The Wages of the Harlot

1Saying, If a man shall send away his wife, and she went from him and she was to another man, shall he yet turn back to her? Being defiled, shall not that land be defiled? and thou committedst fornication with many shepherds; and turn back to me, says Jehovah.

2Lift up thine eyes upon the naked hills and see where thou wert not lain with. Upon the ways thou didst sit for them as the ravens in the desert; and thou wilt defile the land with thy fornications and with thine evil.

3And the showers will be withheld, and the latter rain was not; and the forehead of a woman a harlot was to thee, and thou refusedst to be ashamed.

4From the time didst thou not call to me, My father, thou the friend of my youth?

5Will he guard forever? if he will watch to the end? Behold, I spake, and wilt thou do evil, and shalt thou be able?

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

6And Jehovah will say to me in the days of Josiah the king, Sawest thou what Israel turning back, did? She went up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and she will commit fornication there. 7And saying after she did all these, Thou shalt turn back to me. And she turned not back; and her faithless sister Judah will see it. 8And I shall see for all the causes that Israel turning away committed adultery, I sent her away and I shall give a writing of her cutting off to her; and her faithless sister Judah was not afraid, and she will go and commit fornication, she also. 9And it was her fornication being light, and she will defile the land, and she will commit adultery with stones and with woods. 10And also in all this her faithless sister Judah turned not back to me with all the heart, but in falsehood, says Jehovah.

A Call to Repentance
(Hosea 14:1–3; Zechariah 1:1–6)

11And Jehovah will say to me, Israel turning away justified her soul above faithless Judah.

12Go and call these words to the north, and say, Turn back, O Israel, turning away, says Jehovah; I will not cause my face to fall upon you: for I am merciful, says Jehovah, I will not guard forever.

13Only know thine iniquity that thou didst transgress against Jehovah thy God, and thou wilt scatter thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and to my voice ye heard not, says Jehovah.

14Turn back, ye sons having turned away, says Jehovah; for I was lord over you: and I took you one from a city and two from a family, and I brought you to Zion.

15And I gave to you shepherds according to my heart, and they fed you with knowledge and understanding. 16And it was that ye shall be multiplied and be fruitful in the land in those days, says Jehovah; they shall no more say, The ark of the covenant of Jehovah: and it shall not come up upon the heart, and they shall not remember upon it, and they shall not review and it shall be clone no more. 17In that time they shall call to Jerusalem the throne of Jehovah; and all nations assembled together to her to the name of Jehovah, to Jerusalem: and they shall no more go after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18In those days the house of Judah shall go with the house of Israel, and they shall go together out of the land of the north to a land which I caused your fathers to inherit.

19And I said, How shall I place thee among the sons, and I will give to thee a land of desire, an inheritance of glory of the armies of nations? And saying, Ye shall call to me, My father; and ye shall rot turn back from after me.

20Surely a wife acting faithlessly by her friend, so ye acted faithlessly against me, O house of Israel, says Jehovah.

21A voice was heard upon the naked hills, weepings, supplications of the sons of Israel: for they perverted their way, they forgot Jehovah their God.

22Turn back, ye sons turning away; I will heal your turnings away. Behold, we came to thee; for thou Jehovah our God.

23Truly in vain from the hills; the multitude of mountains; truly in Jehovah our God the salvation of Israel.

24And shame consumed the labor of our fathers from our youth; their sheep and their herd, their sons and their daughters. 25We shall lie down in our shame, and our reproach will cover us: for we sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we heard not to the voice of Jehovah our God.