they may come from the
land of the North to the land which I gave their(186) fathers for
a heritage.]

But I(187) had declared the How(?) 19
I should set thee(188) among the sons,
And should give thee a land of delight,
Fairest domain of the nations.
And said, Thou would'st call Me Father,
Nor from after Me turn.
As a woman plays false to her fere,(189) 20
So to Me ye played false!
[O House of Israel, Rede of the Lord.]

Hark! 21
From the clearings weeping is heard,
Wailing of Israel's sons,
That they have perverted their way,
Forgotten the Lord their God.
Return ye oft-turning children, 22
Let me heal your back-turnings!
"Here are we! to Thee we are come,
Thou Lord art our God.
"Surely the heights are a fraud 23
The hills and their hubbub!(190)
"Alone in the Lord our God
Is Israel's safety.
"The Baal hath devoured our toil 24
And our sires' from their youth,
"Their flocks and their herds,
Their sons and daughters--
"Lie we low in our shame, 25
Our dishonour enshroud us!
"For to our God(191) have we sinned,
"[We and our sires from our youth]
Up to this day!
"Nor have heeded the voice
Of the Lord our God."

[Israel, if thou wilt return, IV. 1
Return to Me,
And thy loathly things put from thy mouth
Nor stray from My face.(192)
If in truth thou swear by the life of the Lord, 2
Honest and straight,
Then the nations shall bless them by Him
And in Him shall they glory.](193)

3. Thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants
of(194) Jerusalem:

Fallow up your fallow-ground,(195)
And sow not on thorns!
To your God(196) circumcise ye, 4
Off from your heart with the foreskin!
[O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem]
Lest My fury break out like fire,
And burn with none to quench!
[Because of the ill of your doings.]

From his call the Prophet went forth, as we saw, with a heavy sense of the
responsibility and the power of the single soul, so far as he himself was
concerned; and while we study his ministry we shall find him coming to
feel the same for each of his fellow-men. But in these his earliest
utterances he follows his predecessors, and especially Hosea, in
addressing his people as a whole, and treating Israel as a