Jeremiah

¹ "If a man's wife walks out on him And marries another man, can he take her back as if nothing had happened? Wouldn't that raise a huge stink in the land? And isn't that what you've done— 'whored' your way with god after god? And now you want to come back as if nothing had happened." God's Decree.

² Where have you not had sex? You've camped out like hunters stalking deer. You've solicited many lover-gods, Like a streetwalking whore chasing after other gods.

³ No more rain from the skies! But it doesn't even faze you. Brazen as whores, you carry on as if you've done nothing wrong.

⁴ You took care of me when I was a child. Why not now?

⁵ That's your line. Meanwhile you keep sinning nonstop."

⁶ God spoke to me during the reign of King Josiah: "You have noticed, haven't you, how fickle Israel has visited every hill and grove of trees as a whore at large?

⁷ I assumed that after she had gotten it out of her system, she'd come back, but she didn't. Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did.

⁸ She also saw that because of fickle Israel's loose morals I threw her out, gave her her walking papers. But that didn't faze flighty sister Judah. She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore's life also.

⁹ She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country.

¹⁰ And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a nod, although she made a show of it from time to time." God's Decree.

¹¹ Then God told me, "Fickle Israel was a good sight better than flighty Judah.

¹² " 'Turn back, fickle Israel. I'm not just hanging back to punish you. I'm committed in love to you. My anger doesn't seethe nonstop.

¹³ Admit your God-defiance. Admit to your promiscuous life with casual partners, pulling strangers into the sex-and-religion groves While turning a deaf ear to me.' " God's Decree.

¹⁴ God's Decree. "I, yes I, am your true husband. I'll pick you out one by one— This one from the city, these two from the country— and bring you to Zion.

¹⁵ who rule you with intelligence and wisdom.

¹⁶ "And this is what will happen: You will increase and prosper in the land. The time will come"—God's Decree!—"when no one will say any longer, 'Oh, for the good old days! Remember the Ark of the Covenant?' It won't even occur to anyone to say it—'the good old days.' The so-called good old days of the Ark are gone for good.

¹⁷ "Jerusalem will be the new Ark—'God's Throne.' All the godless nations, no longer stuck in the ruts of their evil ways, will gather there to honor God.

¹⁸ "At that time, the House of Judah will join up with the House of Israel. Holding hands, they'll leave the north country and come to the land I willed to your ancestors.

¹⁹ 'Good! I'll bring you back into the family. I'll give you choice land, land that the godless nations would die for.' And I imagined that you would say, 'Dear father!' and would never again go off and leave me.

²⁰ you, the whole family of Israel, have proven false to me." God's Decree.

²¹ the unhappy sound of Israel's crying, Israel lamenting the wasted years, never once giving her God a thought.

²² I can heal your wanderlust!" "We're here! We've come back to you. You're our own true God!

²³ duped crowds buying up the latest in gods. We're back! Back to our true God, the salvation of Israel.

²⁴ of what our ancestors bequeathed us, Gypped us out of our inheritance— God-blessed flocks and God-given children.

²⁵ all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor. All because we sinned against our God, we and our fathers and mothers. From the time we took our first steps, said our first words, we've been rebels, disobeying the voice of our God."