Jeremiah 3:12-14

The Lord Calls on Israel and Judah to Repent

3:12 “Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. Tell them,

‘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 that you have given yourself to foreign gods under every green tree,

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. If you do, I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

Jeremiah 3:18-23

3:18 At that time the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession. ”

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 you a pleasant land,

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, ‘Here we are. We come to you

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.