Israel Is Not Faithful

3 God says, “If a husband divorces his wife and she leaves him and marries another man, should he return to her again? Would not the land be made unclean? But you are like a sinful woman with many lovers, yet would you return to Me?” says the Lord. ² “Lift up your eyes to the open hill-tops and see. Is there any place you have not lain with your lovers? You have sat by the roads waiting for them like an Arab in the desert. And you have made the land unclean with your sinful ways and your wrong-doing. ³ So the rains have been held back. There has been no spring rain. You look like a woman who sells the use of her body, and would not be ashamed. ⁴ Have you not just now called to Me? You said, ‘My Father, You have been my friend since I was young. ⁵ Will You be angry forever? Will You be angry to the end?’ See, this is how you talk, but you do all the sinful things you can.”

Israel and Judah Must Turn Away from Their Sins

⁶ The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah, “Have you seen what Israel did, and what little faith she has? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, like one who sells the use of her body. ⁷ And I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to Me.’ But she did not return, and her sister Judah, who has not been faithful, saw it. ⁸ She saw that for all of Israel’s sins and how she had not been faithful, I had sent her away and given her a paper of divorce. Yet her sister Judah had no fear, but she went and sold the use of her body also. ⁹ And because this sin was so easy for her, she sinned by worshiping stones and trees. ¹⁰ Even with all this, her sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but in a false way,” says the Lord.

¹¹ And the Lord said to me, “Israel, who has not been faithful, has shown herself more right and good than Judah who could not be trusted. ¹² Go and make these words known to the north, saying, ‘Return, Israel, who has not been faithful,’ says the Lord. ‘I will not look on you in anger. For I show loving-kindness,’ says the Lord. ‘I will not be angry forever. ¹³ Only know and tell of your guilt, that you have sinned against the Lord your God and have given your favors to the strangers under every green tree. Know that you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord. ¹⁴ ‘Return, O sons who are not faithful,’ says the Lord. ‘For you belong to Me. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.’ ¹⁵ Then I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with much learning and understanding. ¹⁶ And in those days when you have become many in the land,” says the Lord, “they will no more say, ‘The special box with the Law of the Lord.’ It will not come to mind, and they will not remember it. They will not miss it, and it will not be made again. ¹⁷ At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The throne of the Lord.’ And all the nations will gather in Jerusalem to honor the name of the Lord. They will not follow the strong-will of their sinful heart any more. ¹⁸ In those days the people of Judah will walk with the people of Israel. They will come together from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers as a gift.

God’s People Worship False Gods

¹⁹ “Then I said, ‘How I would like to make you My sons and give you a pleasing land, the most beautiful land of the nations!’ And I said, ‘You will call Me, “My Father,” and not turn away from following Me.’ ²⁰ For sure, as a woman is not faithful and leaves her husband, so you have not been faithful to Me, O people of Israel,” says the Lord.

²¹ A voice is heard on the open hill-tops, the cries and prayers of the sons of Israel, because they have made their way sinful. They have forgotten the Lord their God. ²² “Return, O sons who are not faithful. I will heal you and make you faithful.” “See, we come to You, for You are the Lord our God. ²³ For sure the hills are a false hope, a noise on the mountains. In truth, the saving of Israel is in the Lord our God. ²⁴ But false gods have brought us shame and have destroyed what our fathers worked for since we were young, their flocks and cattle, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame, and let our shame cover us. For we and our fathers have sinned against the Lord our God ever since we were young. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

God Asks Israel to Turn from Its Sins

4 “If you will return, O Israel,” says the Lord, “return to Me. If you will put away your false gods from Me and be faithful to Me, ² and promise, ‘As the Lord lives,’ by what is true and right and good, then the nations will be happy in Him. And in Him they will have honor.”

³ For the Lord says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, “Break up your ground which has not been planted, and do not plant seeds among thorns. ⁴ Set yourselves apart to the Lord, and put away the flesh from your heart, men of Judah and people of Jerusalem. Or My anger will go out like fire and burn with no one to stop it, because of the sinful things you do.”

Armies from the North Are Coming

⁵ Make it known in Judah and Jerusalem, and say, “Sound the horns in the land.” Cry out and say, “Gather together, and let us go into the strong cities made ready for battle.” ⁶ Lift up a flag toward Zion! Run to a safe place, do not stand still. For I am bringing much trouble from the north that will destroy much. ⁷ A lion has gone up from his secret place. A destroyer of nations has begun to move. He has gone out from his place to make your land a waste. Your cities will be destroyed and no people will live in them. ⁸ Cover yourselves with cloth made from hair because of this. Cry out in sorrow. For the burning anger of the Lord has not turned away from us. ⁹ “In that day,” says the Lord, “the heart of the king and the hearts of the rulers will become weak. The religious leaders will be filled with fear. And the men of God will be troubled and filled with wonder.”

¹⁰ Then I said, “O Lord God, for sure You have fooled these people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace,’ when in truth a sword brings danger to their lives.”

¹¹ At that time it will be said to these people and Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the open hill-tops in the desert will come toward My people, but not to blow away what is of no worth, and not to make clean. ¹² A wind too strong for this will come at My word. Now I will bring punishment against them.”

Armies Are All Around Judah

¹³ See, he comes up like clouds. His war-wagons come like the strong-wind. His horses are faster than eagles. It is bad for us, for we are destroyed!

¹⁴ Wash your heart from sin, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved. How long will your sinful thoughts stay within you? ¹⁵ For a voice calls out from Dan, and tells of sin from Mount Ephraim. ¹⁶ “Tell it to the nations now! Make it known over all Jerusalem, saying, ‘An army is coming from a far country, and they lift up their voices against the cities of Judah. ¹⁷ They are against her all around, like watchmen of a field, because she has turned against Me,’ says the Lord. ¹⁸ “Your ways and what you do have brought these things to you. This is your sin. How bitter it is! It has touched your very heart!”

Jeremiah Feels Pain for His People

¹⁹ My soul, my soul! I am in pain! O, my heart! My heart is beating so hard! It cannot be quiet, for I hear the sound of the horn, telling of the coming war. ²⁰ News of much trouble comes again and again, for the whole land is laid waste. All at once my tents and my curtains are destroyed. ²¹ How long must I see the flag and hear the sound of the horn? ²² “For My people are foolish. They do not know Me. They are children who do not think, and they have no understanding. They know a lot about how to do sinful things, but they do not know how to do good.”

Jeremiah Saw What the Future Would Be Like

²³ I looked on the earth and saw that it was an empty waste. I looked to the heavens, and they had no light. ²⁴ I looked on the mountains and saw they were shaking, and all the hills moved this way and that. ²⁵ I looked and saw that there were no people. And all the birds of the heavens had left. ²⁶ I looked and saw that the rich land was a desert. All its cities were laid waste before the Lord and His burning anger.

²⁷ For the Lord says, “The whole land will be laid waste, yet I will not destroy everything. ²⁸ For the earth will be filled with sorrow and the heavens above will be dark, because I have spoken. I have planned it, and will not change My mind or turn back.” ²⁹ Every city runs as they hear the sound of the horseman and the one who fights with arrows. They go among the trees and the rocks. Every city is left empty, and no one lives in them. ³⁰ And you, O destroyed one, what will you do? Even when you dress in red, and wear objects of gold, and color your eyes to make them look bigger, you make yourself beautiful for nothing. Your lovers hate you, and want to kill you. ³¹ I heard a cry as of a woman in pain, as if she were giving birth to her first child. It was the cry of the people of Zion, working hard to breathe, holding out hands, and saying, “O, it is bad for me! I am losing strength in front of those who want to kill me.”

Christian Brothers, Pray for Us

3 My last words to you, Christian brothers, are that you pray for us. Pray that the Word of the Lord will go out over all the land and prove its power just as it did with you. ² Pray that we will be kept from sinful men, because not all men are Christians. ³ But the Lord is faithful. He will give you strength and keep you safe from the devil. ⁴ We have faith in the Lord for you. We believe you are doing and will keep on doing the things we told you. ⁵ May the Lord lead your hearts into the love of God. May He help you as you wait for Christ.

⁶ Now this is what we tell you to do, Christian brothers. In the name of the Lord Jesus, keep away from any Christian who is lazy and who does not do what we taught you. ⁷ You know you should follow the way of life we lived when we were with you. We worked hard while we were there. ⁸ We did not eat anyone’s food without paying for it. We worked hard night and day so none of you would have to give us anything. ⁹ We could have asked you to give us food. But we did not so that you might follow our way of living. ¹⁰ When we were with you, we told you that if a man does not work, he should not eat. ¹¹ We hear that some are not working. But they are spending their time trying to see what others are doing. ¹² Our words to such people are that they should be quiet and go to work. They should eat their own food. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we say this. ¹³ But you, Christian brothers, do not get tired of doing good. ¹⁴ If anyone does not want to listen to what we say in this letter, remember who he is and stay away from him. In that way, he will be put to shame. ¹⁵ Do not think of him as one who hates you. But talk to him as a Christian brother.

¹⁶ May the Lord of peace give you His peace at all times. The Lord be with you all. ¹⁷ I, Paul, write this last part with my own hand. It is the way I finish all my letters. ¹⁸ May all of you have loving-favor from our Lord Jesus Christ.