3:12 “Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north.
‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure.
For I am merciful,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not be angry with you forever.
3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong,
and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.
You must confess
and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.
3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master.
3:19 “I thought to myself,
‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son!
What a joy it would be for me to give
the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’
I thought you would call me, ‘Father’
and would never cease being loyal to me.
3:20 But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel,
like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,”
says the Lord.
3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.
It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.
Indeed they have followed sinful ways;
they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God.
3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness.
Say,
because you are the Lord our God.
3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods
on the hills and mountains did not help us.
We know that the Lord our God
is the only one who can deliver Israel.
3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,
has taken away
It has taken away our flocks and our herds,
and even our sons and daughters.
3:25 Let us acknowledge
Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve.
For we have sinned against the Lord our God,
both we and our ancestors.
From earliest times to this very day
we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’
4:1 “If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the Lord,
“if you want to come back to me
you must get those disgusting idols
and must no longer go astray.
4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright
when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’
If you do,
and will make him the object of their boasting.”
4:3 Yes,
to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
“Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,
you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;
just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,
you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives.
4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin
as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,
you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord
and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me,
people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
If you do not,
that no one will be able to extinguish.
That will happen because of the evil you have done.”