God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise to receive
them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.
3:1. It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from
him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not
that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself
to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will
receive thee.
3:2. Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted
thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in
the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications,
and with thy wickedness.
3:3. Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward
rain: thou hadst a harlot’s forehead, thou wouldst not blush.
3:4. Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my
father, the guide of my virginity:
3:5. Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end?
Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been
able.
3:6. And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen
what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every
high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot
there.
3:7. And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and
she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,
3:8. That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had
put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous
sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also
herself.
3:9. And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and
played the harlot with stones and with stocks.
3:10. And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned
to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
3:11. And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her
soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
3:12. Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt
say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn
away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be
angry for ever.
3:13. But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed
against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers
under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.
3:14. Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your
husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and
will bring you into Sion.
3:15. And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they
shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
3:16. And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in
those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the
covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither
shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that
be done any more.
3:17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord:
and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of
the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of
their most wicked heart.
3:18. In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel,
and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land
which I gave to your fathers.
3:19. But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give
thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the
Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to
walk after me.
3:20. But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of
Israel despised me, saith the Lord.
3:21. A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the
children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have
forgotten the Lord their God.
3:22. Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions.
Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.
3:23. In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the
mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
3:24. Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
3:25. We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us,
because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers
from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice
of the Lord our God.