Bible Text & Cross-references:
God invites the rebel Jews to return to him, with a promise
to receive them: he foretells the conversion of the Gentiles.
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.
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 Therefore, the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain:
thou hadst a harlot's forehead, thou wouldst not blush.
4 Therefore, at the least, from this time, call to me: Thou art my father,
the guide of my virginity:
5 Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue until the end? Behold,
thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.
6 And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: *Hast thou seen
what rebellious Israel hash done? she hath gone out of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath
played the harlot there.
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,
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.
9 And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played
the harlot with stones and with stocks.
10 And after all this, her treacherous sister, Juda, hath not returned
to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her
soul in comparison of the treacherous Juda.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward 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.
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.
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.
15 And I will give you pastors, according to my own heart, and they shall
feed you with knowledge and doctrine.
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.
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.
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.
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.
20 But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel
despised me, saith the Lord.
21 A voice was heard in the high ways, weeping and howling of the children
of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions.
Behold, we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.
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.
24 Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
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.
____________________
*
6: Jeremias ii. 20.