32

Wherefore hath my people said, We are our own masters;

We will not come any more unto thee?

Can a virgin forget her ornaments? a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

33 Why wilt thou direct thy way to the seeking of love?

Therefore also have I taught calamities thy ways. 34 Also in thy skirts is found blood,

The lives of poor innocents;

I have not found it in a digged hole,

But upon every oak.

35 Yet hast thou said, Because I am innocent,
Surely his wrath shall turn from me.

Behold I will enter into judgment with thee,
Because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

36 Why wilt thou make thyself exceedingly vile,
In repeating over again thy ways?

By means of Egypt also shalt thou be put to shame, Even as thou hast been put to shame by Assyria. 37 Yea from hence too shalt thou go forth,

With thy hands upon thy head:

Because JEHOVAH hath reprobated the objects of thy trust,

And thou shalt not prosper in them.

CHAP. III.

Whilst thou sayest, If a man put away his wife, And she depart from him, and become another

man's;

Shall he return unto her again?

Shall not that land be defiled?

Even thou hast played the harlot with many lovers

Yet return unto me, saith JEHOVAH.

2 Lift up thine eyes upon the open plains, and see; Where hast thou not been defiled in the highways? Thou hast sat waiting in them like an Arabian in the desert;

And hast polluted the land by thy whoredoms and by thy wickedness.

3 And although the showers have been withholden, And there hath been no latter rain; Yet thou hast had a harlot's forehead,

Thou hast resolved not to be ashamed.

4 Wilt thou not from henceforward call upon me, (Saying) My father, the guide of my youth wert thou?

5 Shall displeasure be kept in view for ever?

6

Or shall there be a marking of offences for evermore?

Behold, thou hast spoken, and done,

Thou hast wrought wickedness, and hast prevailed.

JEHOVAH also said unto me in the days of king Josiah; Hast thou seen what revolted Israel hath done? She hath gone upon every high mountain, and to the foot of every green tree, and hath 7 played the harlot there. And I said after she had

done all these things, Return thou unto me. But she returned not. And her faithless sister Judalı 8 saw it. And I saw, when because of all the a

dulteries, which revolted Israel had committed, I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce, that her faithless sister Judah was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.

9 And it came to pass, through the wantonness of

her prostitution, that she polluted the land, and com10 mitted adultery with stone and with wood. And

also after all this, her faithless sister Judah returned not to me with her whole heart, but feignedly, 11 said JEHOVAH. Therefore said JEHOVAH unto

me, Revolted Israel hath justified herself more 12 than faithless Judah. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

RETURN, O revolted Israel, saith JEHOVAH; I will not look down upon you with a lowring brow;

For I am merciful, saith JEHOVAH,

I will not keep displeasure in view for ever.

13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity,

That thou hast rebelled against JEHOVAH thy
God;

And hast been liberal of thy ways to strangers,
Under every green tree;

And ye have not hearkened unto my voice, saith
JEHOVAH.

14 Return, O revolted children, saith JEHOVAH,

For I have been a husband among you:

And I will take you one out of a city, and two out of a tribe,

And I will bring you to Sion.

15 And I will give you rulers after mine own heart, And they shall rule you with knowledge and discretion.

16 And it shall be when ye shall have multiplied and increased in the land,

In those days, saith JEHOVAH,

E

They shall no more say, The ark of the covenant

of JEHOVAH,

Nor shall it be the delight of their heart,

Nor shall they remember it, nor shall they care [about it,]

Nor shall it be made any more.

17 At that time shall Jerusalem be called the throne of JEHOVAH;

18

And all nations shall resort to it in the name of
JEHOVAH;

And they shall not walk any more after the lust-
ing of their evil heart.

In those days shall the house of Judah go unto the house of Israel,

And they shall come together out of the north country,

Unto the land which I made your fathers to inherit. 19 And when I said, How shall I place thee among

sons,

And give unto thee the land of desire,

The inheritance of the glory of hosts of nations? Then said I, Thou shalt call me, My father; And thou shalt not turn aside from following me. 20 Surely as a wicked woman breaketh her faith; So have broken faith towards me, ⚫ ye your

O house of Israel, saith JEHOVAH.

91 A voice hath been heard upon the plains, Weeping and supplications of the children of Israel;

Because they have perverted their way,

They have forgotten JEHOVAH their God.

22 Return, O revolted children,

I will heal your apostasies.-
Behold we come unto thee,

For thou art JEHOVAH Our God.

23 Surely hills are lies, the tumult of mountains;

24

Surely in JEHOVAH our God is the salvation of
Israel.

But that thing of shame hath devoured the sub-
stance of our fathers from our youth;

Their sheep, and their oxen,

Their sons, and their daughters,

25 We shall lie down in our shame,

And our ignominy will overwhelm us;

Because we have sinned against JEHOVAH Our God,
We and our fathers from our youth even until this
day,

And have not obeyed the voice of JEHOVAH Our
God.

CHAP. IV.

1 IF thou wilt turn again, O Israel,

Saith JEHOVAH, unto me shalt thou return;
And if thou wilt put away thine abominations,
From before me shalt thou not be removed:
2 But thou shalt swear, As JEHOVAH liveth,
In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness;
And the nations shall bless themselves in him,
And in him shall they glory.

3

SURELY thus saith JEHOVAH

To the men of Judah and to Jerusalem;
Break up your ground in tillage,

And sow not among thorns.

4 Be ye circumcised unto JEHOVAH,

And take away the foreskins of your hearts,
Oye men of Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusa-

lem ;

Lest my wrath go forth like fire,

And it be kindled that none can quench it,