The answer will come back, “It is because they broke their covenant with the Lord their God and worshiped and served other gods.”

But they will be subject to the Lord their God and to the Davidic ruler whom I will raise up as king over them.

Jeremiah finished telling all the people all these things the Lord their God had sent him to tell them.

“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.

I thought, “Surely it is only the ignorant poor who act this way. They act like fools because they do not know what the Lord demands. They do not know what their God requires of them.

I will go to the leaders and speak with them. Surely they know what the Lord demands. Surely they know what their God requires of them.” Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority and refuse to submit to him.

“When that time comes,” says the Lord, “the people of Israel and Judah will return to the land together. They will come back with tears of repentance as they seek the Lord their God.