Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem saying—Thus saith Yahweh, I remember in thy behalf, the lovingkindness of thy youthful days, The love of thy bridal estate,—Thy coming out after me, Through the desert, Through a land, not sown:
Though, I myself, had said,—How can I put thee among the sons, And give thee a land to be coveted, An inheritance of beauty, of the hosts of nations? Yet I said, My father, shalt thou call me, And away from me, shalt thou not turn.
Then will I give to her her vineyards from thence, and the vale of Achor for a door of hope,—and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. (Achor: trouble)
With weeping, shall they come in, And with supplications, will I lead them, I will bring them unto rivers of waters By a smooth way, wherein they shall not stumble,—For I have become, to Israel, a father, And as for Ephraim, my firstborn, is he!
Yet ye say, For what cause? Because, Yahweh, hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, with whom, thou, hast dealt treacherously, though, she, was thy consort, and thy covenant wife.
Saying, to a tree, My father, art thou! And to a stone, Thou, didst give us birth, For they have turned unto me the back and not the face,—But in the time of their calamity, they will say, Arise, and save us!
A son, will honour a father, and, a servant, his lord,— If then, a father, I am, where is mine honour? And, if, a lord, I am, where is my reverence? saith Yahweh of hosts— to you, ye priests, who despise my Name, and yet say, Wherein have we despised thy Name?