sayest, I will not; I must court the strangers, and run after them.

As a thief is put to shame when he is taken, so shall the house of Israel be put to shame, and their kings, and their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, 27. Who say unto the wood, Thou art my father; and unto the stone, Thou hast begotten me. For they turn their backs upon me, and not their faces. But when trouble cometh, they say: Arise, and help us.

But where are thy gods, which thou hast made thee? Let them arise; Let them see if they can help thee in thy trouble. For many a city, many a god, hast thou, O Judah.

Why are ye yet right against me? Ye are all fallen from me, saith the LORD.

All the blows are lost upon your children; yet they cannot be drawn. For your sword devoureth your prophets like a fierce lion.

Thou wicked manner; mark the word of the LORD. Am I Israel a desolation, or a waste land?
Why sayest thou my people, We are lords, and need not follow thee?

Forget not a virgin her jewels, nor a bride her veil: but my people forget me for ever.

Why hast thou much adorned thy doings, that I should be gracious unto thee? Under these appearances thou doest more and more wickedness.

About which the blood of poor and innocent souls is found with thee in every place, and is not secret, but manifest in the same places.

Nor sayest thou: I am innocent: turn away his wrath from me. Behold, I will be even with thee, and thou shalt say, I have not sinned.

How gladly wilt thou yield, and fall now hither, now hither! But thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou hast been ashamed of Assyria.

For thou also must depart thence, and smite thine hands together upon thy head: for the LORD will make thy hope fail, and thou shalt not prosper with them.
Ch. 3, v. 1. And saith, If a man put away his wife, and she depart from him, and take another husband, may he receive her again? Is it not so, that the land is polluted? But thou hast dealt with many lovers: but come again unto me, saith the LORD.

Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see how thou doest whoredom in every place. By the highways thou sittest, and waitest for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness, and defileest the land with thy whoredom and thy wickedness.

Therefore also the early rain must fail, and the late rain must not come. Thou hast a whore’s forehead, thou wilt not be ashamed any more.

and yet cries unto me, Dear father, thou master of my youth!

Wilt thou then be angry for ever, and not cease from wrath? Behold, thou teachest, and doest evil, and sufferest not to be taxed.
(Jeremiah)
Chapter 3
Exhortation to repentance Promise of divine grace.

And the LORD said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou also seen what Israel the apostate hath done? She went up into all the high mountains, and under every green tree, and committed whoredom there.

And when she had done all these things, I said, Turn thou unto me. But she turned not. And though her sister Judah the hardened saw,

As I have punished adultery against Israel the apostate, and have forsaken her, and have given her a bill of divorcement: yet her sister Judah, which is hardened, feareth not, but goeth and committeth whoredom also.

And the land is polluted with the cry of her fornication: for she committeth adultery with stones and with wood;

And in all this Judah her sister, which is hardened, turneth not unto me with her whole heart, but feigneth herself thus, saith the LORD.

And the LORD said unto me, The apostate Israel is righteous against the stubborn Judah.

Go thy way, and preach toward the north, saying, Return, thou apostate Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not hide my face from you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and will not be angry for ever.

Only know thine iniquity, that thou hast sinned against the LORD thy God, and hast run to and fro unto strange gods among all the green trees, and hast not hearkened unto my voice, saith the LORD.

Turn ye, O ye apostate children, saith the LORD; for I will trust you unto me, and will fetch you, and one shall lead a whole city, and two a whole land; and I will bring you unto Zion.

And I will give you shepherds after mine own heart, which shall feed you with doctrine and wisdom.

And it shall come to pass, when ye are increased, and your number is increased in the land, that, saith the LORD, in that day they shall speak no more of the ark of the covenant of the LORD, neither shall they remember it, nor preach of it, nor visit it, nor sacrifice there any more,

But in that day shall Jerusalem be called the throne of the LORD: and there shall all the heathen be gathered together unto Jerusalem for the name of the LORD, and shall walk no more after the thoughts of their evil heart.

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the house of Judah shall go unto the house of Israel, and shall come together from the north unto the land which I gave unto your fathers for an inheritance.

And I say unto thee, How will I give thee so many children, and the good land, the goodly inheritance, even the host of the heathen? And I say unto thee, Thou shalt then call me..: And thou shalt not depart from me.

But the house of Israel regardeth me not, as a woman regardeth not her husband, saith the LORD.

Therefore there shall be heard a mourning and a weeping of the children of Israel in the high places, because they have done evil, and have forgotten the LORD their God.

Return therefore, ye apostate children, and I will heal you of your disobedience. Behold, we come unto thee: for thou art the LORD our God.

Verily it is all deceitfulness with hills, and with all mountains. Verily Israel hath no help but in the LORD our God.

And let the labours of our fathers, which we have kept from our youth, perish with shame, with their flocks, and their herds, and their children, and their daughters.

For that which we trusted in is now a reproach unto us: and that which we trusted in we are now ashamed of. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
(Jeremiah)
Chapter 4
Repeated sermon of repentance. Prophecy of devastation of the Jewish land.

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me. And if thou put away thine abominations from my presence, thou shalt not be driven out.

Then shalt thou swear without hypocrisy, rightly and sacredly: As the LORD liveth! And the heathen shall be blessed in him, and shall glory in him.

For thus saith the LORD unto them of Judah and Jerusalem, Plant a new thing, and sow not under the hedges.

Circumcise yourselves unto the LORD, and put away the foreskin of your heart, ye men of Judah, and ye people of Jerusalem; lest my wrath come forth as fire, and burn, and no man quench it, because of your wickedness.

Proclaim ye then in Judah, and cry aloud unto Jerusalem, saying, Blow ye the trumpets in the land. Cry with a loud voice, saying, Gather yourselves together, and let us go into the strong cities.

Throw up a banner in Zion; heap ye up, and tarry not. For I bring a calamity from the north, and a great distress.

Therefore the lion cometh out of his hedge. And the destroyer of the heathen cometh out of his place. And the destroyer of the heathen cometh out of his place, to lay waste thy land, and to burn up thy cities, that no man dwell therein.

Therefore put on sackcloth, and mourn, and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD will not cease from us.

In that day, saith the LORD, the heart of the king and of the princes shall fail; the priests shall be confounded, and the prophets shall be afraid.

And I said, O Lord GOD, thou hast greatly failed this people and Jerusalem, when they said, There shall be peace among you, though the sword reach unto the soul.

And it shall be said in that day unto this people and to Jerusalem, There cometh a dry wind out of the mountains, as out of the wilderness, by the way of the daughter of my people, not to whirl nor to blow.

Yea, a wind cometh, which shall be too strong for them: then will I also be right with them.

Behold, he goeth forth as the clouds, and his chariots are as the whirlwind, and his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us, we shall be destroyed!

Wash therefore, O Jerusalem, thine heart from evil, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall these evil doctrines abide with thee?

For there cometh a cry from Dan, and an evil report from mount Ephraim, 16. As the heathen boast. And it hath sounded as far as Jerusalem, and the guardians shall come from far countries, and shall cry against the cities of Judah.

They shall besiege them round about, as the keepers of the field: for they have provoked me to anger, saith the LORD.

This thou hast to recompense for thy nature and for thy doings.