As a woman acts treacherously by departing from her husband, so the house of Israel dealt treacherously with Jehovah (v. 20). Her children wept and supplicated (prayed particularly) on the bare (indicating without any man) heights, for they perverted their way and forgot Jehovah their God (v. 21).
Jehovah the Husband was pleading by calling, "Return, O apostate children; / I will heal you of your apostasies" (v. 22a).
Eventually, her children came to Jehovah, confessing that He, Jehovah, is their God, admitting that their worship on the hills and mountains in a tumult was in vain and that their salvation surely is in Jehovah their God, and feeling shameful for the sins of their fathers and for their sinning against Jehovah their God since the beginning of their relationship with God (vv. 22b-25).
Jehovah promised her that if she returns to Him, if she puts away her abominations from His presence and does not move freely, and if she swears, "As Jehovah lives, in truth and in justice and in righteousness," then the nations will bless themselves in Him and in Him they will glory (4:1-2).