Jeremiah 3:19-4:2

New American Standard Bible

¹⁹“Then I said,

‘How I would set you among ^[a]My sons
And give you a pleasant land,
The most ^(A)beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
And I said, ‘You shall call Me, ^(B)My Father,
And not turn away from following Me.’
²⁰However, as a woman treacherously leaves her lover,
So you have ^(C)dealt treacherously with Me,
House of Israel,” declares the Lord.

²¹A voice is heard on the ^(D)bare heights,
The weeping, the pleading of the sons of Israel.
Because they have perverted their way,
They have ^(E)forgotten the Lord their God.
²²“Return, you faithless sons,
^(F)I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to You;
For You are the Lord our God.
²³Certainly ^(G)the hills are a deception,
^[b]Commotion on the mountains.
Certainly in the ^(H)Lord our God
Is the salvation of Israel.

²⁴“But ^(I)the shame has consumed the product of our fathers’ labor since our youth—their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. ²⁵Let us lie down in our ^(J)shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, ^(K)from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”

Judah Threatened with Invasion

4 “If you will ^(L)return, Israel,” declares the Lord,
“Then you should return to Me.
And ^(M)if you will put away your detestable things from My presence,
And will not waver,
²And if you will ^(N)swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’
^(O)In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;
Then the ^(P)nations will bless themselves in Him,
And ^(Q)in Him they will boast.”