Tanakh & Talmud. Various Authors

the Lord hath rejected them in whom thou didst trust,And thou shalt not prosper in them. 3⁠. . . saying:If a man put away his wife,And she go from him,And become another man's,May he return unto her again?Will not that land be greatly polluted?But thou hast played the harlot with many lovers;And wouldest thou yet return to Me?Saith the Lord.²Lift up thine eyes unto the high hills, and see:Where hast thou not been lain with?By the ways hast thou sat for them,As an Arabian in the wilderness;And thou hast polluted the landWith thy harlotries and with thy wickedness.³Therefore the showers have been withheld,And there hath been no latter rain;Yet thou hadst a harlot's forehead,Thou refusedst to be ashamed.⁴Didst thou not just now cry unto Me: 'My father,Thou art the friend of my youth.⁵Will He bear grudge for ever?Will He keep it to the end?'Behold, thou hast spoken, but hast done evil things,And hast had thy way.

      ⁶And the Lord said unto me in the days of Josiah the king: 'Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel did? she went up upon every high mountain and under every leafy tree, and there played the harlot. ⁷And I said: After she hath done all these things, she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. ⁸And I saw, when, forasmuch as backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, that yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot; ⁹and it came to pass through the lightness of her harlotry, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks; ¹⁰and yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord—¹¹even the Lord said unto me—backsliding Israel hath proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say:

      Return, thou backsliding Israel,Saith the Lord;I will not frown upon you;For I am merciful, saith the Lord,I will not bear grudge for ever.¹³Only acknowledge thine iniquity,That thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God,And hast scattered thy ways to the strangersUnder every leafy tree,And ye have not hearkened to My voice,Saith the Lord.

      ¹⁴Return, O backsliding children, saith the Lord; for I am a lord unto you, and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion; ¹⁵and I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. ¹⁶And it shall come to pass, when ye are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord; neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they make mention of it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. ¹⁷At that time they shall call Jerusalem The throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem; neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. ¹⁸In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.'

      ¹⁹But I said: 'How would I put thee among the sons,And give thee a pleasant land,The goodliest heritage of the nations! 'And I said: 'Thou shalt call Me, My father;And shalt not turn away from following Me.'²⁰Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband,So have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,Saith the Lord. ²¹Hark! upon the high hills is heardThe suppliant weeping of the children of Israel;For that they have perverted their way,They have forgotten the Lord their God. ²²Return, ye backsliding children,I will heal your backslidings.—'Here we are, we are come unto Thee;For Thou art the Lord our God.²³Truly vain have proved the hills,The uproar on the mountains;Truly in the Lord our GodIs the salvation of Israel.²⁴But the shameful thing hath devouredThe labour of our fathers from our youth;Their flocks and their herds,Their sons and their daughters.²⁵Let us lie down in our shame,And let our confusion cover us;For we have sinned against the Lord our God,We and our fathers,From our youth even unto this day;And we have not hearkenedTo the voice of the Lord our God.' 4If thou wilt return, O Israel,Saith the Lord,Yea, return unto Me;And if thou wilt put away thy detestable things out of My sight,And wilt not waver;²And wilt swear: 'As the Lord liveth'In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;Then shall the nations bless themselves by Him,And in Him shall they glory. ³For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:Break up for you a fallow ground,And sow not among thorns.⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,And take away the foreskins of your heart,Ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;Lest My fury go forth like fire,And burn that none can quench it,Because of the evil of your doings. ⁵Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem,And say: 'Blow ye the horn in the land';Cry aloud and say:'Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.'⁶Set up a standard toward Zion;Put yourselves under covert, stay not;For I will bring evil from the north,And a great destruction.⁷A lion is gone up from his thicket,And a destroyer of nationsIs set out, gone forth from his place;To make thy land desolate,That thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.⁸For this gird you with sackcloth,Lament and wail;For the fierce anger of the LordIs not turned back from us.⁹And it shall come to pass at that day,Saith the Lord,That the heart of the king shall fail,And the heart of the princes;And the priests shall be astonished,And the prophets shall wonder.

      ¹⁰Then said I: 'Ah, Lord God! surely Thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.'

      ¹¹At that time shall it be said of this people and of Jerusalem;A hot wind of the high hills in the wildernessToward the daughter of My people,Not to fan, nor to cleanse;¹²A wind too strong for this shall come for Me;Now will I also utter judgments against them.¹³Behold, he cometh up as clouds,And his chariots are as the whirlwind;His horses are swifter than eagles.—'Woe unto us! for we are undone.'—¹⁴O Jerusalem, wash thy heart from wickedness,That thou mayest be saved.How long shall thy baleful thoughtsLodge within thee?¹⁵For hark! one declareth from Dan,And announceth calamity from the hills of Ephraim:¹⁶'Make ye mention to the nations:Behold—publish concerning Jerusalem—Watchers come from a far country,And give out their voice against the cities of Judah.'¹⁷As keepers of a fieldAre they against her round about;Because she hath been rebellious against Me,Saith the Lord.¹⁸Thy way and thy doings have procuredThese things unto thee;This is thy wickedness; yea, it is bitter,Yea, it reacheth unto thy heart. ¹⁹My bowels, my bowels! I writhe in pain!The chambers of my heart!My heart moaneth within me!I cannot hold my peace!Because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the horn,The alarm of war.²⁰Destruction followeth upon destruction,For the whole land is spoiled;Suddenly are my tents spoiled,My curtains in a moment.²¹How long shall I see the standard,Shall I hear the sound of the horn? ²²For My people is foolish,They know Me not;They are sottish children,And they have no understanding;They are wise to do evil,But to do good they have no knowledge. ²³I beheld the earth,And, lo, it was waste and void;And the heavens, and they had no light.²⁴I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled,And all the hills moved to and fro.²⁵I beheld, and, lo, there was no man,And all the birds of the heavens were fled.²⁶I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful field was a wilderness,And all the cities thereof were broken downAt the presence of the Lord,And before His fierce anger. ²⁷For thus saith the Lord:The whole land shall be desolate;Yet will I not make a full end.²⁸For this shall the earth mourn,And the heavens above be black;Because I have spoken it, I have purposed it,And I have not repented, neither will I turn back from it.²⁹For the noise of the horsemen and bowmenThe whole city fleeth;They go into the thickets,And climb up upon the rocks;Every city is forsaken,And not a man dwelleth therein.³⁰And thou, that art spoiled, what doest thou,That thou clothest thyself with scarlet,That thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold,That thou enlargest thine eyes with paint?In vain dost thou make thyself fair;Thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.³¹For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail,The anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child,The voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath,That spreadeth her hands:'Woe is me, now! for my soul faintethBefore the murderers.' 5Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,And see now, and know,And seek in the broad places thereof,If ye can find a man,If there be any that doeth justly, that seeketh truth;And I