Jeremiah 3 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Jeremiah 3

3:1   “If¹ a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
  and becomes another man’s wife,
    will he return to her?
  Would not that land be greatly polluted?
  You have played the whore with many lovers;
    and would you return to me?
      declares the LORD.
2   Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see!
    Where have you not been ravished?
  By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
    like an Arab in the wilderness.
  You have polluted the land
    with your vile whoredom.
3   Therefore the showers have been withheld,
    and the spring rain has not come;
  yet you have the forehead of a whore;
    you refuse to be ashamed.
4   Have you not just now called to me,
    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth—
5   will he be angry forever,
    will he be indignant to the end?’
  Behold, you have spoken,
    but you have done all the evil that you could.”

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance

6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.”

11 And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

  “‘Return, faithless Israel,
      declares the LORD.
  I will not look on you in anger,
    for I am merciful,
      declares the LORD;
  I will not be angry forever.
13   Only acknowledge your guilt,
    that you rebelled against the LORD your God
  and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,
    and that you have not obeyed my voice,
      declares the LORD.
14   Return, O faithless children,
      declares the LORD;
    for I am your master;
  I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
    and I will bring you to Zion.

15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

19   “‘I said,
    How I would set you among my sons,
  and give you a pleasant land,
    a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
  And I thought you would call me, My Father,
    and would not turn from following me.
20   Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
    so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
      declares the LORD.’”
21   A voice on the bare heights is heard,
    the weeping and pleading of Israel’s sons
  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   Truly the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies² on the mountains.
  Truly in the LORD our God
    is the salvation of Israel.

24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor 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.”

Footnotes

[1] 3:1 Septuagint, Syriac; Hebrew Saying, “If
[2] 3:23 Hebrew commotion

Commentary

v1: The Lord's willingness to receive the repentant, Deut 241-4; Hos 1.2; 3.1-2. The law condemned the situation where an unfaithful wife returned to her first husband, yet Israel is likened to such; and God, in apparent contrast to His own law, would accept her back.

Israel was the brazen prostitute, claiming freedom "to roam" (2.31), claiming innocence, "I am not defiled" (2.23), ignorant of her real condition.

v2: Evidence of idolatry everywhere, see 2.28.

v3: Specific judgments from God; contrast the promises of Lev 26.3-4; Deut 28.12. Yet they refused to be ashamed and corrected.

v4-5: Israel had acknowledged God's hand of judgment upon her, but had continued in her sins. She even claimed God as her father, and stated amazement that He should remain angry with her!

v6-7: Judah followed Israel's bad example; repeated warnings to Israel were not heeded. Judah had witnessed Israel's idolatry and subsequent judgment, but had not taken warning.

v8-9: Judah did not learn from Israel's experiences. God had put Israel away, through her defeat by Assyria. Yet Judah continued in her own idolatry.

v10: Judah's repentance was in pretence, not in reality; she remained treacherous; and it seemed that this continued even through Josiah's reforms.

v11: God's conclusion; that Judah's hypocrisy was worse even than Israel's idolatry. It is bad to turn from the Lord; it is worse to depart from the Lord whilst claiming obedience.

v12-13: Words addressed to the north, to Israel; return and repent, confessing transgression and hypocrisy. Although the offer was genuine at the time of Jeremiah, we must still look forward to Israel's repentance.

It is suggested that by inviting Israel to return to God, He is indirectly inviting Judah to do the same. He may even be addressing the now-divided kingdom as a single, rebellious kingdom.

v14-18 An offer to a repentant people. If the people of God were to return to Him, great blessings would follow.

v14: The existing relationship would not be totally broken, for God is faithful to His people. For that time, a few were restored, coming back to Zion.

v15: The provision of shepherds, chosen and ordained by God. Faithful shepherds, contrasting with those who had failed to care for His people, although they had claimed to be faithful.

v16: No longer the ark, see Rev 21.22, no temple either. The need for priest and sacrifice is met by the Lord Himself.

v17: Jerusalem itself is God's dwelling place and throne. The nations, not just Israel and Judah, will come and worship God.

v18: Israel and Judah re-united in Jerusalem. The promises to the nations are tied up with Israel's and Judah's restoration.

v19-20: But Israel could not be restored whilst remaining unfaithful.

v21: Israel weeping, with sorrow over sins, and neglect of her relationship with God.

v22-25: Israel's repentance, as the backsliding child returns. God's hand remained outstretched.

Jeremiah doubtless prayed that the people as a whole would take up his prayer here;

the discovery that salvation is from the Lord, and no one else;
the worship of idols is a deception;
the worship of idols is wasteful;
the necessity of deep repentance.

Many looked for the hills, with their idols, but these proved useless; compare Ps 121.