Jer 3, Jer 8 | ESV | STEP | If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted ? You have played the whore with many lovers ; and would you return to me? declares the Lord .

1 ^a“If ^{▼▼Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew Saying, “If} a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man’s wife,
will he return to her?
^cWould not that land be greatly polluted?
^dYou have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?

declares the Lord.
2 Lift up your eyes to ^ethe bare heights, and see!
Where have you not been ravished?
^fBy the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
like an Arab in the wilderness.
^gYou have polluted the land
with your vile whoredom.
3 ^hTherefore the showers have been withheld,
and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have ⁱthe forehead of a whore;
you refuse to be ashamed.
4 Have you not just now ^jcalled to me,
‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—
5 ^kwill he be angry forever,
will he be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken,
but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

6 The Lord said to me in the days of ^lKing Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, ^mhow she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there ⁿplayed the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous ^osister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, ^pI had sent her away with ^qa decree of divorce. ^rYet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went ^sand played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with ^tstone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me ^uwith her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.”

11 And the Lord said to me, ^v“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward ^wthe north, and say,

^x“‘Return, faithless Israel,

declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for ^yI am merciful,

declares the Lord;
^zI will not be angry forever.
13 ^aaOnly acknowledge your guilt,
that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under ^abevery green tree,
and that you have not obeyed my voice,

declares the Lord.
14 ^acReturn, O faithless children,

declares the Lord;
^adfor I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.
15 “‘And ^aeI will give you shepherds after my own heart, ^afwho will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the Lord.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, ^agand all nations shall gather to it, ^ahto the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 ^aiIn those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land ^ajof the north to ^akthe land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

19 “‘I said,
How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would ^alcall me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
20 ^amSurely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,

declares the Lord.’”
21 A voice on the ^anbare heights is heard,
^aothe weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 ^ap“Return, O faithless sons;
^aqI will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
23 Truly ^arthe hills are a delusion,
the orgies ^{▼▼Hebrew commotion} on the mountains.
^atTruly in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.
24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 ^auLet us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For ^avwe have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

Jeremiah 8

1 “At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs. 2 And they shall be spread ^awbefore the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped. ^axAnd they shall not be gathered or buried. ^ayThey shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 ^azDeath shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family ^bain all the places where I have driven them, declares the Lord of hosts.

Sin and Treachery

4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
^bbWhen men fall, do they not rise again?
If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people ^bcturned away
in perpetual ^bdbacksliding?
^beThey hold fast to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6 ^bfI have paid attention and listened,
but they have not spoken rightly;
no man relents of his evil,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turns to his own course,
^bglike a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Even the stork in the heavens
knows her times,
and ^bhthe turtledove, ^biswallow, and crane ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain}
keep the time of their coming,
^bkbut my people know not
the rules ^{▼▼Or just decrees} of the Lord.
8 ^bm“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 ^bnThe wise men shall be put to shame;
they shall be dismayed ^boand taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
so what wisdom is in them?
10 ^bpTherefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
everyone ^bqis greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11 They have healed ^brthe wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, ^bsthey were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
^btTherefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,

says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, declares the Lord,
there are ^buno grapes on the vine,
^bvnor figs on the fig tree;
^bweven the leaves are withered,
and what I gave them has passed away from them.” ^{▼▼The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
14 Why do we sit still?
^byGather together; ^bzlet us go into the fortified cities
and perish there,
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish
and has ^cagiven us ^cbpoisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 ^ccWe looked for peace, but no good came;
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 ^cd“The snorting of their horses is heard ^cefrom Dan;
at the sound of the neighing ^cfof their stallions
^cgthe whole land quakes.
They come ^chand devour the land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you ^ciserpents,
adders ^cjthat cannot be charmed,
^ckand they shall bite you,”

declares the Lord.

Jeremiah Grieves for His People

18 My joy is gone; grief is upon me; ^{▼▼Compare Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain}
^cmmy heart is sick within me.
19 Behold, the cry of the daughter of my people
from ^cnthe length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion?
^coIs her King not in her?”
^cp“Why have they provoked me to anger with their carved images
and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 For the wound of ^cqthe daughter of my people is my heart wounded;
^crI mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no ^csbalm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?