Jeremiah 3:1-5
New Living Translation
3 “If a man divorces a woman
and she goes and marries someone else,
he will not take her back again,
for that would surely corrupt the land.
But you have prostituted yourself with many lovers,
so why are you trying to come back to me?”
says the Lord.
2 “Look at the shrines on every hilltop.
Is there any place you have not been defiled
by your adultery with other gods?
You sit like a prostitute beside the road waiting for a customer.
You sit alone like a nomad in the desert.
You have polluted the land with your prostitution
and your wickedness.
3 That’s why even the spring rains have failed.
For you are a brazen prostitute and completely shameless.
4 Yet you say to me,
‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.
5 Surely you won’t be angry forever!
Surely you can forget about it!’
So you talk,
but you keep on doing all the evil you can.”
Jeremiah 3:1-5
Common English Bible
Jeremiah’s summons to change
3 If a man divorces his wife,
and after she leaves him marries another,
can he return to her again?
Wouldn’t such an act completely corrupt the land?
Yet you have prostituted yourself with many lovers.
Would you return to me?
declares the Lord.
2 Look to the well-traveled paths[a] and see!
Where haven’t you committed adultery?
On the roadsides you sit in wait for lovers,
like a nomad in the wilderness.
You have corrupted the land
with your cheap and reckless behavior.
3 That’s why the showers have failed
and the spring rains have ceased.
Still you act like a brazen prostitute[b]
who refuses to blush.
4 At the same time you say to me,
“My father, my friend since youth,
5 will you stay angry forever?
Will you continue to be furious?”
This is what you say
while you do as much evil as you possibly can.
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 3:2 Or bare heights
- Jeremiah 3:3 Or You have a prostitute’s forehead.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible