1 “If1 a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man’s wife,
will he return to her?
wWould not that land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many xlovers;
and would you return to me?
declares the Lord.
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see!
Where have you not been ravished?
By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
like an Arab in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
with your vile whoredom.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld,
and the yspring rain has not come;
yet you have the forehead of a whore;
zyou refuse to be ashamed.
4 Have you not just now called to me,
‘My afather, you are the bfriend of my youth—
5 will he be angry forever,
will he be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken,
but you have done all the evil that you could.”
Faithless Israel Called to Repentance
6 The Lord said to me cin the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up don every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous esister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a fdecree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with gstone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, hbut in pretense, declares the Lord.”
11 And the Lord said to me, i“Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,
“‘Return, faithless Israel,
declares the Lord.
I will not look on you in anger,
for I am merciful,
declares the Lord;
jI will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt,
that you rebelled against the Lord your God
and scattered your favors among kforeigners under every green tree,
and that you have not obeyed my voice,
declares the Lord.
14 Return, O faithless children,
declares the Lord;
for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
and I will bring you to Zion.
15 “‘And I will give you lshepherds mafter my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the Lord, they shall no more say, “The nark of the covenant of the Lord.” oIt shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the pthrone of the Lord, and qall nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days rthe house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come sfrom the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.
19 “‘I said,
How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
a heritage most tbeautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
so have you been utreacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the Lord.’”
21 A voice on the bare heights is heard,
the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
because they have perverted their way;
they have vforgotten the Lord their God.
22 “Return, O faithless sons;
I will wheal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
for you are the Lord our God.
23 Truly the hills are a delusion,
the orgies2 on the mountains.
Truly in the Lord our God
is the salvation of Israel.
24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our xyouth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
Sons and Heirs
1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,1 though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is wunder guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were xenslaved to the yelementary principles2 of the world. 4 But when the zfullness of time had come, God asent forth his Son, bborn cof woman, born dunder the law, 5 to eredeem those who were funder the law, so that we might receive gadoption as sons. 6 And hbecause you are sons, God has sent the iSpirit of his Son jinto our hearts, crying, k“Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and lif a son, then an mheir through God.
Paul’s Concern for the Galatians
8 nFormerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are onot gods. 9 pBut now that you have come to qknow God, or rather to be rknown by God, how can you turn back again to the sweak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 tYou observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you uin vain.
12 Brothers,3 I entreat you, vbecome as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. 13 You know it was because of a wbodily ailment that xI preached the gospel to you at first, 14 and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, yas Christ Jesus. 15 What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your zeyes and given them to me. 16 Have I then become your enemy by telling you the atruth?4 17 They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. 18 It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, 19 my little children, bfor whom I am again cin the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed din you! 20 I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
Example of Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, eone by a slave woman and fone by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while gthe son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted hallegorically: these women are itwo covenants. jOne is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for kslavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia;5 she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But lthe Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written,
m“Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear;
break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!
For the children of the desolate one will be more
than those of the one who has a husband.”
28 Now you,6 brothers, like Isaac, are nchildren of promise. 29 But just as at that time ohe who was born according to the flesh ppersecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, qso also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? r“Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but sof the free woman.
