Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ Lord, your faithful love reaches to the sky.
    Your faithfulness is as high as the clouds.
⁶ Your goodness is higher than the highest mountains.
    Your fairness is deeper than the deepest ocean.
Lord, you protect people and animals.
⁷     Nothing is more precious than your loving kindness.
    All people can find protection close to you.
⁸ They get strength from all the good things in your house.
    You let them drink from your wonderful river.
⁹ The fountain of life flows from you.
    Your light lets us see light.
¹⁰ Continue to love those who really know you,
    and do good to those who are true to you.^[a]

“I want to treat you like my own children.
    I want to give you a pleasant land,
    a land more beautiful than any other nation.
I thought you would call me ‘Father.’
    I thought you would always follow me.
But you have been unfaithful to me, family of Israel!
    You have been like an unfaithful wife who leaves her husband.
²¹ You can hear crying on the bare hills.
    The people of Israel are crying and praying for mercy.
They became very evil.
    They forgot the Lord their God.

²² “People of Israel, you are unfaithful to me, but come back to me.
    Come back and I will forgive^[a] you for being unfaithful.

“Just say, ‘Yes, we will come back,
    because you are the Lord our God.
²³ It was foolish to worship idols on the hills.
    All the loud parties on the mountains were wrong.
Surely the salvation of Israel
    comes from the Lord our God.
²⁴ That terrible false god Baal has eaten everything our fathers owned.
    This has happened since we were children.
That terrible false god took our fathers’ sheep and cattle
    and their sons and daughters.
²⁵ Let us lie down in our shame.
    Let our shame cover us like a blanket.
We have sinned against the Lord our God.
    We and our fathers have sinned.
We have not obeyed the Lord our God
    from the time we were children.’”