Jeremiah 3 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

"If a man divorces his wife and she leaves and marries someone else, can he go back to her again? Wouldn't that completely pollute the land?" But you — you've given yourself to lover after lover, and now you want to come back to me? — this is what Yahweh declares.

Look up at the bare hilltops — where haven't you been used? You sat waiting by the roads for them like a desert nomad watching for travelers. You've polluted the land with your prostitution and your wickedness.

So the rain was held back, the spring showers never came. But you had the brazenness of a prostitute — you refused to be ashamed.

Haven't you just now been calling out to me, 'My father! You've been my closest companion since I was young!'

'Will he hold a grudge forever? Will he stay angry to the end?' That's what you say, but you keep doing every evil thing you can.

Yahweh said to me during the reign of King Josiah: "Have you seen what faithless Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree and gave herself away like a prostitute there.

I thought, 'After she's done all this, she'll come back to me.' But she didn't come back. And her treacherous sister Judah watched the whole thing.

She saw that I sent faithless Israel away and handed her a divorce decree because of all her adultery. But her treacherous sister Judah wasn't afraid at all — she went out and gave herself away like a prostitute too.

Because she treated it so casually, her prostitution polluted the land — she committed adultery with stone and with wood.

And even after all of this, her treacherous sister Judah didn't come back to me with her whole heart — she only pretended to." — this is what Yahweh declares.

Then Yahweh said to me: "Faithless Israel has actually turned out more in the right than treacherous Judah.

Go and call out these words toward the north: 'Come back, faithless Israel' — this is what Yahweh declares. 'I won't look at you with anger anymore, because I am full of loyal love' — this is what Yahweh declares. 'I don't hold grudges forever.

Just own what you've done — that you rebelled against Yahweh your God, that you scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree, and that you wouldn't listen to my voice.'" — this is what Yahweh declares.

"Come back, you children who have turned away" — this is what Yahweh declares — "because I am your husband. I will take you — one from this city, two from that family — and bring you to Zion.

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will lead you with knowledge and good judgment.

"And when you've multiplied and filled the land in those days" — this is what Yahweh declares — "no one will talk about the chest of Yahweh's covenant anymore. It won't even cross their minds. They won't remember it or miss it, and no one will make another one.

At that time they will call Jerusalem 'the throne of Yahweh,' and all nations will be drawn to it — to the name of Yahweh, in Jerusalem. They will no longer stubbornly follow their own twisted hearts.

In those days, the house of Judah will walk alongside the house of Israel, and together they will come from a northern land to the land I gave your ancestors as an inheritance.

"And I thought to myself, 'How I want to place you among my children and give you a beautiful land — the most stunning inheritance among all the nations!' I thought you would call me 'My father' and never turn away from following me.

But instead — just like a woman who betrays her partner, you have betrayed me, house of Israel." — this is what Yahweh declares.

A sound is heard on the bare hilltops — the weeping, the desperate pleas of Israel's children. Because they've twisted their path, they've forgotten Yahweh their God.

"Come back, you children who keep turning away — let me heal your chronic unfaithfulness." "Here we are! We're coming to you, because you, Yahweh, are our God.

The hills really were a lie, the noise on the mountains was meaningless. Truly, in Yahweh our God is the rescue of Israel.

But that shameful thing has devoured everything our ancestors worked for since we were young — their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us like a blanket. Because we have failed Yahweh our God — we and our ancestors, from when we were young until today. We did not listen to the voice of Yahweh our God."