Jeremiah 3

People say: if a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and becomes another man's wife, should he go back to her again? Would not that land be badly defiled? But you have been unfaithful with many lovers, yet come back to me, says the LORD.

1They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

NoteThe chapter opens by quoting a rule from Israel's law (Deuteronomy 24:1–4): a man who divorced his wife could not take her back once she had married another man, and doing so was said to defile the land. The point of quoting it is that what follows breaks it.

2Look up at the bare hilltops and see. Is there any place where you have not been taken by a lover? You sat waiting by the roads for them, like a nomad in the desert. You have made the land filthy with your unfaithfulness and your evil.

2Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

NoteThe "bare hilltops" (the King James "high places") were open-air shrines on hills outside the towns, where the local Canaanite gods were worshiped; the rites there included sexual acts, which is why the prophets describe the practice as a wife's adultery. Throughout this chapter Israel is spoken of as the LORD's wife. The "desert nomad" of the comparison is not merely waiting but lying in wait beside a trade route to seize whoever passes.

3So the rain showers were held back, and no spring rains came. Still you had the bold face of a prostitute; you refused to be ashamed.

3Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

NoteIn this climate rain fell only in a wet season. The "latter" or spring rains, in March and April, swelled the grain just before harvest; without them the crop failed.

4Will you not, from now on, call out to me, "My father, you have been my close friend since I was young"?

4Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "close friend since I was young" means a trusted companion, and is also used of the husband a woman married in her youth, so the marriage image continues inside the words the people are quoted as saying.

5You also say, "Will he stay angry forever? Will he hold on to his anger to the end?" That is how you talk, but you keep doing all the evil you can.

5Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

6The LORD also said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there she has been unfaithful to me like a prostitute.

6The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

NoteJosiah ruled Judah from about 640 to 609 BC. "Israel" in verses 6–11 means specifically the northern kingdom: after Solomon's death the country split in two, the northern tribes keeping the name Israel and the south becoming Judah, with Jerusalem as its capital. Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom in 722 BC, about a century before Jeremiah spoke these words. "Every high hill and every green tree" is the standard phrase for the places where shrines to other gods stood.

7And I said, after she had done all these things, "Come back to me." But she did not come back. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

7And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8I saw that because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery in all these ways, I had sent her away and given her a written notice of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid, but went and was unfaithful too.

8And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

NoteA written notice of divorce was a legal document that released a wife from the marriage and left her free to remarry. Here the divorce stands for what had already happened in history: the destruction of the northern kingdom and the deportation of its people by Assyria.

9Because she treated her unfaithfulness so lightly, she made the land filthy, committing adultery with idols of stone and wood.

9And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

NoteThe stone and wood are the objects that stood at the hilltop shrines, upright stone pillars and carved wooden poles representing the gods.

10And after all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not come back to me with her whole heart, but only pretended to, says the LORD.

10And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

NoteJudah's "pretending" refers to the reforms of King Josiah, who by royal order in about 622 BC had the shrines and their objects destroyed. Jeremiah's charge is that the change was official rather than genuine.

11And the LORD said to me: Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more in the right than treacherous Judah.

11And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

Note"More in the right" is a comparison, not a verdict of innocence: Israel sinned without having seen the consequences, while Judah had watched Israel's destruction and still went the same way.

12Go and call out these words toward the north: Come back, unfaithful Israel, says the LORD. I will not let my anger fall on you, for I am merciful, says the LORD, and I will not stay angry forever.

12Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

NoteNorth is the direction of Assyria, where the people of the northern kingdom had been deported. The message is being called out toward people who are no longer in the land.

13Only admit your guilt: that you rebelled against the LORD your God, that you scattered your favors among foreign gods under every green tree, and that you did not obey my voice, says the LORD.

13Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

14Come back, unfaithful children, says the LORD, for I am your husband and master. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family group, and I will bring you to Zion.

14Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

NoteThe Hebrew word here means both "husband" and "master or owner", and it is also the name Baal, the god worshiped at the hilltop shrines, so the claim is pointed. A "family group" is a clan, the extended kinship unit between a household and a tribe. Zion was originally the ridge Jerusalem was built on, and came to stand for the city itself and its temple.

15And I will give you shepherds who are after my own heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

15And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Note"Shepherds" (the King James "pastors") was the ordinary term across the ancient Near East for kings and rulers, not for religious teachers; the picture is of leaders responsible for a people the way a herdsman is for a flock.

16And in those days, when you have grown many in the land, says the LORD, people will no longer talk about the ark of the covenant of the LORD,. It will not come to mind. They will not remember it or miss it, and another one will not be made.

16And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

NoteThe ark of the covenant was a gold-covered wooden chest holding the stone tablets of the agreement made at Sinai. It stood in the innermost room of the temple, was carried on poles, and was treated as the place where God was present with Israel. "Visit it" in the King James means to go and attend to it, to care about it.

17At that time they will call Jerusalem "The Throne of the LORD," and all the nations will gather there, to Jerusalem, to honor the name of the LORD. They will no longer follow their own stubborn, evil hearts.

17At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

NoteThe cover of the ark was spoken of as the LORD's throne, with the chest as his footstool. Saying Jerusalem itself will be called the throne puts the whole city in the place the chest once held.

18In those days the people of Judah will walk together with the people of Israel, and the two will come together out of the land of the north to the land I gave your fathers to keep as their own.

18In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

Note"The land of the north" is the region the exiles were taken to, Assyria and later Babylon; the road home ran north and then south, since the desert lay directly between. An inheritance here means land held permanently and passed down within a family, not a one-off gift.

19But I said: How gladly I would place you among my children and give you a pleasant land, the finest inheritance of all the nations. And I said: You will call me "My father," and you will not turn away from me.

19But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

NoteThe Hebrew says "among the sons." Land passed by inheritance to sons, so this is legal language about being given the standing of an heir, not just an expression of affection.

20But just as a wife betrays her husband and leaves him, so you have betrayed me, people of Israel, says the LORD.

20Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

21A voice is heard on the bare hilltops: the people of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have twisted their way of living and have forgotten the LORD their God.

21A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

22Come back, unfaithful children, and I will heal you of your unfaithfulness. "Here we are. We come to you, for you are the LORD our God."

22Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

23It is truly useless to hope for rescue from the hills and from the crowded mountains. The rescue Israel needs is in the LORD our God.

23Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

NoteThe Hebrew of the first line is obscure and has been read in different ways: either that the noise and crowds on the hills are a lie, or that what comes from the hilltop shrines is deception and uproar. Either way the hills are the shrine sites of verse 2.

24That shameful thing has eaten up everything our fathers worked for, ever since we were young, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

24For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Note"That shameful thing" translates a Hebrew word, *bosheth*, that writers substituted for the name Baal so as not to say it. What it "ate up" is meant literally: the animals sacrificed at the shrines, and, in the practice condemned elsewhere in Jeremiah, children offered as sacrifices.

25We lie down in our shame, and our disgrace covers us, because we have sinned against the LORD our God: we and our fathers, from our youth until this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

25We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

NoteLying down and being covered is the posture of mourning, sitting or lying on the ground with dust or a garment over the head, used here as an image of public disgrace.