Dual Panel1If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him, and if she then becomes another's, may he go back to her again? Is not that woman defiled, a forbidden thing? You have been unfaithful with many lovers, says the LORD, and yet you would come back to me?
2Look up to the bare heights and see: where have you not been lain with? Like an Arab lurking in the desert you sat by the wayside to catch lovers; you defiled the land with your adultery and debauchery.
3Therefore the showers were withheld and the spring rain failed. But yours was a prostitute's brazenness, and you were resolved to show no shame.
4Not so long since you called me “Father, teacher of my youth”,
5thinking, “Will he keep up his anger for ever? Will he rage to the end?” This is how you spoke, but you have done evil and gone unchallenged.
6In the reign of King Josiah the LORD said to me: Do you see what apostate Israel has done, how she went to every hilltop and under every spreading tree, and there committed adultery?
7Even after she had done all this I thought she would come back to me, but she did not. That faithless woman, her sister Judah, saw it;
8she saw too that I had put apostate Israel away and given her a certificate of divorce because she had committed adultery. Yet that faithless woman, her sister Judah, was not afraid; she too went and committed adultery.
9She defiled the land with her casual prostitution and her adulterous worship of stone and wood.
10In spite of all this Judah, that faithless woman, has not come back to me in sincerity, but only in pretence. This is the word of the LORD.
11The LORD said to me: Apostate Israel is less to blame than that faithless woman Judah.
12Go and proclaim this message towards the north: Come back, apostate Israel, says the LORD; I shall no longer frown on you. For my love is unfailing, says the LORD; I shall not keep up my anger for ever.
13Only acknowledge your wrongdoing, your rebellion against the LORD your God, your promiscuous traffic with foreign gods under every spreading tree, and your disobedience to my commands. This is the word of the LORD.
14Come back, apostate people, says the LORD, for I am patient with you, and I shall take you, one from each city and two from each clan, and bring you to Zion.
15There I shall give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
16In those days, when you have increased and become fruitful in the land, says the LORD, no one will speak any more of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD; no one will think of it or remember it or resort to it; that will be done no more.
17At that time Jerusalem will be called the Throne of the LORD, and all nations will gather in Jerusalem to honour the LORD's name; never again will they follow the promptings of their evil and stubborn hearts.
18In those days Judah will be united with Israel, and together they will come from a northern land into the land I gave their fathers as their holding.
19I said: How gladly would I treat you as a son, giving you a pleasant land, a holding fairer than that of any nation! You would call me “Father”, I thought, and never cease to follow me.
20But like a woman who through illicit love has been unfaithful, so you, Israel, were unfaithful to me. This is the word of the LORD.
21Weeping is heard on the bare places, Israel's people pleading for mercy, because they have taken to crooked ways and ignored the LORD their God.
22Come back, you apostate people; I shall heal your apostasy. Here we are coming to you, for you are the LORD our God.
23There is no help in worship on the hilltops, no help from clamour on the heights; truly in the LORD our God lies Israel's salvation.
24From our early days Baal has devoured the fruits of our fathers' labours, their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.
25Let us lie down in our shame, covered by dishonour, for we have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers, from our early days even till now, and we have not obeyed the LORD our God.