian in the wilderness;
^(G)And you have polluted the land
With your harlotries and your wickedness.
³Therefore the ^(H)showers have been withheld,
And there has been no latter rain.
You have had a ^(I)harlot’s forehead;
You refuse to be ashamed.
⁴Will you not from this time cry to Me,
‘My Father, You are ^(J)the guide of ^(K)my youth?
⁵^(L)Will He remain angry forever?
Will He keep it to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken and done evil things,
As you were able.”

A Call to Repentance

⁶The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what ^(M)backsliding Israel has done? She has ^(N)gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot. ⁷^(O)And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous ^(P)sister Judah saw it. ⁸Then I saw that ^(Q)for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had ^(R)put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; ^(S)yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.