What a filthy heart you have," says the Lord God, "to do such things as these; you are a brazen prostitute, building your idol altars, your brothels, on every street. You have been worse than a prostitute, so eager for sin that you have not even charged for your love! Yes, you are an adulterous wife who lives with other men instead of her own husband. Prostitutes charge for their services - men pay with many gifts. But not you, you give them gifts, bribing them to come to you! So you are different from other prostitutes. But you had to pay them, for no one wanted you.

   "Come back to Me, you unfaithful people," says the Lord. "I am your husband . . . I, the Lord, said, 'How happy I would be to treat you as sons! I would be glad to give you a pleasant land. It's a land more beautiful than that of any other nation.' I thought you would call Me 'Father' and not turn away from Me. But like a woman who is unfaithful to her husband, family of Israel, you have been unfaithful to Me," says the Lord. You can hear crying on the bare hilltops. The people of Israel are crying and praying for mercy. They have become very evil. They have forgotten the Lord their God. "Come back to Me, you unfaithful people of Israel. Come back, and I will forgive you for being unfaithful."

   "Yes, we will come to You. You are the Lord our God. It was foolish to worship idols on the hills. All the loud noises on the mountains were a lie. Surely the salvation of Israel comes from the Lord our God. Since we were young, shameful gods have eaten up in sacrifice everything our fathers worked for. The shameful gods have taken our fathers' sheep and cattle. They have taken our fathers' sons and daughters. Let us lie down in our shame. And let our shame cover us like a blanket. We have sinned against the Lord our God. Both we and our fathers have sinned. Since we were children and until now, we have not obeyed the Lord our God."

   "If you will come back, Israel, then come back to Me," says the Lord. "Throw away your idols that I hate. Don't wander away from Me. Then you may say when you make a promise, 'As surely as the Lord lives.' And you can say it in a truthful, honest and right way. Then the nations will be blessed by the Lord. And they will praise the Lord for what He has done."

Taken from Jer. 3, Ezek. 16, Jer. 4, The Everyday Bible and The Living Bible.
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