Chapter Three

1–5. The difficulty of turning Israel to the true path. 6–10. Two sisters who are faithless. 11–18. A call to repentance. 19–25. Israel’s turning to God.

Jer 3:1-5. Although by the law a wife who has left her husband to marry another cannot return to her first husband, yet Jehovah, by His ineffable mercy, calls to Himself His spouse—Israel—who has played the harlot with many lovers. Yet this mercy requires of Israel a conversion to God not in words only, but in deed.

Jeremiah 3:1. They say: “If a man sends away his wife, and she departs from him and becomes another man’s wife, can she return to him? Would not that land be greatly defiled?” Yet you have played the harlot with many lovers—and still, return to Me, says the Lord. Jeremiah is clearly referring here to the law of divorce contained in Deut 24:1-4. Instead of the phrase “that land,” some translators, in agreement with the LXX, read: this woman. Instead of “yet return to Me,” newer translators render: can you return to Me?

Jeremiah 3:2. Lift up your eyes to the bare heights and see where you have not been lain with. By the wayside you sat waiting for them, like an Arab in the wilderness, and you have defiled the land with your harlotry and your wickedness. The “bare heights”—more precisely from the Hebrew: “barren, treeless hills” upon which the worship of idols was commonly performed (1 Sam 11:1). “Like an Arab”—like an Arab who rushes recklessly upon an unsuspecting wayfarer, so Israel threw itself at every passerby, offering its love (cf. Jer 2:24).

Jeremiah 3:3. Therefore the rains were withheld, and the spring rain did not come. Yet you have the brow of a harlot; you refused to be ashamed. Even God’s punishments did not turn this shameless harlot, the people of Israel, to the true path! The “spring rain,” necessary for the ripening of grain, falls in Palestine during March and April.

Jeremiah 3:4. Will you not from now on cry to Me: “My Father! You were the guide of my youth! Jeremiah 3:5. Does He retain His anger forever? Will He keep it to the end?” So you speak, but you do evil and prevail in it. “Will you not from now on”—more correctly: did you not just now cry to Me, “My Father” and so forth? The prophet has in mind those pious impulses which Israel showed at the beginning of King Josiah’s religious reforms (2 Sam 23:3), but which soon gave way to utter indifference to this holy work. Therefore, the prophet says that Israel, like a true harlot, only promises to be faithful to her husband, yet acts wholly contrary to her promises. Jer 3:6-10. In order for the people’s conversion to become possible, the people must recognize the gravity of their guilt before Jehovah. The prophet says that the sin of the people of Judah—that is, the southern kingdom—their “faithlessness” is far more serious than the sin of the northern kingdom, their “rebellion.” The kingdom of Judah was not even frightened by the fate that overtook the kingdom of Israel, and it repeated the latter’s transgressions.

Jeremiah 3:6. The Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the faithless one, the daughter of Israel, has done? She went up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there she played the harlot. On the idolatry or worship of false gods by the subjects of the northern kingdom of Israel, see 1 Sam 16:33; 2 Sam 17:10. “Faithless one”—the northern kingdom is thus called because there was established an unlawful worship of Jehovah at Bethel, which soon gave way to idolatry.

Jeremiah 3:7. And after she had done all this, I said, “Return to Me”; but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. Jeremiah 3:8. And I saw that because of all her adulterous deeds, the faithless one, the daughter of Israel, I had sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid, but she too went and played the harlot. Jeremiah 3:9. And in her light harlotry she defiled the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. The Lord repeatedly called—through the prophets—the northern kingdom to turn to the true path, but His calls were not heeded. Therefore, the Lord formally dissolved His covenant with the “faithless one” (Deut 24:1-4). The consequence of this dissolution was the captivity of the subjects of the kingdom of Israel in Assyria. Yet this fate did not terrify the southern kingdom, which in its turn also gave itself over to idolatry. Thus the Judeans defiled their land, filling it everywhere with idols, cf. Jer 2:7.

Jeremiah 3:10. But for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not returned to Me with her whole heart, but only in pretense, says the Lord. “For all this”—that is, despite the terrible fate that overtook the kingdom of Israel. “With her whole heart”—the outward repentance shown by the Judeans in the days of Josiah (2 Sam 23:3) was brought forth, but it was not repentance from the whole heart. Jer 3:11-18 To show more clearly the peculiar guilt before God of the subjects of the kingdom of Judah, the Lord commands the prophet to call again the kingdom of Israel, scattered across foreign lands, to communion with God. If Israel will repent, then, in spite of the dissolution of the covenant with it, Jehovah will again restore it, but then Zion will become the common religious center for both Judah and Israel. In doing so, the prophet portrays the new life on Zion in such a way as to depict only the Church of Christ in its glorified state.

Jeremiah 3:11. And the Lord said to me: The faithless one, the daughter of Israel, has shown herself to be more righteous than the treacherous Judah. The kingdom of Israel appears less guilty than the kingdom of Judah, of course, first, because it first experienced the weight of responsibility for departing from God, and second, because the subjects of the kingdom of Judah had more means to sustain in themselves a pious disposition than the subjects of the kingdom of Israel. In the kingdom of Judah lawful worship was always performed, there were lawfully appointed priests, and not a few pious kings and prophets. Although prophets appeared in the kingdom of Israel, it was deprived of all the rest of what is mentioned above.

Jeremiah 3:12. Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: Return, faithless daughter of Israel, says the Lord. I will not look upon you in anger, for I am merciful, says the Lord. I will not be angry forever. Jeremiah 3:13. Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among strangers under every green tree, and have not obeyed My voice, says the Lord. Although a hundred years had passed since the inhabitants of the kingdom of Israel were taken captive to Assyria, so that it seemed Jehovah had completely forgotten them, yet in reality He was ready to receive them again if only they would bring sincere repentance for their sins.

Jeremiah 3:14. Return, O faithless sons, says the Lord, because I am married to you, and I will take you one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. Since the Lord has taken Israel as a spouse, He is always ready to receive her to Himself again. “One from a city... two from a family”—here the prophet wishes to say that even if not all of Israel returns, still the Lord will bring at least some of the Israelites to His holy city, Zion.

Jeremiah 3:15. And I will give you shepherds after My own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. Shepherds—these are the kings and rulers of the people, as well as priests and prophets. These will be all men who fully answer to their high calling.

Jeremiah 3:16. And it shall come to pass, when you have multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, says the Lord, they shall say no more, “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. Jeremiah 3:17. At that time Jerusalem shall be called “The Throne of the Lord,” and all nations shall gather to it, to the name of the Lord, and they shall no longer walk in the stubbornness of their evil heart. From the small number of Jews returned to Jerusalem, a great people will arise again. The new generation will be far closer to God than even the present inhabitants of Zion. Now the Lord has His mysterious dwelling place in the Ark of the Covenant, to which access is granted, and then only once a year, to the high priest alone. But then all Jerusalem will become the throne of the Lord, and through this the closest communion of all the inhabitants of Zion with Jehovah will be established. And seeing this, the other peoples too will gather in Jerusalem and forever renounce their vices and passions (cf. Isa 66:1-3). It should be noted that the tone with which Jeremiah speaks of the Ark of the Covenant suggests that it was hidden at that time. It was probably hidden during the persecution of true worship under King Manasseh (cf. 2 Chr 35:3).

Jeremiah 3:18. 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 for a heritage to your fathers. The prophet completes his prophecy concerning the new life of Israel by saying that not only will the kingdom of Israel send its representatives to Zion, but alongside the Israelites, the Judeans too will come there. These very ones will offer the Israelites to go to Palestine from the land of captivity, in which, according to the prophet’s view, they will find themselves just as the Israelites do. Jer 3:19-25. Then the original purpose that the Lord gave to Israel will be fulfilled: Israel will not only receive a better portion on earth, but will be counted worthy of sonship to God. This great promise already awakens in the “faithless one” repentance for her desertion from Jehovah. Israel already yearns again for her God.

Jeremiah 3:19. I thought how gladly would I put you among My children and give you a pleasant land, a heritage most beautiful of all nations. And I thought you would call Me “My Father” and not turn away from Me. This verse may be more clearly rendered thus: “And I said (long ago, always): how I would like to set you in the place of a son and give you the pleasant land, the best heritage among the heritages of nations! And I said: you will call Me ‘My Father’ and not turn away from Me!” Jehovah thus declares here that on His part He was always ready to give the northern kingdom of Israel—the wife, the “faithless one”—all the rights of His son. According to ancient Israelite private law, daughters did not have the same rights of inheritance as sons, and the Lord, to show His special favor toward Israel, wishes to give the daughter of Israel the rights equal to those of His sons.

Jeremiah 3:20. Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband, so have you been treacherous to Me, O house of Israel, says the Lord. Unfortunately, Israel on its part proved unworthy of this great distinction.

Jeremiah 3:21. A voice on the bare heights is heard, the weeping and pleading of the sons of Israel, because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God. Now, in those very places where previously Israel had performed unlawful worship of idols, his sorrowful weeping over his desertion is heard. Yet this is still only weak tears, not a definite and formal confession of his sins. Only when Jehovah utters His merciful word, when He lifts the excommunication that weighs upon their hearts, will they clearly and openly express their resolution to return to their God and Benefactor.

Jeremiah 3:22. “Return, O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness.” “Behold, we come to You, for You are the Lord our God. Now this call from Jehovah is uttered. God wishes to heal them of their unfaithfulness or stubbornness in which they have hitherto remained. Then, having received from God this grace-given help, this inward strength, Israel will cry out: we come to You!

Jeremiah 3:23. Surely, in vain is the salvation expected from the hills and from the abundance of mountains; surely, in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel! Israel will then openly confess that all his hopes of finding satisfaction for his religious longings in foreign cults were utterly futile. It is more accurately to render the first half of this verse thus: yes, the hills are deception and falsehood, on the mountains is only empty noise! By these words, Israel wishes to say that those loud prayers which he sent up on the mountains to various gods were futile.

Jeremiah 3:24. From our youth the shameful thing has consumed the labor of our fathers, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. From our youth—that is, from the very beginning of the existence of the separate ten-tribe kingdom of Israel. “This shameful thing”—that is, the idols, in particular the god Baal, which is so called because the rites performed in his honor were extremely shameful (cf. Hos 9:10). “The labor of our fathers”—more correctly: the property of our fathers. If children are included in this property, there is nothing surprising in this: according to ancient Israelite customary law, the father had the right to dispose of his children just as he did his property. Israel will only understand in time how many sacrifices this infatuation with idols cost him!

Jeremiah 3:25. We lie down in our shame, and our dishonor covers us; because 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. “We lie down in our shame”—those who repented usually clothed themselves in sackcloth and lay in ashes (Job 42:6). Israel will obviously sincerely repent before Jehovah of all his former transgressions. Special Notes. Some critics Jer 3:6-16 verses, though they acknowledge them as belonging to Jeremiah, believe that they were placed by the book’s editor not in the place where they should have been placed; verses 16 and 17 they consider as later additions (Stade, Kuenen, Cornill). But for an impartial reader, the section 19–25 and Jer 4:1 and following do not seem at all to be a necessary continuation of verse 5 of chapter III. If Cornill points out the impropriety of a special heading in the middle of the chapter, at verse 6, then this circumstance must be explained by the fact that the prophet evidently wished to make it clear to his readers that what follows is something especially deserving their attention. And indeed, here we have a completely new revelation concerning the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel, whose fate seemed to have been decided once and for all. As for the question how much the thoughts contained in verses 6–18 can be recognized as belonging to Jeremiah, this question must be resolved only in the affirmative. To no one more than to Jeremiah himself, who came from the family of Hilkiah, which served at the ancient central sanctuary of the ten tribes, Shiloh, and who was himself an Ephraimite by place of residence, was it characteristic to harbor such sympathy toward the ten-tribe kingdom as is expressed in the section under review. Moreover, in the book of Jeremiah there is a place parallel to this section in Jer 31:2-22 verses, where also to Ephraim, humbly acknowledging his guilt before Jehovah, a return to his native land is promised. It is said (namely by Cornill) that in chapter XXXI restoration is promised to the whole of Israel, whereas here (verse 14) only to selected members of the Israelite state. But also in chapter XXXI (Jer 31:7) it is also said that the remnant of Israel will be saved. The other perplexities of criticism, expressed concerning the authenticity of chapter III, are too subjective to dwell upon.