1 “If a man divorces his wifeand she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,he may not take her back again.Doing that would utterly defile the land.But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods.So what makes you think you can return to me?”says the Lord.
2 “Look up at the hilltops and consider this.You have had sex with other gods on every one of them.You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert.You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.
3 That is why the rains have been withheld,and the spring rains have not come.Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute.You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.
4 Even now you say to me, ‘You are my father!You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young.
5 You will not always be angry with me, will you?You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’That is what you say,but you continually do all the evil that you can.”
6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.
7 Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me. But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did.