19“Then I said,
         ‘How I would set you among My sons
         And give you a pleasant land,
         The most beautiful inheritance of the nations!’
         And I said, ‘You shall call Me, My Father,
         And not turn away from following Me.’

20“Surely, as a woman treacherously departs from her lover,
         So you have dealt treacherously with Me,
         O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.

21A voice is heard on the bare heights,
         The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;
         Because they have perverted their way,
         They have forgotten the LORD their God.

22“Return, O faithless sons,
         I will heal your faithlessness.”
         “Behold, we come to You;
         For You are the LORD our God.

23“Surely, the hills are a deception,
         A tumult on the mountains.
         Surely in the LORD our God
         Is the salvation of Israel.

      24“But the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25“Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. And we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

NASB ©1995