Jeremiah3chapter 3

Jeremiah 3:1-5

If a man put away his wife: The chapter opens on a point of law, if a man put away his wife, and she become another man's, the husband may not return to her again without the land itself being polluted, the rule of Deuteronomy 24 the bench identifies behind the question. Israel's case runs past the letter of that law, thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, yet return again to me, saith the Lord, grace exceeding the statute it invokes. The people's own words close the unit, thou art the guide of my youth, spoken while still doing evil things as they could, a father addressed by children who have not stopped sinning against him.

Jeremiah 3:6-8

The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king: The Lord names both kingdoms by their conduct, backsliding Israel who went up on every high mountain to play the harlot, and her treacherous sister Judah who watched it happen. Israel receives what the law calls a genuine end, I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, the Assyrian exile read by the bench as that divorce carried out in history. Judah's sin is judged the graver of the two precisely because she saw the warning and was not afraid, going and playing the harlot also rather than learning from her sister's ruin.

Jeremiah 3:9-11

And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom: Judah's guilt is described in the same physical terms as Israel's, committing adultery with stones and with stocks, the wood and rock of the previous chapter's idols now named again as the partners in the affair. The verdict that follows startles more than it comforts, backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah, since exiled Israel's open sin is judged less guilty than Judah's counterfeit repentance. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, the bench reading feigned repentance as the sharper indictment, a performance of return with no return in it.

Jeremiah 3:12-13

Go and proclaim these words toward the north: The command to proclaim toward the north sends the invitation after the very people the Assyrians had scattered there, return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you. The reason given is God's own character rather than any merit in the hearer, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever, mercy offered before repentance is even performed. The single condition named is honesty, only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, confession rather than achievement as the door back in.

Jeremiah 3:14-18

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord: The marriage image turns personal, for I am married unto you, and the promised gathering is described as a remnant chosen one of a city, and two of a family, brought to Zion under pastors according to mine heart. The ark of the covenant of the Lord passing from memory, they shall say no more, neither shall they remember it, is a striking claim stated as the text gives it, the older writers reading it as the ark's function eclipsed rather than its history erased. All the nations gathered to Jerusalem and the house of Judah walking with the house of Israel out of the land of the north are named as the text states them, a restoration of the divided kingdom to one people in one land, without settling here how or when it comes.

Jeremiah 3:19-21

But I said, How shall I put thee among the children: The Lord's own words picture him weighing the adoption, how shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations, wondering aloud whether the gift will be honored. The hoped answer, thou shalt call me, My father, and shalt not turn away from me, is met instead by the old comparison, as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me. A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel, closes the unit with the very repentance God had asked for, though it comes only after the charge of treachery has been laid in full.

Jeremiah 3:22-25

Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.: The invitation receives its answer in the same breath, behold, we come unto thee, for thou art the Lord our God, the people's voice entering the chapter for the first time in agreement rather than excuse. Salvation is relocated from geography to God himself, truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains, the high places that drew Israel's worship named again as a false hope. The confession that closes the chapter owns the sin across generations, we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, shame taken rather than excused, which the bench reads as the pattern true repentance follows.