Jeremiah 4:1
in Jeremiah 4“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith Jehovah, if thou wilt return unto me, and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight; then shalt thou not be removed;
KJV
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
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This verse in Jeremiah 4
Commentary
6 notes on this verse(Chapter IV, Verse 1) If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to me. The Septuagint translates it as: If Israel turns back, says the Lord, it will return to me. And the meaning is, if it returns to me, it will be delivered from captivity. Alternatively: when it offers what it has: For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:29).
This site's exposition
If you will return, O Israel, return to Me
on Jeremiah 4:1-4
The return has conditions, idols removed and an oath sworn “in truth, in justice, and in righteousness”. The command “Break up your unplowed ground” turns farming into repentance. The call to “remove the foreskins of your hearts” names what the outward sign of Abraham's covenant was meant to picture.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
Upon these things God says concerning Israel: "If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, then he shall be turned back"; that is, if he turns completely, then he shall be turned back with a turning — not if he as it were begins to turn. Then he says: "and if he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall be blessed in him." If they do these things, "the nations shall be blessed in him." But what are these things they are to do, so that the nations may be blessed in him? "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth." And what is it to remove the abominations out of the mouth? Whatever we speak badly are abominations in our mouth. Let us therefore remove the abominations out of our mouth, taking away slanders, vain words, idle words that are going to cause us to be accused "in the day of judgment; for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." If, then, we wish that the words "and the nations shall be blessed in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem" should meet us, let us do the things said from the beginning. And which first? To remove "the abominations out of our mouth." Next is also the "you shall stand in awe before my face." As the second thing let us do this, not simply that we may stand in awe; for perhaps there is an awe that comes about, but not from the face of God. […]
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord,.... To which they had been encouraged, and as they had promised they would, and said they did, Jer 3:14, return unto me; with thy whole heart, and not feignedly and hypocritically, as Judah did, Jer 3:
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Return - The repentance of Israel described in Jer 3:21-25 was a hope, and not a reality. The return, literally, would be their restoration to their land; spiritually, their abandoning their sins. Jer 4:1-2 should be translated as follows: If thou wouldst return, O Israel, saith Yahweh. Unto Me thou shalt return: And if thou wouldst remove thy abominations from before Me, And not wander to and fro, But wouldst swear truly, uprightly; and justly By the living Yahweh; Then shall the pagan bless themselves ... - In him - In Yahweh.
Shalt thou not remove - This was spoken before the Babylonish captivity; and here is a promise that if they will return from their idolatry, they shall not be led into captivity. So, even that positively threatened judgment would have been averted had they returned to the Lord.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
If you return, O Israel with this repentance, to Me, you will return to your original glory and greatness.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 5 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
13 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אִם־ | ʾim- | if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| תָּשׁ֨וּב | tashuv | you will return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| יִשְׂרָאֵ֧ל׀ | yisrael | O Israel | H3478 → | 2507 times |
| נְאֻם־ | neum- | [the] utterance of | H5002 → | 376 times |
| יְהוָ֛ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| אֵלַ֖י | ʾelai | to me | H413 → | 5510 times |
| תָּשׁ֑וּב | tashuv | you will return | H7725 → | 1056 times |
| וְאִם־ | veim- | and if | H518 → | 1069 times |
| תָּסִ֧יר | tasir | you will remove | H5493 → | 299 times |
| שִׁקּוּצֶ֛יךָ | shikutzeicha | detestable things your | H8251 → | 28 times |
| מִפָּנַ֖י | mipanai | from before me | H6440 → | 2123 times |
| וְלֹ֥א | velo' | and not | H3808 → | 5168 times |
| תָנֽוּד׃ | tanud | you will waver | H5110 → | 24 times |
אִם־if
ʾim-H518 →1069 times
תָּשׁ֨וּבyou will return
tashuvH7725 →1056 times
יִשְׂרָאֵ֧ל׀O Israel
yisraelH3478 →2507 times
נְאֻם־[the] utterance of
neum-H5002 →376 times
יְהוָ֛הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
אֵלַ֖יto me
ʾelaiH413 →5510 times
תָּשׁ֑וּבyou will return
tashuvH7725 →1056 times
וְאִם־and if
veim-H518 →1069 times
תָּסִ֧ירyou will remove
tasirH5493 →299 times
שִׁקּוּצֶ֛יךָdetestable things your
shikutzeichaH8251 →28 times
מִפָּנַ֖יfrom before me
mipanaiH6440 →2123 times
וְלֹ֥אand not
velo'H3808 →5168 times
תָנֽוּד׃you will waver
tanudH5110 →24 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Joel 2:12“Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
it leads to
- James 4:8–9
Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
- Isaiah 55:6–7
Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near.
- 2 Chronicles 7:13–14
If I close the sky so there is no rain, or if I command the locust to devour the land, or if I send a plague among My people,
- Hosea 12:6
But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God.
- Jeremiah 29:12–13
Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
- James 4:8–9
Through
Jeremiah 3:1“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…
it leads to
- Deuteronomy 24:1–4
If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds some indecency in her, he may write her a certificate of divorce, hand it to her, and send her…
- Deuteronomy 24:1–4
Through
Jeremiah 3:22“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.
it leads to
- Hosea 14:4
I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.
- Hosea 14:1
Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
- Hosea 14:4
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Jeremiah
This page draws on 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; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and Origen of Alexandria, HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 5.