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
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.”
Judah Follows Israel’s Example
6 During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree. 7 I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her faithless sister Judah saw this. 8 She saw[a] that I divorced faithless Israel because of her adultery. But that treacherous sister Judah had no fear, and now she, too, has left me and given herself to prostitution. 9 Israel treated it all so lightly—she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been polluted. 10 But despite all this, her faithless sister Judah has never sincerely returned to me. She has only pretended to be sorry. I, the Lord, have spoken!”
Hope for Wayward Israel
11 Then the Lord said to me, “Even faithless Israel is less guilty than treacherous Judah! 12 Therefore, go and give this message to Israel.[b] This is what the Lord says:
“O Israel, my faithless people,
come home to me again,
for I am merciful.
I will not be angry with you forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt.
Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and committed adultery against him
by worshiping idols under every green tree.
Confess that you refused to listen to my voice.
I, the Lord, have spoken!
14 “Return home, you wayward children,”
says the Lord,
“for I am your master.
I will bring you back to the land of Israel[c]—
one from this town and two from that family—
from wherever you are scattered.
15 And I will give you shepherds after my own heart,
who will guide you with knowledge and understanding.
16 “And when your land is once more filled with people,” says the Lord, “you will no longer wish for ‘the good old days’ when you possessed the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant. You will not miss those days or even remember them, and there will be no need to rebuild the Ark. 17 In that day Jerusalem will be known as ‘The Throne of the Lord.’ All nations will come there to honor the Lord. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own evil desires. 18 In those days the people of Judah and Israel will return together from exile in the north. They will return to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance forever.
19 “I thought to myself,
‘I would love to treat you as my own children!’
I wanted nothing more than to give you this beautiful land—
the finest possession in the world.
I looked forward to your calling me ‘Father,’
and I wanted you never to turn from me.
20 But you have been unfaithful to me, you people of Israel!
You have been like a faithless wife who leaves her husband.
I, the Lord, have spoken.”
21 Voices are heard high on the windswept mountains,
the weeping and pleading of Israel’s people.
For they have chosen crooked paths
and have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 “My wayward children,” says the Lord,
“come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”
“Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply,
“for you are the Lord our God.
23 Our worship of idols on the hills
and our religious orgies on the mountains
are a delusion.
Only in the Lord our God
will Israel ever find salvation.
24 From childhood we have watched
as everything our ancestors worked for—
their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters—
was squandered on a delusion.
25 Let us now lie down in shame
and cover ourselves with dishonor,
for we and our ancestors have sinned
against the Lord our God.
From our childhood to this day
we have never obeyed him.”
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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.
