1“Moses wrote that if a man divorces his wife and then she marries another man,
2“Look up at the barren hilltops.
3That is why I have not sent you any rain at the times of the year when you needed it.
4Now each of you says to me, ‘You are my father!
5So surely you will not [RHQ] be angry with me forever!’
6One day when Josiah was the king of Judah, Yahweh said to me, “Have you seen what the people of Israel have done? They have turned away from me, like a woman who has abandoned her husband and sleeps with other men. They have gone up on every hilltop and under every big tree and worshiped idols there [MET].
7I thought that they would return to me, so I said to them, ‘Come back to me!’ But they refused. So I sent them away to other countries, like a man writes a note saying that he is divorcing his wife and then sends his wife away because she has committed adultery [MET].
8The people of Judah saw what I did to them. But they are just like the people of Israel. They are not afraid of what I will do to them. They also have turned away from me and are worshiping idols like women who abandon their husbands and go to other men [MET].
9They thought that worshiping idols did not matter to me, so they have made the entire land unacceptable to me by worshiping idols of wood and stone.
10The people of Judah have pretended to return to me, but they have not really done that. This is true because I, Yahweh, have said it.”
11Then Yahweh said to me, “The people of Israel have turned away from me, but what the people of Judah have done is worse.
12So go and tell this to the people of Israel:
13But you must admit/say that you are guilty,
14But you belong to me.
15If you do that, I will appoint for you leaders with whom I am pleased,
16And when you become very numerous [DOU] in your land,
17At that time people will say, “Jerusalem is the place where Yahweh’s throne is.”
18At that time you people [MTY] of Israel and the people of Judah will return from being ◄exiled/forced to live► in lands to the northeast.
19You people of Israel, I wanted to accept you to be my children.
20But you have abandoned me like wives who have abandoned their husbands.’ ”
21People will hear a noise on the barren hilltops.
22Yahweh will say to them, “You Israeli people, come back to me!
23We did not get any help from the idols that we worshiped on the hilltops;
24From the time when we were young, the shameful god Baal has taken away from us everything that our ancestors worked hard to acquire.
25So, now we should lie down feeling very ashamed [DOU],