Jeremiah 3

Jeremiah Chapter 3 KJV

1God inviteth Judah to return to him notwithstanding her vile whoredom. 6Israel, though rejected for her lewdness, is still less criminal than Judah. 12Both are called to repentance upon the promises of the gospel. 20The people reproached with their unfaithfulness make a solemn confession of their sins.
1 aTHEY say, 1If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, 2shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be 3greatly polluted? but 4thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; 5yet return again to me, saith the Lord.
2 Lift up thine eyes unto the 1high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. 2In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast 3polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
3 Therefore the 1showers have been withholden, and there hath been no 2latter rain; and thou hadst a 3whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.
4 1Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
5 1Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, 2thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.
6 ¶ The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is 1gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
7 And 1I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And 2her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 And I saw, 1when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her 2a bill of divorce; yet her 3treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
9 And it came to pass through the alightness of her whoredom, that 1she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah 1hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but afeignedly, saith the Lord.
11 And the Lord said unto me, The 1backsliding Israel hath 2justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
12 ¶ Go and proclaim these words toward the 1north, and say, 2Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am 3merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever.
13 1Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and 2hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord.
14 1Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am 2married unto you: and 3I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
15 And I will give you 1pastors according to mine heart, 2which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.
16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be 1multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, 2they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come ato mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that bbe done any more.
17 At that time they shall call 1Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and 2all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither 3shall they walk any more after the aimagination of their evil heart.
18 In those days the house of Judah 1shall walk awith the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to 2the land that I have bgiven for an inheritance unto your fathers.
19 But I said, 1How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a apleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, 2My father; and shalt not turn away bfrom me.
20 ¶ Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her ahusband, so 1have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the Lord.
21 A 1voice was heard upon 2the high places, 3weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: 4for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God.
22 1Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, 2we come unto thee; for 3thou art the Lord our God.
23 Truly 1in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: 2truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 For 1shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We 1lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: 2for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our 3youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.
Jeremiah 3