But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in [their own] counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.
Moreover LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have thou seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.
How can thou say, I am not defiled; I have not gone after the Baalim? See thy way in the valley. Know what thou have done, a swift dromedary traversing her ways,
And now what have thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or what have thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
But if LORD makes a new thing, and the ground opens its mouth, and swallows them up, with all that pertains to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then ye shall understand that these men have despised LORD.
I have seen thine abominations, even thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, on the hills, in the field. Woe to thee, O Jerusalem! Thou will not be made clean. How long shall it yet be?
Return, O backsliding sons, says LORD, for I am a husband to you. And I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not, but she also went and played the harlot.
They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again? Will not that land be greatly polluted? But thou have played the harlot with many lovers. Yet return again to me,