The In-Dept Study of the Bible
Jeremiah 03
1 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his
wife, and she goes from him, and becomes
another man’s, should he return to her
again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted?
But you have played the prostitute
with many lovers; yet return again to me,”
says Yahweh.
2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights,
and see! Where have you not been lain
with? You have sat waiting for them by the
road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You
have polluted the land with your prostitution
and with your wickedness.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld and there
has been no latter rain; yet
you have had a prostitute’s forehead and
you refused to be ashamed.
4 Will you not from this time cry to
me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my
youth!’?
5 “ ‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will
he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have
spoken and have done evil things, and
have had your way.”
6 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the
days ofJosiahthe king, “Have youseenthat
which backsliding Israel has done? She
has gone up on every high mountain and
under every green tree, and has played the
prostitute there.
7 I said after she had done all these
things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she
didn’t return, and her treacherous sister
Judah saw it.
8 I saw when, for this very cause, that
backsliding Israel had committed adultery,
I had put her away and given her
a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous
Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also
went and played the prostitute.
9 Because she took her prostitution
lightly, the land was polluted, and she
committed adultery with stones and with
wood.
10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister,
Judah, has not returned to me with her
whole heart, but only in pretense,” says
Yahweh.
11 Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel
has shown herself more righteous than
treacherous Judah.
12 Go, and proclaim these words toward
the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding
Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look
in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says
Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever.
13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that
you have transgressed against Yahweh
your God, and have scattered your ways
to the strangers under every green tree,
and you have not obeyed my voice,’ ” says
Yahweh.
14 “Return, backsliding children,” says
Yahweh, “for I am a husband to you. I will
take one of you from a city, and two from a
family, and I will bring you to Zion.
15 I will give you shepherds according to
my heart, who will feed you with knowledge
and understanding.
16 It will come to pass, when you are multiplied
and increased in the land in those
days,” says Yahweh, “they will no longer
say, ‘the ark of Yahweh’s covenant!’ It will
not come to mind. They won’t remember
it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be
made.
17 At that time they will call Jerusalem
‘Yahweh’s Throne;’ and all the nations will
be gathered to it, to Yahweh’s name, to
Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after
the stubbornness of their evil heart.
18 In those days the house of Judah will
walk with the house ofIsrael, and they will
come together out of the land of the north
to the land that I gave for an inheritance to
your fathers.
19 “But I said, ‘How I desire to put you
among the children, and give you a pleasant land,
a goodly heritage of the armies of
the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me
“My Father”, and shall not turn away from
following me.’
20 “Surely as a wife treacherously departs
from her husband, so you have dealt
treacherously with me, house of Israel,”
says Yahweh.
21 A voice is heard on the bare heights,
the weeping and the petitions of the children of
Israel; because they have perverted their way,
they have forgotten Yahweh their God.
22 Return, you backsliding children, and
I will heal your backsliding.
“Behold, we have come to you; for you
are Yahweh our God.
23 Truly help from the hills, the tumult
on the mountains, is in vain. Truly the
salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God.
24 But the shameful thing has devoured
the labor of our fathers from our youth,
their flocks and their herds, their sons and
their daughters.
25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let
our confusioncoverus;for wehave sinned
against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers,
from our youth even to this day. We
have not obeyed Yahweh our God’s voice.