Jeremiah 3:21-4:2

Revised Standard Version

²¹A voice on the bare heights is heard,
    the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way,
    they have forgotten the Lord their God.
²²“Return, O faithless sons,
    I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to thee;
    for thou art the Lord our God.
²³Truly the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
    is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

4 “If you return, O Israel,
                says the Lord,
    to me you should return.
If you remove your abominations from my presence,
    and do not waver,
²and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
    in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,
then nations shall bless themselves in him,
    and in him shall they glory.”

Revised Standard Version (RSV)

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.