Return, ye backsliding children, {and} I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou {art} the LORD our God.

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. {the unrighteous...: Heb. the man of iniquity} {abundantly...: Heb. multiply to pardon}

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD. {feignedly: Heb. in falsehood}

Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. {laden: Heb. of heaviness} {gone...: Heb. alienated, or, separated}

Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye {even} to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:

But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and {then} to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.

But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

They have deeply corrupted {themselves}, as in the days of Gibeah: {therefore} he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself {thus}; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed {to the yoke}: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou {art} the LORD my God.

Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, {and} to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.

O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Moreover all the chief of the priests, and the people, transgressed very much after all the abominations of the heathen; and polluted the house of the LORD which he had hallowed in Jerusalem.

Woe unto them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who seeth us? and who knoweth us?

Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time {that} thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.

Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye unto me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will turn unto you, saith the LORD of hosts.

Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. {revolt...: Heb. increase revolt}

Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

They have deeply corrupted {themselves}, as in the days of Gibeah: {therefore} he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

But this people hath a revolting and a rebellious heart; they are revolted and gone.

They {are} all grievous revolters, walking with slanders: {they are} brass and iron; they {are} all corrupters.

Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets have cried, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Turn ye now from your evil ways, and {from} your evil doings: but they did not hear, nor hearken unto me, saith the LORD.

If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.

And all that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord.

And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall respect {that} which his fingers have made, either the groves, or the images. {images: or, sun images}

In transgressing and lying against the LORD, and departing away from our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood.

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.