Jer. 3
:1
3:1
It is said,
aIf a man divorces his wife
And she goes from him
And becomes another man’s
wife,
Will he return to her again?
Will not that land be
Utterly polluted?
But you have committed fornication with many lovers.
1Yet breturn to Me, declares Jehovah.
Jer. 3
:2
3:2
Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see:
Where have you not been ravished?
By the roads you sat for them,
Like an Arab in the desert;
And you have polluted the land
With your fornication and your wickedness.
Jer. 3
:3
3:3
Therefore the showers have been withheld,
And there has been no spring rain.
But you have had a harlot’s forehead;
You refused to be ashamed.
Jer. 3
:4
3:4
Have you not just now called out to Me, My
aFather,
You are the guide of my youth?
Jer. 3
:5
3:5
Will He preserve
His anger forever?
Will He keep
it perpetually?
This you have spoken; yet you have done
what evil things
That you could.
B.
Israel's return or Jehovah's correction for her apostasy
3:6—4:31
1.
Israel the wife's apostasy
3:6-11
Jer. 3
:6
3:6
Then Jehovah said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what
1Israel the apostate has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every flourishing tree and committed fornication there.
Jer. 3
:7
3:7
And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return to Me; but she did not return, and her treacherous
asister Judah saw it.
Jer. 3
:8
3:8
And I saw that because of all the adultery that Israel the apostate committed I divorced her and gave her a certificate of divorce, yet her sister Judah the treacherous did not fear but went and committed fornication also.
Jer. 3
:9
3:9
And because she treated her fornication lightly, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.
Jer. 3
:10
3:10
And yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but instead falsely, declares Jehovah.
Jer. 3
:11
3:11
And Jehovah said to me, Israel the apostate has shown herself to be more righteous than Judah the treacherous.
2.
Israel the wife's return
3:12—4:2
Jer. 3
:12
3:12
Go and proclaim these words to the
1anorth, and say,
2Return, O Israel the apostate, declares Jehovah;
And I will not let My countenance fall toward you;
For I am merciful, declares Jehovah;
bI will not keep
My anger forever.
Jer. 3
:13
3:13
Only aacknowledge your iniquity,
That you have transgressed against Jehovah your God
And have turned your ways here and there to strangers under every flourishing tree,
And have not listened to My voice, declares Jehovah.
Jer. 3
:14
3:14
Return, O apostate children, declares Jehovah, for I am a
aHusband to you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and will bring you to Zion.
Jer. 3
:15
3:15
And I will give you
ashepherds according to My own heart, who will feed you knowledge and understanding.
Jer. 3
:16
3:16
And when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, declares Jehovah, they will no longer say, The
1aArk of the Covenant of Jehovah! And it will not come to mind, nor will they remember it or visit
it; and it will not be made again.
Jer. 3
:17
3:17
At that time they will call Jerusalem the
athrone of Jehovah, and all the nations will be
1bgathered to it because the name of Jehovah is at Jerusalem; and they will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.
Jer. 3
:18
3:18
In those days the house of
1Judah will walk with the house of
1Israel, and they will come together from the land of the
anorth to the land which I have given to their fathers as an inheritance.
Jer. 3
:19
3:19
But I said,
How I will put you among the sons,
And give you a pleasant land, An inheritance of the most ornate of the nations!
And I said, You will call Me, My
aFather,
And will not turn away from Me.
Jer. 3
:20
3:20
Surely as a woman acts treacherously
by departing from her husband,
So you have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, declares Jehovah.
Jer. 3
:21
3:21
A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping, the supplications, of the children of Israel;
For they have perverted their way;
They have forgotten Jehovah their God.
Jer. 3
:22
3:22
aReturn, O apostate children;
I will heal
you of your apostasies.
Now we come to You,
For You are Jehovah our God.
Jer. 3
:23
3:23
Surely in vain
have we hoped for aanything from the hills;
The mountains are a tumult;
Surely in Jehovah our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
Jer. 3
:24
3:24
But shame has devoured the labor of our fathers since our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
Jer. 3
:25
3:25
Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us; for we have sinned against Jehovah our God, we and our fathers, since our youth even unto this day; and we have not listened to the voice of Jehovah our God.
