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“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.

“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed. Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’?

“‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”

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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]

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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