He hath said, If a man send away his wife, and she go from him and become another man’s, will he return unto her, again? would not that land be, utterly defiled? And, thou, hast been unchaste with many neighbours, and yet thinkest to return unto me! Declareth Yahweh.
Let the lawless forsake his way, And the man of iniquity, his thoughts,—And let him return unto Yahweh That he may have compassion upon him, And unto our God, For he will abundantly pardon.
Therefore doth the Excellency of Israel, answer, to his face; yet have they not returned unto Yahweh their God, nor have they sought him, in spite of all this!
O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me, I have wiped out, As with a thick cloud, thy transgressions, And as with a broad cloud, thy sins,—Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee.
any prayer, any supplication which, any son of earth, may have, of all thy people Israel,—who will certainly know every man the plague of his own heart, and so he shall spread abroad his hands towards this house,
Peradventure, the house of Judah will hearken unto all the calamity, which I am devising to execute against them,—to the end they may return every man from his wicked way, whereupon I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin.
But among the prophets of Jerusalem, have I seen a horrible thing,—Committing adultery, And walking in falsehood, And so strengthening the hands of doers of wickedness, not to return any man from his wickedness: They have all of them become to me as Sodom, And her inhabitants as Gomorrah.
If thou wilt return, O Israel, Declareth Yahweh, Unto me, mayst thou return,—And if thou wilt remove thine abominations from before me, Then shalt thou not become a wanderer.