Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

3 “If a man ·divorces [^Lsends away] his wife
    and she leaves him and marries another man,
should her first husband come back to her again?
    If he went back to her, wouldn’t the land become completely ·unclean [defiled; polluted; ^Cin a ritual sense; such a thing was forbidden by the Law; Deut. 24:1–4]?
But you have acted like a prostitute with many lovers,
    and now you want to come back to me?” says the Lord [Hos. 2:7];
² “·Look up [^LLift up your eyes and look] to the bare hilltops, Judah.
    Is there any place where ·you have not been a prostitute [^Lyou have not been lain with; ^Cthe hill country contained many pagan altars]?
You have sat by the road waiting for lovers,
    like an Arab in the ·desert [wilderness].
You made the land ·unclean [defiled; polluted; ^Cin a ritual sense],
    because you did evil and were like a prostitute.
³ So the rain has ·not come [^Lbeen withheld],
    and there have not been any spring rains [1 Kin. 17:1].
But ·your face still looks like the face [^Lyou have the forehead] of a prostitute [^Cunembarrassed].
    You refuse even to be ashamed of what you did.
⁴ ·Now you are [^LAre you not now…?] calling to me,
    ‘My father, you have been my friend since I was young.
⁵ Will you always be angry at me?
    Will your anger last ·forever [^Lto the end]?’
Judah, you said this,
    but you did as much evil as you could!”