Vulgo dicitur: Si dimiserit vir uxorem suam, et recedens ab eo duxerit virum alterum, numquid revertetur ad eam ultra? numquid non polluta et contaminata erit mulier illa? Tu autem fornicata es cum amatoribus multis: tamen revertere ad me, dicit Dominus, et ego suscipiam te.

It is commonly said: If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and marry another man, shall he return to her any more? shall not that woman be polluted, and defiled? but thou hast prostituted thyself to many lovers: nevertheless return to me, saith the Lord, and I will receive thee.

What is the law of common life? Let wife that has been put away by her husband marry a second, can she afterwards return to the first? That were shame and defilement. And thou with many lovers hast played the wanton; yet come back to me, the Lord says, and thou shalt find welcome.

Leva oculos tuos in directum, et vide ubi non prostrata sis. In viis sedebas, exspectans eos quasi latro in solitudine: et polluisti terram in fornicationibus tuis, et in malitiis tuis.

Lift up thy eyes on high: and see where thou hast not prostituted thyself: thou didst sit in the ways, waiting for them as a robber in the wilderness: and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications, and with thy wickedness.

Lift up thy eyes to the bare hills, and tell me, which of them has not been the scene of thy shame? Like a highway robber thou didst lurk by the road-side, waiting for thy lovers; by thy heartless wantonness the whole land was defiled.

Quam ob rem prohibitæ sunt stillæ pluviarum, et serotinus imber non fuit. Frons mulieris meretricis facta est tibi; noluisti erubescere.

Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot’s forehead, thou wouldst not blush.

I called thee to account for it; heaven’s dews were stanched, and the late rains did not fall, and still never a blush on thy harlot’s brow!

Ergo saltem amodo voca me: Pater meus, dux virginitatis meæ tu es:

Therefore at the least from this time call to me: Thou art my father, the guide of my virginity:

Little wonder thou shouldst have been crying out to me, since then, calling me father, calling me the loved friend of thy girlhood’s days;

numquid irasceris in perpetuum, aut perseverabis in finem? ecce locuta es, et fecisti mala, et potuisti.

Wilt thou be angry for ever, or wilt thou continue unto the end? Behold, thou hast spoken, and hast done evil things, and hast been able.

was there no quenching my anger? Would it smoulder on for ever? Ay, all this thou saidst, but still wouldst go on sinning, still wouldst have thy way.

Et dixit Dominus ad me in diebus Josiæ regis: Numquid vidisti quæ fecerit aversatrix Israël? Abiit sibimet super omnem montem excelsum, et sub omni ligno frondoso, et fornicata est ibi.

And the Lord said to me in the days of king Josias: Hast thou seen what rebellious Israel hath done? she hath gone of herself upon every high mountain, and under every green tree, and hath played the harlot there.

It was in the days of king Josias the Lord said to me: Israel’s apostasy thou hast seen, how she ever betook herself to the nearest high hill or leafy wood, to play the wanton there;

Et dixi, cum fecisset hæc omnia: Ad me revertere: et non est reversa. Et vidit prævaricatrix soror ejus Juda

And when she had done all these things, I said: Return to me, and she did not return. And her treacherous sister Juda saw,

and how, when I called her back to me in spite of it, she would not come. Now mark the treachery of her sister Juda.

quia pro eo quod mœchata esset aversatrix Israël, dimisissem eam, et dedissem ei libellum repudii: et non timuit prævaricatrix Juda soror ejus, sed abiit, et fornicata est etiam ipsa:

That because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce: yet her treacherous sister Juda was not afraid, but went and played the harlot also herself.

She too had seen it all, how I had bidden apostate Israel begone, and given her a writ of separation; and now treacherous Juda, unabashed, went off in her turn to play the wanton.

et facilitate fornicationis suæ contaminavit terram, et mœchata est cum lapide et ligno:

And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.

So wayward, so wanton, she defiled all that land of hers, giving herself to lovers made of wood and stone!

et in omnibus his non est reversa ad me prævaricatrix soror ejus Juda in toto corde suo, sed in mendacio, ait Dominus.

And after all this, her treacherous sister Juda hath not returned to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith the Lord.

After all the warnings I had given, Juda, the treacherous, would never come back to me in good earnest, only with lying professions, the Lord says.

Et dixit Dominus ad me: Justificavit animam suam aversatrix Israël, comparatione prævaricatricis Judæ.

And the Lord said to me: The rebellious Israel hath justified her soul, in comparison of the treacherous Juda.

And the Lord told me: Better than Juda’s treachery, the apostasy of Israel deserves to be acquitted.

Vade, et clama sermones istos contra aquilonem, et dices: Revertere, aversatrix Israël, ait Dominus, et non avertam faciem meam a vobis, quia sanctus ego sum, dicit Dominus, et non irascar in perpetuum.

Go, and proclaim these words towards the north, and thou shalt say: Return, O rebellious Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not turn away my face from you: for I am holy, saith the Lord, and I will not be angry for ever.

Carry this message of mine to the north country: Come back to me, apostate Israel, the Lord says, and there shall be no frown of mine awaiting you; I am merciful, the Lord says, and vengeance shall not last for ever.

Verumtamen scito iniquitatem tuam, quia in Dominum Deum tuum prævaricata es, et dispersisti vias tuas alienis sub omni ligno frondoso, et vocem meam non audisti, ait Dominus.

But yet acknowledge thy iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God: and thou hast scattered thy ways to strangers under every green tree, and hast not heard my voice, saith the Lord.

Only acknowledge thy fault, he tells thee, in deserting the Lord thy God and betaking thyself to the bowers of strange lovers, deaf to my call.

Convertimini, filii revertentes, dicit Dominus, quia ego vir vester: et assumam vos unum de civitate, et duos de cognatione, et introducam vos in Sion.

Return, O ye revolting children, saith the Lord: for I am your husband: and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a kindred, and will bring you into Sion.

Wandering hearts, the Lord bids you come back to him, and renew your troth; by ones and twos, from this city or that, from this clan or that, he will claim you for his own and bring you back to Sion;

Et dabo vobis pastores juxta cor meum, et pascent vos scientia et doctrina.

And I will give you pastors according to my own heart, and they shall feed you with knowledge and doctrine.

and you shall have shepherds of his own choice to guide you well and prudently.

Cumque multiplicati fueritis, et creveritis in terra in diebus illis, ait Dominus, non dicent ultra: Arca testamenti Domini: neque ascendet super cor, neque recordabuntur illius, nec visitabitur, nec fiet ultra.

And when you shall be multiplied, and increase in the land in those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more: The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come upon the heart, neither shall they remember it, neither shall it be visited, neither shall that be done any more.

After that, the Lord says, when all is growth and fertility, no longer shall you have the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant for your rallying-cry; from thought and memory it will have passed away, nor any care shall be bestowed on the fashioning of it.

In tempore illo vocabunt Jerusalem solium Domini: et congregabuntur ad eam omnes gentes in nomine Domini in Jerusalem, et non ambulabunt post pravitatem cordis sui pessimi.

At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord: and all the nations shall be gathered together to it, in the name of the Lord to Jerusalem, and they shall not walk after the perversity of their most wicked heart.

It is Jerusalem men will speak of as the Lord’s throne; there at Jerusalem all the nations of the world will meet in the Lord’s name, the false aims of their perverse hearts forgotten.

In diebus illis ibit domus Juda ad domum Israël, et venient simul de terra aquilonis ad terram quam dedi patribus vestris.

In those days the house of Juda shall go to the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land which I gave to your fathers.

When that time comes, Juda and Israel will be united; together they will come back from the north country to the land I gave your fathers for their home.

Ego autem dixi: Quomodo ponam te in filios, et tribuam tibi terram desiderabilem, hæreditatem præclaram exercituum gentium? Et dixi: Patrem vocabis me, et post me ingredi non cessabis.

But I said: How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a lovely land, the goodly inheritance of the armies of the Gentiles? And I said: Thou shalt call me father and shalt not cease to walk after me.

Must I ever be offering thee sonship, and a land so fair that all the peoples of the world might envy thee its possession? Must I ever be pleading with thee to acknowledge me as thy father, and forsake my guidance no more?

Sed quomodo si contemnat mulier amatorem suum, sic contempsit me domus Israël, dicit Dominus.

But as a woman that despiseth her lover, so hath the house of Israel despised me, saith the Lord.

Hitherto, the Lord says, nothing could I win from Israel but a false jade’s contempt.

Vox in viis audita est, ploratus et ululatus filiorum Israël: quoniam iniquam fecerunt viam suam; obliti sunt Domini Dei sui.

A voice was heard in the highways, weeping and howling of the children of Israel: because they have made their way wicked, they have forgotten the Lord their God.

Now, from yonder hill-passes, another cry is heard; a cry of mourning and lament from the sons of Israel, over the wrong path they have chosen in forgetting the Lord their God.

Convertimini, filii revertentes, et sanabo aversiones vestras. Ecce nos venimus ad te: tu enim es Dominus Deus noster.

Return, you rebellious children, and I will heal your rebellions. Behold we come to thee: for thou art the Lord our God.

Wandering hearts, come back to me, and all your rebel acts shall be pardoned.See, we come to thee; art thou not the Lord our God?

Vere mendaces erant colles, et multitudo montium: vere in Domino Deo nostro salus Israël.

In very deed the hills were liars, and the multitude of the mountains: truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel.

The many gods of hill-side and mountain-side have played us false; we know it now; we know now that Israel must look to the Lord our God for deliverance.

Confusio comedit laborem patrum nostrorum ab adolescentia nostra: greges eorum, et armenta eorum, filios eorum, et filias eorum.

Confusion hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Ever since the days of our youth all the hopes our fathers had, of flock and herd, of son and daughter, are lost; the worship of shame has cheated us.

Dormiemus in confusione nostra, et operiet nos ignominia nostra: quoniam Domino Deo nostro peccavimus nos, et patres nostri, ab adolescentia nostra usque ad diem hanc: et non audivimus vocem Domini Dei nostri.

We shall sleep in our confusion, and our shame shall cover us, because we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers from our youth even to this day, and we have not hearkened to the voice of the Lord our God.

Lie we down with shame for our bed, and let reproach be all our covering; sinners from our youth upwards, we and our fathers before us, against the Lord our God; the Lord our God, and we would not listen to his voice!