Jeremiah 3

1“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.Cross-references: Lev 18:24 · Deut 4:29 · Deut 22:21 · Deut 24:1 · Judg 19:2 · Isa 24:5 · +20 more

2“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.Cross-references: Gen 38:14 · Deut 12:2 · 1Ki 11:3 · 2Ki 23:13 · Prov 7:11 · Prov 23:28 · +12 more

3Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed.Cross-references: Lev 26:19 · Deut 28:23 · Neh 9:17 · Isa 5:6 · Jer 5:3 · Jer 5:24 · +14 more

4Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’?Cross-references: Ps 48:14 · Ps 71:5 · Ps 71:17 · Ps 119:9 · Prov 1:4 · Prov 2:17 · +8 more

5“‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”Cross-references: Ps 77:7 · Ps 85:5 · Ps 103:8 · Isa 57:16 · Isa 64:9 · Jer 3:12 · +4 more

6Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.Cross-references: 1Ki 14:23 · 2Ki 17:7 · Isa 57:7 · Jer 2:19 · Jer 3:8 · Jer 3:11 · +6 more

7I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.Cross-references: 2Ki 17:13 · 2Chr 30:6 · Jer 3:8 · Ezek 16:46 · Ezek 23:2 · Hos 6:1 · +1 more

8I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute.Cross-references: Deut 24:1 · Deut 24:3 · 2Ki 17:6 · 2Ki 18:9 · Isa 50:1 · Jer 3:1 · +7 more

9Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.Cross-references: Isa 57:6 · Jer 2:7 · Jer 2:27 · Jer 3:2 · Jer 10:8 · Ezek 16:17 · +3 more

10Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh.Cross-references: 2Chr 34:33 · Ps 18:44 · Ps 66:3 · Ps 78:36 · Isa 10:6 · Jer 12:2 · +1 more

11Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.Cross-references: Jer 3:8 · Jer 3:22 · Ezek 16:47 · Ezek 16:51 · Ezek 23:11 · Hos 4:16 · +1 more

12Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.Cross-references: Deut 4:29 · Deut 30:2 · 2Ki 15:29 · 2Ki 17:6 · 2Ki 17:23 · 2Ki 18:1 · +28 more

13Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’” says Yahweh.Cross-references: Lev 26:40 · Deut 12:2 · Deut 30:1 · Job 33:27 · Prov 28:13 · Jer 2:20 · +10 more

14“Return, backsliding children,” says Yahweh, “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.Cross-references: Isa 1:9 · Isa 6:13 · Isa 10:22 · Isa 11:11 · Isa 17:6 · Isa 24:13 · +13 more

15I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.Cross-references: 1Sam 13:14 · Prov 10:21 · Isa 30:20 · Jer 23:4 · Ezek 34:23 · Ezek 37:24 · +12 more

16It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says Yahweh, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made.Cross-references: Isa 60:22 · Isa 61:4 · Isa 65:17 · Isa 66:1 · Jer 7:4 · Jer 30:19 · +16 more

17At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘Yahweh’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to Yahweh’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.Cross-references: Gen 8:21 · Num 15:39 · Deut 29:29 · Judg 2:19 · Ps 78:8 · Ps 87:3 · +27 more

18In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.Cross-references: Isa 11:11 · Jer 3:12 · Jer 16:15 · Jer 23:8 · Jer 30:3 · Jer 31:8 · +8 more

19“But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’Cross-references: Ps 106:24 · Prov 3:35 · Isa 63:16 · Isa 64:8 · Jer 3:4 · Jer 5:7 · +20 more

20“Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says Yahweh.Cross-references: Isa 48:8 · Jer 3:1 · Jer 3:8 · Jer 5:11 · Ezek 16:15 · Hos 3:1 · +3 more

21A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.Cross-references: Num 22:32 · Job 33:27 · Prov 10:9 · Prov 19:3 · Isa 15:2 · Isa 17:10 · +13 more

22Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.Cross-references: Song 1:4 · Isa 27:8 · Jer 30:17 · Jer 31:18 · Jer 33:6 · Hos 3:5 · +6 more

23Truly help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains, is in vain. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.Cross-references: Ps 3:8 · Ps 37:39 · Ps 121:1 · Isa 12:2 · Isa 43:11 · Isa 44:9 · +14 more

24But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.Cross-references: Jer 11:13 · Ezek 16:61 · Ezek 16:63 · Hos 2:8 · Hos 9:10 · Hos 10:6

25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.”Cross-references: Deut 31:17 · Judg 2:2 · Ezra 9:6 · Neh 9:32 · Ps 106:7 · Ps 109:29 · +16 more