God Pleads with Judah to Repent
1-3 I remember how devoted you used to be to me, like a bride. You were like first fruits of harvest, and I would not let anyone touch you.
4-8 What went wrong, that your ancestors left me, forgetting that I brought them out of Egypt, carried them through the wilderness, and brought them to a fertile land? The priests stopped seeking me, the rulers sinned against me, the prophets prophesied for Baal for useless profit.
9-13 I accuse you. Look at the pagan countries: even they don't forsake their gods. May the heavens be appalled at the way you have forsaken my living water and dug leaky cisterns for yourselves.
14-19 Are you slaves? Then why are you subject to so much plunder, your cities in ruins at the hands of others? You have brought this on yourselves by forsaking me. You want to go to Egypt and Assyria for help, drinking their water. Your wickedness will punish you.
20-22 Long ago you decided you would not serve me, playing the whore. You were my choice vine, and you become a wild vine. The most powerful soap cannot cleanse your guilt.
23-25 How can you say you're not defiled, after acting like an animal in heat, easily found by strange lovers?
26-28 As an apprehended thief is ashamed, so your leaders – who worship inanimate objects – will be shamed. In trouble, they look to me for salvation. I say, let those gods you made save you!
29-32 Your children accept no correction. You treat me as if I have been a wilderness or darkness to you; you forget you were once my bride.
33-35 You are so good at seeking other lovers, even wicked women learn from you. Even as you mistreat the innocent poor, you are claiming to be innocent. I will judge you for claiming you have not sinned.
36-37 Just as you came from Assyria with your hands on your heads, so Egypt will shame you. I have rejected those whom you trust; you will not prosper through them.
Jeremiah 3
1-5 Unfaithful Judah
1 Will a man return to the wife he has divorced for infidelity?
2-5 In your whoring, there is nowhere you have not sought false lovers. Even in a drought you refuse to be ashamed. Yet you don't seem to understand my anger.
6-12 The LORD to Isaiah
- Have you seen how Israel acted like a whore? I thought she would return to me, but she did not, and I sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet Judah did not learn from her; she only pretended to return to me.
- Judah is guiltier than faithless Israel.
- Go, proclaim these words.
15-18 I will give you shepherds who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. You won't miss the ark of the covenant (lost in Babylon), for Jerusalem will be the throne of God, and all nations will gather to it. This is prophetic of the spiritual kingdom of God, the church, prophesied similarly in Isaiah 2:2.
19-22 I thought Israel would call me Father and not leave me, yet you have been faithless. Israel's children are weeping because they have forgotten me. Return, faithless children.
22-25 Israel answers: We recognize our life of whoredom has been delusional; that only in the LORD is there salvation. This "shameful thing" has devoured what our ancestors left for us. We confess our sin from our youth even til now; we have been disobedient.
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