Day 284 of 730

¹"They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me," says the Lord.

²"Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

³Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

⁴Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'

⁵"'Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way."

⁶Moreover, the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute.

⁷I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she did not return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

⁸I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, did not fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

⁹It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

¹⁰Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says the Lord.

¹¹The Lord said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says the Lord; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says the Lord. 'I will not keep anger forever.

¹³Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,'" says the Lord.

¹⁴"Return, backsliding children," says the Lord; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

¹⁵I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

¹⁶It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says the Lord, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord!' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of the Lord;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

¹⁹"But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'

²⁰"Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says the Lord.

²¹A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God.

²²"Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding." "Behold, we have come to you; for you are the Lord our God.

²³Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.

²⁴But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

²⁵Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God."

¹"If you will return, Israel," says the Lord, "if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;

²and you shall swear, 'As the Lord lives,' in truth, in justice, and in righteousness. The nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory."

³For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, "Break up your fallow ground, and do not sow among thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn so that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

⁵Declare in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, 'Blow the trumpet in the land!' Cry aloud and say, 'Assemble yourselves! Let us go into the fortified cities!'

⁶Set up a standard toward Zion. Flee for safety! Do not wait; for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction."

⁷A lion is gone up from his thicket, and a destroyer of nations; he is on his way, he is gone forth from his place, to make your land desolate, that your cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

⁸For this clothe yourself with sackcloth, lament and wail; for the fierce anger of the Lord hasn't turned back from us.

⁹"It shall happen at that day," says the Lord, "that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder."

¹⁰Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Surely you have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, 'You shall have peace;' whereas the sword reaches to the heart."

¹¹At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, "A hot wind from the bare heights in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow, nor to cleanse;

¹²a full wind from these shall come for me. Now I will also utter judgments against them."

¹³Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as the whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us! For we are ruined.

¹⁴Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

¹⁵For a voice declares from Dan, and publishes evil from the hills of Ephraim:

¹⁶"Tell the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, 'Watchers come from a far country, and raise their voice against the cities of Judah.

¹⁷As keepers of a field, they are against her all around, because she has been rebellious against me,'" says the Lord.

¹⁸"Your way and your doings have brought these things to you. This is your wickedness; for it is bitter, for it reaches to your heart."

¹⁹My anguish, my anguish! I am pained at my very heart; my heart is disquieted in me; I can't hold my peace; because you have heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

²⁰Destruction on destruction is proclaimed; for the whole land is laid waste: suddenly are my tents destroyed, and my curtains in a moment.

²¹How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

²²"For my people are foolish, they do not know me. They are foolish children, and they have no understanding. They are skillful in doing evil, but to do good they have no knowledge."

²³I saw the earth, and, behold, it was waste and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

²⁴I saw the mountains, and behold, they trembled, and all the hills moved back and forth.

²⁵I saw, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the sky had fled.

²⁶I saw, and behold, the fruitful field was a wilderness, and all its cities were broken down at the presence of the Lord, before his fierce anger.

²⁷For thus says the Lord, "The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

²⁸For this the earth will mourn, and the heavens above be black; because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and I have not relented, neither will I turn back from it."

²⁹Every city flees for the noise of the horsemen and archers; they go into the thickets, and climb up on the rocks: every city is forsaken, and not a man dwells therein.

³⁰You, when you are made desolate, what will you do? Though you clothe yourself with scarlet, though you dress yourselves with ornaments of gold, though you enlarge your eyes with paint, in vain do you make yourself beautiful; your lovers despise you, they seek your life.

³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, the anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, who gasps for breath, who spreads her hands, saying, "Woe is me now! For my soul faints before the murderers."

¹Look! Praise the Lord, all you servants of the Lord, who stand by night in the Lord's house!

²Lift up your hands in the sanctuary. Praise the Lord!

³May the Lord bless you from Zion; even he who made heaven and earth.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

²that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."

¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving doe and a graceful deer- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He examines all his paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.