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And you, O generation, heed the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to thee’?
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From it too you will come away with your hands upon your head, for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you will not prosper by them.
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Unfaithful Israel
“If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the harlot with many lovers; and would you return to me? says the Lord.
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A Call to Repentance
The Lord said to me in the days of King Josi′ah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the harlot?
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Yet for all this her false sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, says the Lord.”
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And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself less guilty than false Judah.
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Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, faithless Israel, says the Lord. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord; I will not be angry for ever.
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Only acknowledge your guilt, that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and that you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.
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Return, O faithless children, says the Lord; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
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And when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind, or be remembered, or missed; it shall not be made again.
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At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart.
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Surely, as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so have you been faithless to me, O house of Israel, says the Lord.’”
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A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
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“Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to thee; for thou art the Lord our God.
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Truly the hills are a delusion, the orgies on the mountains. Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
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Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
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“If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, to me you should return. If you remove your abominations from my presence, and do not waver,
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and if you swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ in truth, in justice, and in uprightness, then nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.”
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For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.
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Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your doings.”
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For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us.”
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“In that day, says the Lord, courage shall fail both king and princes; the priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.”
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Then I said, “Ah, Lord God, surely thou hast utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you’; whereas the sword has reached their very life.”
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Like keepers of a field are they against her round about, because she has rebelled against me, says the Lord.
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I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert, and all its cities were laid in ruins before the Lord, before his fierce anger.
