Jeremiah 3
Legacy Standard Bible
The Polluted Land
3 God [a]says, “(A)If a husband divorces his wife
And she goes from him
And belongs to another man,
Will he still return to her?
Will not that land be completely [b]polluted?
But you (B)are a harlot with many [c]lovers;
Yet you (C)turn to Me,” declares Yahweh.
2 “Lift up your eyes to the (D)bare heights and see;
Where have you not been ravished?
By the roads you have (E)sat for them
Like [d]an Arab in the wilderness,
And you have (F)polluted a land
With your harlotry and with your evil.
3 Therefore the (G)showers have been withheld,
And the [e]late rain has not [f]come.
Yet you had a (H)harlot’s forehead;
You refused to feel dishonor.
4 Have you not just now called to Me,
‘(I)My Father, You are the [g](J)close companion of my (K)youth?
5 (L)Will He be angry forever?
Will He keep it to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken
And have done evil things,
And you have [h]had your way.”
Faithless Israel Called to Repentance
6 Then Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She (M)went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she was a harlot there. 7 (N)I said, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her (O)treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and (P)given her a certificate of divorce, yet her (Q)treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also. 9 So it was, because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she (R)polluted the land and committed adultery with (S)stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in (T)lying,” declares Yahweh.
11 And Yahweh said to me, “(U)Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and call out these words toward the north and say,
‘[i](V)Return, faithless Israel,’ declares Yahweh;
‘(W)I will not [j]look upon you in anger.
For I am (X)One of lovingkindness,’ declares Yahweh;
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only [k](Y)acknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against Yahweh your God
And have (Z)scattered your ways of harlotry to the strangers (AA)under every green tree,
And you have not listened to My voice,’ declares Yahweh.
14 ‘[l]Return, O faithless sons,’ declares Yahweh;
‘For I am a (AB)master to you,
And I will take you one from a city and two from a family,
And (AC)I will bring you to Zion.’
15 “Then I will give you (AD)shepherds after My own heart, who will [m](AE)shepherd you on knowledge and understanding. 16 It shall be in those days when you are multiplied and fruitful in the land,” declares Yahweh, “they will (AF)no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of Yahweh.’ And it will not come upon the heart, nor will they remember it, nor will they miss it, nor will it be made again. 17 At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The (AG)Throne of Yahweh,’ and (AH)all the nations will be gathered to it, to Jerusalem, for the (AI)name of Yahweh; nor will they (AJ)walk anymore after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18 (AK)In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together (AL)from the land of the north to the (AM)land that I gave your fathers as an inheritance.
19 “Then I said,
‘How I would set you among [n]My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most (AN)beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, (AO)“My Father,”
And not turn away from following Me.’
20 Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her [o]lover,
So you have (AP)dealt treacherously with Me,
O house of Israel,” declares Yahweh.
21 A voice is heard on the (AQ)bare heights,
The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;
Because they have perverted their way,
They have (AR)forgotten Yahweh their God.
22 [p]“Return, O faithless sons;
(AS)I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You,
For You are Yahweh our God.
23 Surely, (AT)the hills are a lie,
A tumult on the mountains.
Surely in (AU)Yahweh our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
24 “But (AV)the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our (AW)shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, (AX)from our youth even to this day. And we have not listened to the voice of Yahweh our God.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 3:1 Lit saying
- Jeremiah 3:1 Or alienated
- Jeremiah 3:1 Lit companions
- Jeremiah 3:2 Or a nomad
- Jeremiah 3:3 Spring
- Jeremiah 3:3 Lit been
- Jeremiah 3:4 Lit leader
- Jeremiah 3:5 Lit been able
- Jeremiah 3:12 Or Return, O Israel, who has turned away
- Jeremiah 3:12 Lit cause My countenance to fall upon you
- Jeremiah 3:13 Lit know
- Jeremiah 3:14 Or Return, O sons, who have turned away
- Jeremiah 3:15 Or feed
- Jeremiah 3:19 Lit the
- Jeremiah 3:20 Or companion
- Jeremiah 3:22 Or Return, O sons, who have turned away
Jeremiah 3
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.
6 During the rule of King Josiah, the Lord said to me: Have you noticed what unfaithful Israel has done? She’s gone about looking for lovers on top of every high hill and under every lush tree. 7 I thought that after she had done all this she would return to me, but she didn’t. Her disloyal sister Judah saw this. 8 She[c] also saw that I sent unfaithful Israel away with divorce papers because of all her acts of unfaithfulness; yet disloyal sister Judah was not afraid but kept on playing the prostitute. 9 She didn’t think twice about corrupting the land and committing adultery with stone and tree. 10 Yet even after all this, disloyal sister Judah didn’t return to me with all her heart but only insincerely, declares the Lord. 11 Then the Lord said to me: Unfaithful Israel is less guilty[d] than disloyal Judah.
12 Go proclaim these words to the north and say:
Return, unfaithful Israel,
declares the Lord.
I won’t reject you,
for I’m faithful,
declares the Lord;
I won’t stay angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your wrongdoing:
how you have rebelled against the Lord your God,
and given yourself to strangers
under every lush tree
and haven’t obeyed me,
declares the Lord.
14 Return, rebellious children,
declares the Lord,
for I’m your husband.
I’ll gather you—
one from a city and two from a tribe—
and bring you back to Zion.
15 I will appoint shepherds with whom I’m pleased, and they will lead you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And in those days, when your numbers have greatly increased in the land, declares the Lord, people will no longer talk about the Lord’s covenant chest; they won’t recall or remember it; they won’t even miss it or try to build another one. 17 At that time, they will call Jerusalem the Lord’s throne, and all nations will gather there to honor the Lord’s name. No longer will they follow their own willful and evil hearts. 18 In those days the people of Judah and Israel will leave the north together for the land that I gave their ancestors as an inheritance.
19 I thought to myself, How wonderful it would be
to treat you like children
and give you a beautiful land,
an inheritance unrivaled among the nations.
And I thought, You will call me father,
and you won’t turn away from me.
20 But as a woman betrays her lover,
so you, people of Israel, have betrayed me,
declares the Lord.
21 A voice is heard on the well-traveled paths;[e]
it’s the crying and pleading of the people of Israel,
who have lost their way
and forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, rebellious children,
and I will heal your rebellion.
“Here we are; we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
23 Surely what happens on the hills[f] is a waste,
as is the uproar on the mountains.
Only in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.
24 From our youth, shame[g] has devoured
the fruit of our parents’ labor—
their flocks and herds,
as well as their sons and daughters.
25 Let’s lie down in our shame.
Let our dishonor cover us,
for we have sinned against the Lord our God,
both we and our ancestors,
from our youth to this very day.
We have disobeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
Footnotes
- Jeremiah 3:2 Or bare heights
- Jeremiah 3:3 Or You have a prostitute’s forehead.
- Jeremiah 3:8 LXX, Syr; MT I
- Jeremiah 3:11 Or more righteous
- Jeremiah 3:21 Or bare heights
- Jeremiah 3:23 LXX, Syr, Vulg; MT from the hills
- Jeremiah 3:24 Or the shame
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