1. ‘If you, Israel, will return,then return to me,’declares the Lord.‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sightand no longer go astray,
2. and if in a truthful, just and righteous wayyou swear, “As surely as the Lord lives,”then the nations will invoke blessings by himand in him they will boast.’
3. This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem:‘Break up your unploughed groundand do not sow among thorns.