3 People ask: “If a man sends his wife away and she leaves him and becomes another man’s, should he return to her anymore?”
Has that land not been utterly polluted?
“You have committed prostitution with many companions,
And should you now return to me?” declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}.
2 “Raise your eyes to the bare hills and see.
Where have you not been raped?
You sat along the roadways for them,
Like a nomad in the wilderness.
You keep polluting the land
With your prostitution and your wickedness.
3 So showers of rain are withheld,
And there is no rain in the spring.
You have the brazen look of a wife who commits prostitution;
You refuse to feel shame.
4 But now you call out to me,
‘My Father, you are the companion of my youth!
5 Should one stay resentful forever,
Or always hold a grudge?’
This is what you say,
But you keep doing all the evil you are capable of doing.”
6 In the days of King Jo·syʹah, Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} said to me: “‘Have you seen what unfaithful Isra'Al has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and underneath every luxuriant tree to commit prostitution. 7 Even after she did all these things, I kept telling her to return to me, but she did not return; and Judah kept watching her treacherous sister. 8 When I saw that, I sent unfaithful Isra'Al away with a full certificate of divorce because of her adultery. But her treacherous sister Judah did not become afraid; she too went out and committed prostitution. 9 She took her prostitution lightly, and she kept polluting the land and committing adultery with stones and with trees. 10 Despite all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, only in pretense,’ declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}.”
11 Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} then said to me: “Unfaithful Isra'Al has shown herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go and proclaim these words to the north:
“‘“Return, O renegade Isra'Al,” declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}.’ ‘“I will not look down angrily on you, for I am loyal,” declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}.’ ‘“I will not stay resentful forever. 13 Only acknowledge your guilt, for you have rebelled against Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} your Al {pre. Ahl}. You continued scattering your favors to strangers under every luxuriant tree, but you would not obey my voice,” declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}.’”
14 “Return, you renegade sons,” declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}. “For I have become your true master; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and insight. 16 You will become many and will bear fruit in the land in those days,” declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}. “No more will they say, ‘The ark of the covenant of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}!’ It will not come up into the heart, nor will they remember it or miss it, and it will not be made again. 17 At that time they will call Yerushalom the throne of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}; and all the nations will be brought together to the name of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} at Yerushalom, and they will no longer stubbornly follow their own wicked heart.”
18 “In those days they will walk together, the house of Judah alongside the house of Isra'Al, and together they will come from the land of the north into the land that I gave to your forefathers as an inheritance. 19 And I thought, ‘How I placed you among the sons and gave you the desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance among the nations!’ I also thought that you would call me, ‘My Father!’ and that you would not turn away from following me. 20 ‘Truly as a wife treacherously leaves her husband, so also you, O house of Isra'Al, have dealt treacherously with me,’ declares Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}.”
21 On the bare hills a sound is heard,
The weeping and the pleading of the people of Isra'Al,
For they have distorted their way;
They have forgotten Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} their Al {pre. Ahl}.
22 “Return, you renegade sons.
I will heal your renegade condition.”
“Here we are! We have come to you,
For you, O Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah}, are our Al {pre. Ahl}.
23 Truly the hills and the turmoil on the mountains are a delusion.
Truly in Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl} is the salvation of Isra'Al.
24 But the shameful thing has consumed the toil of our forefathers since our youth,
Their flocks and their herds,
Their sons and their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame,
And let our disgrace cover us,
For we have sinned against Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl},
We and our fathers since our youth until this day,
And we have not obeyed the voice of Ahv'ah {Heb. Yahvah} our Al {pre. Ahl}.”