14 Return, rebellious children,declares the Lord, for I’m your husband.I’ll gather you—one from a city and two from a tribe—and bring you back to Zion.
15 I will appoint shepherds with whom I’m pleased, and they will lead you with knowledge and understanding.
16 And in those days, when your numbers have greatly increased in the land, declares the Lord, people will no longer talk about the Lord’s covenant chest; they won’t recall or remember it; they won’t even miss it or try to build another one.
17 At that time, they will call Jerusalem the Lord’s throne, and all nations will gather there to honor the Lord’s name. No longer will they follow their own willful and evil hearts.
18 In those days the people of Judah and Israel will leave the north together for the land that I gave their ancestors as an inheritance.
19 I thought to myself, How wonderful it would beto treat you like childrenand give you a beautiful land,an inheritance unrivaled among the nations.And I thought, You will call me father,and you won’t turn away from me.
20 But as a woman betrays her lover,so you, people of Israel, have betrayed me,declares the Lord.