Add parallel Print Page Options

“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.
“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.
That’s why even the spring rains have failed.
    For you are a brazen prostitute and completely shameless.
Yet you say to me,
    ‘Father, you have been my guide since my youth.
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.”

Read full chapter

God Contemplates Divorcing Israel

“When a man divorces his wife, she leaves him and
becomes another man’s wife,
will the first husband[a] return to her again?
        The land would be deeply polluted, would it not?
Since you have committed fornication with many lovers,
    would you now return to me?”
        declares the Lord.

“Look up to the barren heights and see.
    Is there any place[b] where you have not been ravished?
You have sat beside the road, waiting[c] for them[d]
    like a nomad in the desert.
And you have polluted the land
    with your fornication and your wickedness.
This is why the rain has been withheld
    and there are no spring showers.
Yet you have a harlot’s look[e]
    and you refuse to be ashamed.
Have you not just called out to me,
    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—
will he hold on to his anger forever,
    will he persist in his wrath to the end?’
Look, you have spoken and done evil things,
    and you have succeeded in it.”[f]

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 3:1 Lit. he
  2. Jeremiah 3:2 The Heb. lacks Is there anyplace
  3. Jeremiah 3:2 The Heb. lacks waiting
  4. Jeremiah 3:2 I.e. as if waiting for a prostitute
  5. Jeremiah 3:3 Lit. forehead
  6. Jeremiah 3:5 The Heb. lacks in it