Jeremiahchapter 3
25 verses · Jeremiah, written by Baruch · 7th to 6th century BC · The Prophets
“If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
Introduction
Jeremiah, written by Baruch, The Prophets, Jeremiah Overview.
Jeremiah preached this in the days of King Josiah, as the chapter itself says, to a Judah that had watched the northern kingdom carried away a century before. Most people in Jerusalem believed that what happened to the north could never happen to them. The chapter opens on a point of marriage law every hearer knew, and the rest of it depends on that law. Listen for the comparison between two sisters and for which one comes out worse. Listen too for the word return, which runs through the chapter in several forms. Read it as the first open door in the book.
Context
- Who
- Southerners who had watched the north be carried away and concluded it could never happen to them
- What
- A comparison of faithless Israel and treacherous Judah, followed by God's call to both to return to Him.
- Where
- Judah, looking north across the border toward the emptied land of the ten tribes.
- When
- In the days of King Josiah, as verse 6 states, about 627 to 620 BC.
- Why
- To take away Judah's confidence in its own reform and to show that the way home rested on God's willingness to receive them.
Historical context
The chapter opens on a specific piece of law. If a man divorced his wife and she married another man, he was forbidden to take her back, even if the second marriage ended. The land itself was said to be polluted by such a return. Every hearer knew the rule, which is what makes the offer that follows so startling.
Show the rest of the historical context, 3 more paragraphs
The northern kingdom had been finished for roughly a century. Assyria took Samaria in 722 BC, deported the leading families, and settled foreigners in their place. Judah's preachers used the northern ruins the way we use a photograph of a car wreck.
The hilltop shrines are described as bare heights, the wind-scoured summits where the platforms stood, visible for miles. A traveller could see the smoke of them across a valley.
One line would have stopped the room: a promise of days when nobody will mention the ark of the covenant, or miss it, or make another one. The ark was the single most sacred object in the nation, the throne of God's presence in the innermost room of the temple.
Significance
Judah's comfort was comparison. The north had been the wicked half; the south had David's line and the real temple. This chapter takes that away by calling faithless Israel more honest than treacherous Judah, at least the north never pretended to reform.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
And the door left open is the shock. The law said a returning wife was impossible. God says come back anyway. First hearers were being told that the way home was not through their record but through God's willingness to break his own precedent.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
One verse of this chapter is read in the synagogue. The site's table in src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts records the Ashkenazi Haftarah of Masei (Numbers 33:1 to 36:13) as Jeremiah 2:4 to 2:28 and 3:4. The fourth verse is added to close the reading. The Sephardi rite closes the same Haftarah with Jeremiah 4:1 to 4:2 and reads nothing from this chapter.
How it is read
Rashi is the one commentator on this chapter whose English the corpus carries, quoted here from The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, which Sefaria reports as CC-BY.
Rashi dates the prophecy to the days of Josiah, when Jeremiah was sent to call back the Ten Tribes. He reports that "some of them returned in the eighteenth year of Josiah" (Rashi on Jeremiah 3:12:1). On the eighth verse he reads the sense from the accents of the Hebrew text. He shows where the disjunctive signs fall, and reads the verse as a warning Judah did not heed when Samaria was sent away (Rashi on Jeremiah 3:8:1).
The ark of the covenant will no longer be named, and he reads the promise as holiness spread through the people. "For your entire assembly will be holy, and I will dwell therein as though it were an ark" (Rashi on Jeremiah 3:16:1). The closing verses he reads as a confession the prophet teaches the people to pray, beginning "Here we are, we have come to You" (Rashi on Jeremiah 3:22:1).
The corpus carries one further note on this chapter without an English text, each marked linked because Sefaria holds no English version of the ref. They stand cited and unquoted at Radak on Jeremiah 3:15:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries 39 rabbinic locators on the verses of this chapter, 10 in the Talmud and 29 in the Midrash. It carries the text of none, so each is cited by ref here and never quoted or paraphrased. The verse numbers are the Hebrew ones the corpus prints.
On verse 1 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 16:6, Devarim Rabbah 2:25 and Ein Yaakov, Sanhedrin 7:6. On verse 2 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 8:4, Jerusalem Talmud Kiddushin 4:1:7 and Jerusalem Talmud Sanhedrin 6:7:3. On verse 3 it holds Arakhin 16a:16, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Taanit 1:24 and Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Yevamot 8:5. On verse 4 it holds Chagigah 16a:16, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Khagigah 2:32 and Ein Yaakov, Khagigah 2:19. On verse 7 it holds Otzar Midrashim, Baraita of Rabbi Pinchas Ben Yair 1:33.
On verse 8 it holds Eikhah Rabbah 1:3, Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 21:8:7 and Midrash Tannaim on Deuteronomy 32:1:3. On verse 9 it holds Jerusalem Talmud Challah 2:1:17, Mekhilta DeRabbi Shimon Ben Yochai 20:14 and Midrash Lekach Tov, Exodus 23:31:3. On verse 11 it holds Midrash Tanchuma, Devarim 1:1. On verse 12 it holds Devarim Rabbah 2:24, Ein Yaakov (Glick Edition), Sanhedrin 11:131 and Midrash Aggadah, Exodus 3:1:3. On verse 14 it holds Avodah Zarah 7b:1, Avot DeRabbi Natan 29:5 and Bekhorot 31a:3.
On verse 15 it holds Midrash Tehillim 78:18. On verse 17 it holds Avot DeRabbi Natan 35:9 and Bereshit Rabbah 49:2. On verse 18 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 17:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Nitzavim 4:1. On verse 19 it holds Bamidbar Rabbah 23:7 and Devarim Rabbah 2:2. On verse 20 it holds Midrash Lekach Tov, Numbers 25:15:1 and Sanhedrin 82a:2. On verse 22 it holds Aggadat Bereshit 84:3 and Bamidbar Rabbah 11:7. On verse 25 it holds Bereshit Rabbah 68:13 and Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 33:5.
The corpus also files Midrash Tanchuma, Vayetzei 9:1 under Jeremiah 3:33-34, a verse this chapter does not have. It is left out of the list above rather than cited on a verse that is not there.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on Jeremiah 3:1:1 to 3:24:1, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, reported CC-BY; Radak, Radak on Jeremiah 3:15:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/jeremiah/3.json, the 39 Talmud and Midrash locators on the verses of this chapter; The site's own files, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed for Jeremiah 3: a Haftarah use, and no festival reading for the book.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Can a Divorced Wife Return? Israel's Many Lovers
Jeremiah 3:1-5
The chapter opens on a point of law, the rule of Deuteronomy 24. Israel's case goes past that law, for “you have played the harlot with many lovers”. The people call the LORD “My Father” and their “friend from youth”, while “you keep doing all the evil you can”.
Jeremiah 3:1
“They say--rather, as Hebrew, "saying," in agreement with "the LORD"; Jer 2:37 of last chapter [MAURER]. Or, it is equivalent to, "Suppose this case." Some copyist may have omitted, "The word of the Lord came to me," saying. shall he return unto her--will he take her back?”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
The barren heights are the bare hilltops where the shrines stood. Sitting beside the highways recalls Tamar waiting by the road at Genesis 38:14, and the nomad is the raider who lies in wait for caravans. Judah watched for its idols with the same patience.
Jeremiah 3:2
“As the Arabian in the wilderness - They were as fully intent on the practice of their idolatry as the Arab in the desert is in lying in wait to plunder the caravans. Where they have not cover to lie in ambush, they scatter themselves about, and run hither and thither, raising themselves up on their saddles to see if they can discover, by smoke, dust, or other token, the approach of any travelers.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
the showers have been withheld: The spring rains are the latter rains of April that filled out the grain before harvest. Deuteronomy 11:17 warned that the LORD would shut the heavens if Israel turned to other gods. The drought came, and Judah felt no shame.
Jeremiah 3:3
“There hath been no latter rain - The former rain, which prepared the earth for tillage, fell in the beginning of November, or a little sooner; and the latter rain fell in the middle of April, after which there was scarcely any rain during the summer.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Friend from youth is the phrase Proverbs 2:17 uses for the husband a straying wife leaves behind. Judah speaks it to the LORD while its idols still stand. Father is the name 2:27 gave to a tree.
Jeremiah 3:4
“Wilt thou not - cry unto me, My father - Wilt thou not allow me to be thy Creator and Preserver, and cease thus to acknowledge idols? See on Jer 2:27 (note).”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Will He be angry forever?: The question belongs with the prayer of verse 4 and expects the LORD's anger to end soon, from the Father Judah has called Him. Judah has spoken fair words and kept doing evil. Here the first discourse ends, and verse 6 opens a new one in the days of Josiah.
Jeremiah 3:5
“Rather, “Will he, the young husband,” retain, “keep up His anger forever!” These words should be joined to Jer 3:4. Behold ... - Rather, “Behold, thou hast spoken” thus, but thou hast “done evil things” persistently. The King James Version translates as if Judah’s words and deeds were both evil. Really her words were fair, but her deeds proved them to be false. And here ends the prophecy, most interesting as showing what was the general nature of Jeremiah’s exhortations to his countrymen, during the 14 years of Josiah’s reign.”
Backsliding Israel and Treacherous Judah Compared
Jeremiah 3:6-8
Now in the days of King Josiah: The LORD names both kingdoms: faithless Israel went up “on every high hill and under every green tree”. Israel received “a certificate of divorce”, the northern kingdom's exile to Assyria. Judah's sin is the graver, because she saw the warning, yet she “had no fear and prostituted herself as well”.
Jeremiah 3:6
“The Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king - This is a new discourse, and is supposed to have been delivered after the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah. Here the prophet shows the people of Judah the transgressions, idolatry, obstinacy, and punishment of their brethren, the ten tribes, whom he calls to return to the Lord, with the most gracious promises of restoration to their own country, their reunion with their brethren of Judah, and every degree of prosperity in consequence.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:6
“But what we read in the histories of scripture should instruct us and affect us, as if we ourselves had been eye-witnesses of it. She is called backsliding Israel because that kingdom was first founded in an apostasy from the divine institutions, both in church and state.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
she would return to Me: The LORD waited for Israel's return, and it never came. Elijah had called the northern kingdom back to the LORD at 1 Kings 18:21, with no demand that it return to the house of David. The return asked for is to God.
Jeremiah 3:7
“Or, “And I said (i. e., within myself), After she has done all these things, she will return to me.” But she did not return. Treacherous - literally, “Falsehood,” i. e., false, faithless. The character of the two sisters is plainly marked. Samaria is apostate; she abandons Yahweh’s worship altogether. Judah maintains the form only; her secret desires are set upon the orgies of pagan worship.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 3:7
In addition to these things, "when people fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?" Why, then, is the virgin "turned away with a stubborn revolting," even though she heard Christ, her spouse, saying through Jeremiah, "And when she had committed all these fornications, I said, 'Return to me, and she did not return'?" "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people not been restored?"
Basil of Caesarea · written before 379 · LETTER 46patristic
Jeremiah 3:7
“We read not that Elijah, that great reformer, ever mentioned their return to the house of David, while he was anxious for their return to the faithful service of the true God according as they had it among them. It is serious piety that God stands upon more than even his own rituals.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away: The certificate of divorce is the written notice of Deuteronomy 24:1, which ended a marriage and sent the wife from the house. Isaiah 50:1 takes up the same figure for Judah's own exile. Israel left the LORD's worship outright, and Judah kept its outward form.
Jeremiah 3:8
“Rather, “And I saw” that because apostate “Israel” had “committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her” the writing of her divorcement, “yet” false “Judah her sister feared not.”...The expression, “For all the causes whereby,” is probably the actual formula with which writings of divorcement commenced.”
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 3:8
"And the faithless Judah did not fear, and she went and played the harlot herself also." Israel having played the harlot first, Judah too played the harlot afterward. "And her fornication became as nothing, and she committed adultery with wood and stone." Whenever we sin, we do nothing else than, becoming stony-hearted, commit adultery with "the stone." Whenever we sin and play the harlot "beneath every leafy tree," we too commit adultery with "the wood." "And the faithless Judah did not turn to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood."
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Jeremiah 4patristic
Jeremiah 3:8
“The epithets are characteristic; Israel "apostate" (as the Hebrew for "backsliding" is better rendered); Judah, not as yet utterly apostate, but treacherous or faithless. also--herself also, like Israel.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 3:9-11
Indifferent to her own infidelity: Israel's adultery “with stones and trees” names again the tree and stone of chapter 2 as partners in the affair. Judah did not return “with all her heart, but only in pretense”. The verdict follows: “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah”.
Jeremiah 3:9
“It is not only bodily sin that is called fornication and adultery, but any sin you have committed, and especially transgression against that which is divine. Perhaps you ask how we can prove this. "They prostituted themselves," it says "with things they made." Don't you see an impudent act of fornication? And again, "They committed adultery with pieces of wood." Don't you see a kind of adulterous religion? Do not then commit spiritual adultery, while keeping your bodies chaste.”
Gregory of Nazianzus · written before 390 · On the Words of the Gospel, 'when Jesus Had Finished These Sayings,' Oration 37:19patristic
2 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 3:9
“Lightness - Others render as in the margin. Defiled - Rather, profaned. The land especially consecrated to Yahweh’s service was treated by Judah as a common land.”
Jeremiah 3:9
English Version, however, may be explained to refer to Israel. lightness--"infamy." [EWALD]. MAURER not so well takes it from the Hebrew root, "voice," "fame."
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Her unfaithful sister Judah is said three times, at verses 7, 8 and 10, before the verdict of verse 11. The return in view came under Josiah's reform of 2 Kings 23, and the people followed it on the surface. In pretense is literally in falsehood.
Jeremiah 3:10
“Her treacherous sister Judith - These words are a sort of refrain, thrice Jer 3:7-8, Jer 3:10 repeated before God finally pronounces Judah more culpable than Israel.”
The verdict is a comparison. Judah had watched faithless Israel fall and still followed, and the verse explains why Jerusalem fell so soon after the reign of King Josiah. His reform could save no people who only pretended to follow it.
Jeremiah 3:11
“Hath justified herself - Judah had had the benefit of the warning given by Israel’s example. Both abandon Yahweh’s service for idolatry, but Israel is simply “apostate,” Judah is also false. The verse is important, (1) as accounting for the destruction of Jerusalem so soon after the pious reign of Josiah. Manasseh’s crimes had defiled the land, but it was by rejecting the reforms of Josiah that the people finally profaned it, and sealed their doom: (2) As showing that it is not by the acts of its government that a nation stands or falls.”
Return, Backsliding Children: Shepherds After My Heart
Jeremiah 3:12-13
Go, proclaim this message toward the north: The command to proclaim toward the north sends the invitation after the people Assyria had scattered there: “Return, O faithless Israel”. The reason is the LORD's character, “for I am merciful”. The one condition is honesty: “Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God”.
Jeremiah 3:12
“Proclaim these words toward the north - The countries where the ten tribes were then in captivity, Mesopotamia, Assyria, Media, etc., see 2Ki 17:6; these lay north of Judea. How tender and compassionate are the exhortations in this and the following verses! Could these people believe that God had sent the prophet and yet prefer the land of their bondage to the blessings of freedom in their own country, and the approbation of their God?”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:12
“BACKSLIDERS are very many. Departing from the living God is no strange thing. Every Church has to lament many that turn aside. In fact, it has become so common in many Churches, that they have not faith enough to hold to the Scriptural doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints—as if the lack of perseverance in mere professors could alter the Truth of God that where the life and power of God are really in the soul, there it will abide and remain.”
Only acknowledge your guilt: Acknowledge is literally know, to own the guilt as guilt. Deuteronomy 30:1 to 3 had promised a return from exile to a people who took the curse to heart. Scattered your favors pictures worship spread to every idol, far past the calves at Bethel.
Jeremiah 3:13
“Acknowledge - literally, “know thy iniquity;” know that thy doings are iniquitous. Scattered thy ways - Wandered in search of those idolatries which foreign nations practice.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:13
“Only acknowledge-- (De 30:1, 3; Pr 28:13). scattered thy ways, &c.-- (Jer 2:25). Not merely the calves at Beth-el, but the idols in every direction, were the objects of their worship (Eze 16:15, 24, 25).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 3:14-18
The LORD says “I am your master”, a Hebrew verb that also means to be a husband. He brings a remnant to Zion, “one from a city and two from a family”, under “shepherds after My own heart”. Judah and Israel will come together from the land of the north.
Jeremiah 3:14
“I will take you one of a city, and two of a family - If there should be but one of a city left, or one willing to return, and two only of a whole tribe, yet will I receive these, and bring them back from captivity into their own land.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 3:14
“Turn, O backsliding children, saith the Lord,.... All of them were children by national adoption, and some by special grace, and yet "backsliders", O monstrous ingratitude! "backsliders", and yet "children", still the relation continues, O marvellous grace!”
Jeremiah 3:14
“But the Septuagint in this passage translates, "I will be Lord over you." And the "for" has much more force in English Version than in that of GESENIUS. The Hebrew hardly admits the rendering though [HENGSTENBERG]. take you one of a city--Though but one or two Israelites were in a (foreign) city, they shall not be forgotten; all shall be restored (Am 9:9).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Jeremiah 3:14
“They are encouraged to return. " Repent, and be converted, and your sins shall be blotted out, Acts iii. You have incurred God's displeasure, but return to me, and I will not cause my anger to fall upon you. " God's anger is ready to fall upon sinners, as a lion falls on his prey, and there is none to deliver, as a mountain of lead falling on them, to sink them past recovery into the lowest hell.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
I will give you shepherds after My own heart: Shepherds here are kings and rulers, the same word as the leaders who rebelled at 2:8. After My own heart is the phrase 1 Samuel 13:14 uses of David. Hosea 8:4 describes the kings the north had made without God.
Jeremiah 3:15
“Pastors - “Kings, rulers” (compare Jer 2:8). Not military usurpers Hos 8:4, but true servants of God, as David 1Sa 13:14.”
the ark of the covenant of the LORD: The ark held the tablets of the covenant and stood in the Most Holy Place. Jewish tradition holds that the second temple had no ark, and some Christian commentators thought Cyrus returned it with the vessels of Ezra 1. The verse looks to a day when no one misses it.
Jeremiah 3:16
“The ark of the covenant of the Lord - This symbol of the Divine presence, given to the Jews as a token and pledge of God’s dwelling among them, shall be no longer necessary, and shall no longer exist; for in the days of the Messiah, to which this promise seems to relate, God’s worship shall not be confined either to one place or to one people. The temple of God shall be among men, and every where God be adored through Christ Jesus.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 3:16
“The ark - That whole worship with all the rites and ceremonies belonging to it shall cease, Christ being come, who was the substance of what the ark, and all other rites shadowed. Covenant - Called also the ark of the testimony, because the two tables of the law, which were the testimony, or witness of the covenant were in it.”
John Wesley · Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Jeremiah 3:16
THIS text speaks concerning the material ark. I should like to append to that another which speaks of the ark spiritually and tells us where its antitype is to be found— "And the temple of God was opened in Hea ven and there was seen in His temple the ark of His testament (or covenant) "Revelation 1119. When inward piety is low, the externals of religion are frequently cried up. Those who know nothing of God are the very people to exclaim concerning themselves and their brethren, "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these."
Jeremiah 3:16
“It is very likely (whatever the Jews suggest to the contrary) that the ark of the covenant was in the second temple, being restored by Cyrus with the other vessels of the house of the Lord, Ezra i. But in the gospel temple Christ is the ark; he is the propitiatory, or mercy-seat; and it is the spiritual presence of God in his ordinances that we are now to expect.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jerusalem will be called The Throne of the LORD: The LORD had been called the one enthroned above the cherubim on the ark, at Psalm 80:1. In that day the whole city takes the place of the ark as His throne. Jeremiah 7:24 names the same stubbornness in Judah.
Jeremiah 3:17
“As the gospel got ground this throne of the Lord was set up even where Satan's seat had been. It is especially the throne of his grace; for those that by faith come to this Jerusalem come to God the judge of all, and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, Heb. xii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel: The kingdom had split after Solomon at 1 Kings 12, and here the two houses walk together again. Ezekiel 37:15 to 22 gives the same promise with two sticks joined into one. The north held both exiles, Assyria and Babylon.
Jeremiah 3:18
“The house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel - That is, in those days in which the Jews shall be brought in with the fullness of the Gentiles. Out of the land of the north - From Chaldea. This prophecy has two aspects: one refers to the return from the Babylonish captivity; the other, to the glorious days of Christianity. But the words may refer to that gathering together of the Jews, not only from Chaldea, but from the countries of their dispersion over the face of the whole earth, and uniting them in the Christian Church.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:18
“This happy coalescence between Israel and Judah in Canaan was a type of the uniting of Jews and Gentiles in the gospel church, when, all enmities being slain, they should become one sheepfold under one shepherd. Here is some difficulty started, that lies in the way of all this mercy; but an expedient is found to get over it.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Behold, We Come Unto Thee: Weeping on the Bare Heights
Jeremiah 3:19-21
The LORD longs to give Israel “a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations”. Instead, “as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel”. A voice rises “on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy”.
Jeremiah 3:19
“The good land covenanted to Abraham is to be restored to his seed. But the question arises, How shall this be done? put . . . among . . . children--the Greek for adoption means, literally, "putting among the sons." the children--that is, My children.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown · Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Betrayed translates the same Hebrew root as the name unfaithful given to Judah in verses 7 to 11. The house of Israel now shares the name. Israel was bound to the LORD by a marriage covenant, and breaking it was treason.
Jeremiah 3:20
“As an adulterous wife elopes from her husband, so have they gone a whoring from God. They were joined to God by a marriage-covenant, but they broke that covenant, they dealt treacherously with God, who had always dealt kindly and faithfully with them. Treacherous dealing with men like ourselves is bad enough, but to deal treacherously with God is to deal treasonably.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
A voice is heard on the barren heights: The barren heights of verse 2, where the shrines stood, now carry the sound of weeping. The same hills that saw the sin hear the prayer for mercy. Perverted means made crooked, a road bent out of line.
Jeremiah 3:21
“Upon the high places - Upon those bare table-lands, which previously had been the scene of Israel’s idolatries Jer 3:2. The prophet supposes the offer of mercy to Israel if repentant to have been accepted, and describes Israel’s agony of grief now that she is convinced of her sins. Weeping and supplications - literally, “the weeping of earliest prayers for mercy.” For they have ... - Rather, because “they hare perverted their way,” literally, made it crooked. It gives the reason of their cry for mercy.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:21
“Sin is the perverting of our way, it is turning aside to crooked ways and perverting that which is right. Forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Jeremiah 3:22-25
The invitation is answered at once: “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God”. The people say deception comes from the hills and “the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God”, naming high places a false hope.
Jeremiah 3:22
“Return, ye backsliding children - This they gladly receive, and with one voice make their confession to him: “Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art Jehovah our God;” and thence to the end of the chapter, show the reasons why they return unto God. 1. Because he is the true God. 2. Because the idols did not profit them: they could give no help in time of trouble. 3. Because it is the prerogative of God alone to give salvation. 4. Because they had no kind of prosperity since they had abandoned the worship of their Maker.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
3 more voices on this verse
Jeremiah 3:22
“Return, ye backsliding children,.... This is the call of the Jews to repentance in the latter day; See Gill on Jer 3:14. and I will heal your backslidings; that is, I will forgive your sins. Sins are the diseases of the soul, and the wounds made in it; and pardoning them is healing them.”
Jeremiah 3:22
“It is clearly written in the Acts of the apostles that the apostles first went into the synagogue of the Jews, proclaiming to them, as to kinsmen through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the things written concerning the coming of Jesus Christ.”
Origen of Alexandria · written before 253 · Homilies on Jeremiah 5patristic
Jeremiah 3:22
“SIN is quite sure to cause sorrow—and the longer the sorrow is delayed, the heavier it will be when it comes. This ship may be long at sea, but it will come home, at last, with a heavy cargo. There was never a man who broke the Law of God who had not in the end to rue it. "He that digs a pit shall fall into it and who breaks a hedge, a serpent shall bite him," is one of Solomon's sayings, and it is most certainly true.”
Charles Spurgeon · written before 1892 · The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 2452: “Hope for the Worst Backsliders” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular Baptist
Surely the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God: Deception is literally a lie, and commotion the noise of the crowds at the hill shrines. Some read the hills as natural defences and others as the high places of idol worship. Psalm 121:1 and 2 turn the eyes from the hills to the LORD.
Jeremiah 3:23
“Rather, Surely “in vain from the hills” is the revelry of the mountains. The penitents contrast in it the uselessness of idol-worship with the salvation which Yahweh gives to His people.”
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:23
“Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains,.... From any natural defence, by hills and mountains encompassing; or from idols worshipped on hills and mountains.”
The shameful god is Baal, whose name the prophets replaced with bosheth, shame, as at Jeremiah 11:13 and Hosea 9:10. The flocks and herds went to its altars. The sons and daughters went there too, in child sacrifice.
Jeremiah 3:24
“For shame hath devoured - The word shame, here and in Jer 11:13; Hos 9:10, is supposed to signify Baal, the idol which they worshipped. That thing or shame which has brought you into contempt, confusion, and ruin. Sooner or later every sinner must be ashamed of his conduct; next, confounded; and, lastly, ruined by it, unless by true faith and hearty repentance he returns to the Lord.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Jeremiah 3:24
“Or, rather, Secondly, These had been sacrificed to their idols, had been separated unto that shame ( Hos. ix. 10 ), and they had devoured them without mercy; they did eat the fat of their sacrifices ( Deut. xxxii. 38 ), even their human sacrifices.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Let us lie down in our shame: Lying down in shame is the posture of mourners who give up every defence. The confession reaches back to the fathers, the same fathers whose losses verse 24 counted. Chapter 4 opens with the LORD's answer.
Jeremiah 3:25
“Sin has laid us under such rebukes of God's providence, and such reproaches of our own consciences, as surround us and fill us with shame. For we have sinned, and shame came in with sin and still attends upon it. We are sinners by descent; guilt and corruption are entailed upon us: We and our fathers have sinned.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Calvin, Commentary on Jeremiah and Lamentations; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.