They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? Would not that land be utterly polluted? But thou hast committed fornication with many lovers; yet return to me, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah opens chapter 3 with a rule from Israel's law: a wife who is sent away and marries another man may never go back to her first husband. God applies that rule to Israel — and then calls her back anyway.
When a man in Israel put away his wife, the law set out what came next:
In such a case in Israel he was required to give her a certificate of divorce, which left her free to marry another (vv. 1-3). But if she did marry another man and he also divorced her, or if he died, then the former husband must not take her back as a wife (v. 4). This would be most improper, for he had rejected her earlier for what he considered good reason. This is called "an abomination before the Lord." If there had been no marriage to another man, the case would be different. The law is firm and decided about this matter. Yet when the grace of God is known, it can lead to honest self-judgment in those who are guilty. It can wonderfully overcome the evil by a gracious and righteous recovery.
So the verse opens with a legal barrier. Under that law, the answer to "will he return to her?" is no.
Kelly reads the charge as a settled habit, not one failure:
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His tender mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to me, says the Lord." He points out their frequent and shameless unfaithfulness, while they call Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they kept on doing evil (vv. 1-5).
Notice the two names side by side: the woman with many lovers, and the God she still calls the guide of her youth.
Divorce is the picture the prophets use for what God did with Israel. Later in this chapter He hands her the certificate:
Divorce is used symbolically to express God's action in putting away Israel, who had been grossly unfaithful, and giving her a bill of divorcement. Isa. 50:1; Jer. 3:8.
The tie had been cut in legal form. Bellett notes what grace does after that:
So Jeremiah shows the Lord acting in the very same grace, taking Jerusalem back even after she had proved herself unfaithful and had been legally and judicially put away. Jer. 3.
Commentators read the closing words as an invitation, not a closed door:
In Jeremiah 3 the Lord takes a different figure, and likens the sin of His people to harlotry. Even though their sin was as deep as that, we read, "Yet return again to me, says the Lord" (Jer. 3:1). So deep was His desire for their restoration.
A note on wording: the ESV puts this line as a question, "and would you return to me?" The older translation quoted here reads it as an invitation: "yet return again to me."
The pleading in this chapter also puts Judah in the picture:
In Jeremiah 3 we have the Lord pleading with them. He shows them that, bad as Israel might have been, Judah — which had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah — would turn out no better. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
The promise reaches far beyond Jeremiah's own day:
Nothing can be more clear than this prediction, and nothing more gracious. Here God's grace steps in for the whole people in the last days. That is after the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and after the Babylonian one, which was about to happen. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but all of them.
- The law — Israel's own rule forbade a husband to take back a wife who had gone to another man. That barrier stands at the front of the verse.
- The guilt — the charge is not one lapse but many lovers, and God names it, while she still calls Him the guide of her youth.
- The divorce — the separation was legal and judicial, not a mood; God had handed her the certificate.
- The grace — over that legal barrier comes the call to return, showing how deeply He wants her back.
- The end — the pleading leads to a promised recall of the whole people. God is nowhere more Himself than in mercy to those who have fallen furthest.
Lift up thine eyes unto the heights and see, where hast thou not been lain with? In the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arab in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy fornications and with thy wickedness.
Jeremiah 3 opens with a legal question. A husband cannot take back a wife who has left him for another man. God then tells Israel to lift her eyes to the bare heights and look. He is not inviting her to admire the view. He is asking her to name one place in the land she has not defiled.
Israel copied her neighbours, who worshipped their gods on the hills. One writer explains how these sites spread, and why God rejected them all — even the ones built for His own worship.
It seems the Canaanite nations used to set up places of worship for their false gods on various heights. They chose those heights to suit their own Satan-controlled desires... The Israelites were to destroy all the high places of the heathen, and so express their horror at their wicked ways. But human nature is no better in those who are near to God than in those who are far from Him. The time soon came, sadly, when Israel chose high places for themselves. Some of these were for idolatrous worship, and some for the worship of Jehovah. But all the high places offended Him, whatever the motives of those who set them up. They were the expression of self-will, of hearts that would not obey His commandments.
The verse uses shocking language. One writer shows why that word fits what Israel did, and where it left her with God.
"High places" for idolatrous worship dotted the whole land. In the shade of every green tree the people practised the horrors of heathen religion. Spiritually and literally, these unholy and unclean rites deserved the name of harlotry the prophets so often gave them. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?
The verse pictures her sitting by the road and waiting. She did not just take in idolatry when it came to her; she went looking for it. One writer describes the same appetite in Jerusalem.
The Lord then details the extreme impurity that Jerusalem turned to with unbridled lust. She did not only take in every uncleanness of idolatry that passed by. She went out and courted idolatrous dealings with the strangers on every side, and with the most distant Gentiles. Even her Philistine neighbours, content with their own gods, were ashamed of her.
The verse ends with the land itself polluted. Yet Jeremiah spoke while the nation was going through a reform under king Josiah. One writer notes what God saw underneath it.
Jeremiah 3 has the same character. It carries on the same address. But it gives details of Israel's and Judah's behaviour. It also announces the restoration of Israel by sovereign goodness, and the blessing of the last days when they return to God. Notice this. Before the Lord pleads with Israel over their folly, He first points out that no one sought Him and no one longed for Him. Neither people nor priests said, "Where is the LORD?"... In this chapter we have the solemn revelation that, as far as the people were concerned, the reformation under Josiah was only hypocrisy.
Human law had no answer for a marriage like this. One writer shows what God does with it.
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His pitiful mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another... He points out their frequent and shameless unfaithfulness, while all the time they called Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they kept on doing evil.
The guilt is fully named, yet the appeal keeps coming. One writer describes what runs through this part of Jeremiah:
Here is divine love pleading tenderly with a bold, faithless, shameless people. Here are the assurances of forgiveness and everlasting mercy. They are deeply touching.
- Look: God tells His people to survey the heights. Self-will built those places. They offended Him whatever the worshipper's motive.
- Name: What happened there earns the word harlotry. Spiritually and literally, it stands condemned.
- Seek: The sin was not passive. She sat by the road and waited. She did not just take idolatry in; she courted it.
- Underneath: Josiah's reform looked good from the outside. The chapter calls it hypocrisy, because nobody was asking, "Where is the LORD?"
- Yet: The charge is total and the land defiled. Still God pleads. His mercy toward a fallen people is where He is most Himself.
And the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; but thou hast a harlot's forehead, thou refusest to be ashamed.
God has been listing Israel's unfaithfulness. Now He points at the sky. The rain stopped, and the nation still would not link the drought with its own conduct. Two things stand together in this verse: blessing held back as a warning, and a face that will not blush.
The words fall inside a plea, not a verdict. One commentator sums up the chapter's opening. There God argues like a husband whose wife has left him:
God is nowhere more Himself than in His tender mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. He points out their frequent and shameless unfaithfulness, while they still called Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they kept on doing evil.
One writer says the rain in this verse means real rain, and points to passages that show it:
The rain has an entirely literal meaning. Read the following passages carefully for confirmation: Leviticus 26:4; Deuteronomy 11:14-17; 1 Kings 8:33-35 and Jeremiah 3:3.
God had told Israel plainly that rain and obedience went together. So an empty sky was never bad luck:
We know well that God does not want His people to suffer. He is not stingy, and if the rain is withheld, the fault lies with His people and not with Him. He had made this clear to them, so that they understood that when heaven was "shut up" it was in chastening.
The rain had been tied to a promise. Another writer traces that promise and its withdrawal:
God had promised Israel that if they would listen to His commandments, love Him, and serve Him with all their heart and soul, He would give them the rain of their land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, so that they might gather in their grain, their wine, and their oil. But Israel, by their disobedience and departure from their God, had forfeited this promise, and God in chastisement had withheld both the early and the latter rain… God never withholds from His people except to draw out their sense of need, and to teach them that He alone is the source from which blessing comes.
The second half of the verse moves from the sky to the face. In the Bible the forehead stands for a person's open character:
Forehead: used as a symbol of manifest character. Israel in apostasy is described as having a harlot's forehead, and refusing to be ashamed (Jeremiah 3:3). Ezekiel's forehead was made as hard as diamond, because of the hardness of Israel's forehead, with whom he had to contend (Ezekiel 3:8-9).
A refusal to be ashamed comes at the end of a long road. One writer lists the corrections God sent, one after another, and what came of them:
The Lord had sent different chastisements on them at different times. There had been famines and drought. Rain fell in one place and not another, so that they might recognise the hand of God in it… Five times in this section we find the same statement, "Yet you have not returned to Me." They were an unrepentant nation and hardened their hearts as Pharaoh did.
Even after the language of prostitution, God still calls Israel back. The writer quotes Jeremiah 3:1 from an older translation, which reads the line as an invitation rather than the ESV's question:
In Jeremiah 3 the Lord takes a different figure, and likens the sin of His people to harlotry. Even though their sin was as deep as that, we read, "Yet return again to Me, says the Lord" (Jeremiah 3:1). So deep was His desire for their restoration.
One writer looks ahead to the day when Israel's conscience does answer:
Their conscience will be truly reached then, and they will return to the One they had forsaken and forgotten. "Behold we come to You," they say, "for You are the Lord our God" (v. 22).
- Rain — literal. The withheld showers and spring rain mean real weather, not a picture of spiritual blessing.
- Drought — deliberate. When heaven is shut up, the fault lies with the people, not with a stingy God. It is chastening, sent to draw out their sense of need.
- Forehead — revealing. The forehead shows a person's real character. Here it shows a settled boldness that no longer cares who is watching.
- Shame — refused. Correction that is ignored again and again ends in hardness, the same road Pharaoh took.
- Return — still open. Even to a people described in these terms the word stands: return to Me. The full answer comes when their conscience answers at last and they say, "You are the Lord our God."
Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?
Jeremiah 3 opens with God speaking to a people who had left Him the way a wife leaves a husband. Verse 4 catches them turning back with warm, familiar words. They call Him Father. They call Him the guide of their youth. Do such words mean anything when the life behind them has not changed?
The reproach in this verse sits inside a plea, not a dismissal. One writer reads verses 1 to 5 together and finds God most like Himself where His people are at their worst:
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His pitiful mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another... He points out their frequent and shameless unfaithfulness, while they call Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they kept on doing evil.
The title is not one God rejects. (The ESV reads "friend of my youth." Older translations, which the writers here follow, read "guide of my youth.") Translations also differ on the timing. The ESV asks what Israel has just now said. Others read the verse as God's appeal that from this time on they cry to Him. One writer takes it that way, and looks on to a day when the nation will mean it:
Jeremiah 3 goes on to expose their unfaithfulness and what it now costs them. It also pleads with them to cry to the Guide of their youth (vv. 1-5)... The call which follows to return and confess to the One who is married to them looks on to a future day... when in a national sense Israel shall call Him "My Father," and "not turn away from following Him" (vv. 14-19). This has never yet taken place, as we know.
The same self-confidence turns up centuries later. John the Baptist and the Lord both answer it:
In John the Baptist's time Israel shows the same spirit of self-confidence. They said in that spirit, "We have Abraham as our father." Under the Lord's ministry it is still the same: they still boast in the fatherhood of Abraham and of God (John 8). But these boasts were empty, as both John and the Lord tell them.
Another writer puts the same question to us today:
In practice they were not His children, whatever claims they might make. We know today that a true believer is a child of God. But if someone is living in rebellion, would it be right for him to announce to others that he is a child of God? He might well be answered as the Lord answered the Jews who claimed to be Abraham's children: "If you were Abraham's children, you would be doing the works Abraham did" (John 8:39).
Something new enters here, and it echoes through the rest of the book:
Chapter 3:1-5. Here God gives the gracious invitation for the first time: "Return again to Me, says the LORD." And how many times after this the Lord pleads in the riches of His mercy for His people to return to Him and offers them forgiveness.
(Note: older translations read Jeremiah 3:1 as this invitation — "yet return again to me". The ESV makes it a question: "and would you return to me?")
The chapter then names what verse 4 was missing:
"How can I get back?" Listen. "Only acknowledge your iniquity" (Jer. 3:13). There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
A person can say these words and mean them. One writer presses them on young readers starting out in life:
Will you not pause, dear ones, before you set out on the untried path that may lie ahead? Will you make the words of Scripture your own, and say to that great and holy God, whose goodness has surrounded you with so many mercies, "My Father, you are the guide of my youth" (Jer. 3:4)?
- Youth — God accepts the title "guide of my youth". The trouble is not the name but the life that contradicts it.
- Words — Israel said the right thing and kept doing wrong. Fair speech, unchanged life.
- Claim — calling God Father settles nothing on its own. Israel boasted, "We have Abraham as our father," and the Lord pointed them to the works Abraham did.
- Mercy — this passage holds the first of Jeremiah's many invitations to return. God is nowhere more Himself than here, pleading with a people who had deserted Him.
- Return — later in the chapter God names the way back: acknowledge the wrong. Confession turns the words of verse 4 from a cover-up into a homecoming — and one day the nation will say them and mean them.
Will he keep [his anger] for ever? Will he preserve it perpetually? Behold, thou hast spoken and hast done evil things, and thou art [so] determined.
Jeremiah 3 opens with God pleading with a people who had left Him, as a wife leaves her husband. By verse 5 they are speaking to Him again. They ask how long His anger will last, while their lives stay the same. The verse puts their smooth religious question next to God's verdict on the life behind it.
Under human law, a husband could not take back a wife who had left him for another man. God does not act by that rule.
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His compassionate mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to me, says the Lord." He points out how often and how shamelessly they were unfaithful, while all the time they call Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they kept on doing evil. (vv. 1-5)
Kelly follows an older translation of verse 1, which reads that line as an invitation to return.
The last line of the verse weighs their words against their deeds. Jeremiah spoke during a national religious reform under king Josiah. One writer draws the hard conclusion this chapter presses about that reform.
In this chapter we have the solemn revelation that, as far as the people were concerned, the reformation under Josiah was nothing but hypocrisy.
They ask about God's anger while using the warmest names for Him. One writer shows what the chapter wants them to do with those names.
Jeremiah 3 continues to lay bare their unfaithfulness and the present consequence of the same; pleading with them also to cry to the Guide of their youth (vv. 1-5).
Meant sincerely, those same words become a real prayer. One writer puts them in the mouth of a young person starting out in life.
Will you not stop, dear friends, before you set out on the untried path ahead of you? Make the words of Scripture your own. Say to that great and holy God, whose goodness has surrounded you with so many mercies, "My Father, You are the guide of my youth" (Jer. 3:4).
The people who ask whether His anger lasts forever have done all the evil they could. They treat mercy as cover for sin. One writer is blunt about where that leads.
Be careful not to abuse the mercy of God. Do not suck poison out of the sweet flower of God's mercy. Do not think that because God is merciful, you may go on in sin; that is to make mercy your enemy. To sin because mercy abounds is the devil's logic. Anyone who sins because of mercy is like a man who wounds his head because he has a bandage. Anyone who sins because of God's mercy will get judgment without mercy. Mercy abused turns to fury.
The chapter does not end with the charge. It also carries God's own call to come back.
Here is the first time the gracious invitation is given: "Return again to Me, says the LORD." And how many times afterwards the Lord pleads, in the riches of His mercy, for His people to return to Him, and offers them forgiveness.
The same writer traces where all this ends.
He shows them that bad as Israel might have been, Judah that had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah would turn out no better. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
- Mercy offered. God is "nowhere more Himself than in His compassionate mercy to His fallen people." Human law would not let a man take back the wife who deserted him. God calls her back.
- Mercy named. They call Him by the tenderest names, Father and guide of their youth. The chapter pleads with them to cry to that Guide, not just quote Him.
- Mercy contradicted. "Whatever they said, they kept on doing evil." The great reform of the day was, as far as the people went, "nothing but hypocrisy."
- Mercy abused. To ask whether God's anger lasts forever while doing all the evil you can is "the devil's logic." Mercy used as permission "turns to fury."
- Mercy waiting. The same chapter gives the first "Return again to Me" — and "when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace."
And Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath committed fornication.
God speaks to Jeremiah during the reign of King Josiah. Josiah had swept idolatry out of Judah. Yet God points the prophet north, at the ten tribes already carried away, and asks him what he has seen there. Judah had seen it too, and learned nothing from it.
(The ESV calls Israel "that faithless one." Older translations say "backsliding Israel," and the writers quoted below use that word.)
The date on this message matters. Josiah was a faithful king, and idolatry was out of the land. The question is how deep that change went.
The book of Jeremiah, who prophesied under Josiah, shows us that the moral state of the people had not changed at all. The king was faithful, so they readily agreed to do away with idolatry, but their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
This verse is not about Judah. It sets two sisters side by side, and what matters is what the watching one did with the sight.
There is then, first of all, a contrast between Israel (the ten tribes) and her sister Judah. The Lord judged the house of Israel, the northern kingdom, first. She played the harlot. After she had done so, the Lord said, "Turn to Me." She refused, and her treacherous sister the house of Judah saw it. And when the Lord dealt with the house of Israel in judgment and they went into captivity, Judah did not fear but played the harlot too.
The two places named in the verse are not scenery. They were the real sites of Israel's worship, and the story behind them starts at Sinai.
God had rescued them from Egypt, and at Sinai they had promised not to disobey Him. Yet they set up the golden calf before the law even reached the camp, and the long list of later idolatries told how they had broken the covenant. "High places" for idol worship dotted the whole land, and in the shade of every green tree people carried out the detestable practices of the nations around them. Both spiritually and literally, these unholy and unclean rites deserved the name of harlotry that the prophets so often give them. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?
Why hilltops and groves? Because they feel religious, and feeling is easy to mistake for the thing itself.
Israel's departure from God took an outward form: they made themselves "high places." It was only a pagan habit, a worship with no heart in it that plays on the imagination… On the mountain tops a man could imagine he was nearer to God than in the valleys. The depths of groves and forests, with the beauty of nature, helped him think he was nearer to the God of nature than he really was… It is just here that man so often makes the fatal mistake. He puts what is merely natural in the place of what is spiritual, and so deceives himself.
God does not call this bad policy or poor religion. He speaks as a husband whose wife has left him — and then does what no wronged husband would do.
God is nowhere more Himself than in His tender mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to Me, says the Lord." He points out their repeated and shameless unfaithfulness, while all the time they were calling Him the father and guide of their youth.
(The line quoted here is Jeremiah 3:1 in an older translation. The ESV puts it as a question: "and would you return to me?")
"Backsliding" is the keyword of these chapters, and it carries an assumption inside it.
Here is the first time we get the word "backsliding."… It is the characteristic word in the early part of Jeremiah. But then it supposes recovery, and that the heart will be turned back again to God, because that is what the Lord wants.
He names one condition for coming back.
How can I get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt" (Jer. 3:13). There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession… How tender the call is: "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you."
(Jeremiah 3:14 in the ESV reads "for I am your master"; older translations read "for I am married to you.")
- Seen — God asks Jeremiah what he has seen in Israel. Judah saw it too: she watched her sister carried off in judgment and was not frightened.
- Reform — Josiah's cleanup was real, and the nation went along with it. It never changed the heart of the people.
- Places — people chose the high hills and green trees because those places made them feel close to God. That feeling is how they deceived themselves.
- Marriage — God charges Israel with unfaithfulness, not bad behaviour. He speaks as a husband — and still says "return."
- Backsliding — the word itself assumes a way home. The one condition He names is to acknowledge the sin.
And I said, After she hath done all these [things], she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her sister Judah, the treacherous, saw [it].
Jeremiah receives this word while Josiah is king in Judah. It looks back on God's patience with the northern kingdom of Israel: He waited for a return that never came. The verse ends with the southern kingdom, Judah, watching her sister. She saw everything and changed nothing.
The word came during a national reform led by a godly king. Commentators ask why that reform did not satisfy God.
The king's power had brought about a great reformation, but it left the hearts of most of the people untouched. It was the last effort of the Spirit of God to restore the people as a nation... But why could God not rest in the improved outward state of the kingdom of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for what was real: a tender conscience, and a heart that submitted to His word. He did not find it. "The devotion of your youth, your love as a bride" were missing. God will never be satisfied with anything less than thoroughness.
The words carry God's own expectation — and a mercy no human marriage law would allow.
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His compassionate mercy to His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had deserted him for another. "Israel had committed fornication with many lovers: yet return again to me, says the Lord."... Israel's uncleanness was notorious, and God had called her back in vain.
God gives Israel a name in this passage. Older translations call her "backsliding"; the ESV says "faithless." The Hebrew word behind both is harder than either sounds:
meshubah, 'a turning away, apostasy.' Jer. 2:19; Jer. 3:6-12, 22...
Israel's fall was public. God meant those still standing to read it.
God began to deal with the larger part of the nation, which had already rejected their king. They had proved themselves rebels against the royal house God Himself chose for them. They completed that rebellion by turning away from God altogether. He warned them, they ignored Him, and He swept away the ten tribes of Israel first, as a most solemn lesson to those who remained. But Judah was deaf and blind to what God was pointing out through guilty Israel.
Judah's advantage counted against her:
Judah was even more treacherous. She despised the warning although she knew better, and sinned even more boldly.
The chapter sets two kinds of failure side by side. Israel's was open. Judah hid hers behind a show of nearness. Which of the two, then, did God find harder to bear?
God would rather have what is real, even if our souls are far from Him, than what is unreal — a claimed nearness we are not living in. The ten tribes were openly backsliding and rebellious. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear" (Jer. 3:8). "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD" (Jer. 3:10). We get a great lesson there... The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
The refusal is not where the chapter ends. The same God who records it keeps calling her back.
"Return, backsliding children, says the Lord; for I am married to you." "Surely as a wife treacherously leaves her husband, so have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, says the Lord. … Return, backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. See, we come to You, for You are our God" (Jer. 3). This whole part of Jeremiah is deeply beautiful and touching. God's tender pleading with a bold, unfaithful, shameless people, and His promises of forgiveness and everlasting mercy, are moving beyond words.
Ridout is quoting an older translation of this chapter.
- God waits. He said of Israel, "she will return to me." Mercy held the door open for a wife any husband could have divorced for good.
- She did not return. The call went out and came back empty. The name God gives her means a turning away — apostasy.
- Judah saw. Israel's ruin was a solemn lesson to those still standing. Judah was deaf and blind to it.
- Seeing was not fearing. Judah knew better and still did not fear. God would rather have honest distance than a pretended nearness.
- God still pleads. The refusal does not close the chapter. The same voice keeps saying "Return," and promises to heal the failure it has just exposed.
And I saw that when for all the causes wherein backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet the treacherous Judah, her sister, feared not, but went and committed fornication also.
In Josiah's reign, God draws a family picture: two sisters, one already sent away with a divorce paper, the other watching. The verse turns on what the watching sister did with what she saw.
The date matters. It names the two sisters and shows which one had already been judged.
The message which begins with the sixth verse was given to Jeremiah during the reign of Josiah. There is then, first of all, a contrast between Israel (the ten tribes) and her sister Judah. (Compare with Ezekiel 23.) The house of Israel, the northern kingdom, was judged first by the Lord. She played the harlot; after she had done so, the Lord said, "Turn to Me." She refused, and her treacherous sister the house of Judah saw it. And when the Lord dealt with the house of Israel in judgment and they were carried away, Judah did not fear but played the harlot.
The legal document named in this verse is a picture, not a domestic case.
Divorce is used here as a picture. It stands for God's action in putting Israel away, after she had been shamefully unfaithful, and giving her a bill of divorce. Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 3:8.
The verse gives the two sisters different labels: Israel is the faithless one, Judah the treacherous one. Judah had something Israel never had — she had watched what unfaithfulness costs.
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was even more treacherous. She knew better, yet she despised the warning and sinned with even greater daring.
The next verse adds that Judah did turn back to God, but her heart was not in it. God's complaint here is not distance. It is pretending.
There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah feared not." "Judah has not turned to me with her whole heart, but in pretence, says the Lord." We get a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real. In King Josiah's day there had been a revival, as we have seen. You would think that they had truly turned to the Lord. But it was only the effect of Josiah's influence. It was pretend. God would rather have what is real, even if our souls are at a distance, than what is unreal — a claimed nearness we are not living in.
Josiah's reign is remembered as a time of reform. Jeremiah prophesied during those very years, and God gives His own verdict on them.
This chapter carries the solemn revelation that, as far as the people were concerned, the reformation under Josiah was only hypocrisy. These two chapters form a general introduction. They show the ways and judgment of Israel and Judah, and their restoration by grace.
Ezekiel gives the two sisters names — Aholah the elder, and Aholibah, who is Jerusalem. He asks whether watching her elder sister did the younger any good.
Was Jerusalem admonished? Did the sight of Aholah act for good upon Aholibah? No — she was more corrupt in her lust than her sister was. The younger and more favoured sister followed the elder, and went even further in her idolatry.
The divorce was real. Yet God's grace reaches past it.
Jeremiah shows the Lord in that same grace. He takes Jerusalem back even after she had proved herself unfaithful and had been put away by a formal, legal judgment.
God then turns to the sister He had sent away, and names one way back.
Now see how beautifully He works with these backsliding ten tribes to bring them back… He called them, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns, how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your iniquity." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
- Seen — the message comes from Josiah's reign; Judah watched God carry her sister Israel away in judgment.
- Feared not — the sight taught her nothing; she knew better, despised the warning, and sinned with even greater daring.
- Feigned — her turning was outward only; God prefers honest distance to a nearness we claim but do not live.
- Exposed — Jeremiah gives God's verdict on Josiah's celebrated reformation: as far as the people went, it was hypocrisy.
- Recalled — God calls the divorced sister home again; the one way back is confession — acknowledge your iniquity.
And it came to pass through the lightness of her fornication that she polluted the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
A good king sat on Judah's throne when these words came. They expose what his reforms never reached: a people who treated unfaithfulness to God as a small thing and left the land defiled.
The charge belongs to the reign of Josiah, a king who tore the idols down. One writer asks how deep that reform went.
Jeremiah prophesied under Josiah, and his book shows that the moral state of the people did not change at all. They were quick to agree when the king's faithfulness put an end to idol worship. But their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
Another writer points to the verdict in the verse that follows:
The tenth verse proves beyond question that the reformation under Josiah was not a true spiritual revival. It reads: "Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD."
The verse names Judah's partners in adultery: stone and wood. Earlier in the book Jeremiah presses the same charge, and one writer shows who took part and what they said to those idols.
And this was not the masses only. Their kings, their leaders, their priests and their prophets said to a block of wood, "You are my father," and to a stone, "You gave me birth." In their trouble they might turn to God with "Arise and save us." But God challenges their gods to arise, if they can save them. And it was not for lack of numbers — Judah's gods were as many as her cities.
Judah's sin did not stay private. It reached the ground she lived on. Later in the same book God says what her idols cost that land, and one writer sets it beside His grace — then shows how deep the sin was cut.
But grace in their case, as in ours, in no way sets aside the governmental dealings of God... "But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled My inheritance with their abominations." ... The present state of Judah was all the more distressing. As the prophet says, "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars."
God had called Israel back from this sin and been refused. Judah knew all of it and went the same way. One writer weighs the two.
Israel's uncleanness was notorious, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was more treacherous still. She despised the warning though she knew better, and her sin was bolder still.
Another writer explains what made Judah's guilt heavier, even with her better kings:
But in fact Judah became more offensive than Israel, Jerusalem more guilty than Samaria. Israel had pleading and warning, promise and threat, but never one ray of goodness from the throne. Judah had some good kings, and God's blessing still reached her through them... Judah as a nation stayed true on the surface, since she held to David's royal line and outwardly to the temple and the worship of the LORD. Yet in heart they were as rebellious as the Israelites. The hypocrisy of Judah was more hateful to God than Israel's open desertion of Him.
One writer draws the lesson for us, and not only for Judah.
God would rather have reality, even though our souls are at a distance, than unreality and professed nearness when we are not in it... We get a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
Naming the sin is not where the chapter stops. Within a few verses God turns from accusation to invitation.
He shows them that bad as Israel might have been, Judah — who had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah — would turn out no better. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
One writer turns to anyone who wants to come back:
You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns — how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
- Backdrop — Josiah pulled the idols down, but the people's hearts stayed where they were.
- Idols — Judah called a block of wood father and a stone mother. Kings, priests and prophets all joined in.
- Pollution — Judah held the sin cheap, and it defiled the land God called His own inheritance.
- Pretence — Israel sinned in the open. Judah sinned behind temple worship, and God calls that treachery.
- Return — The exposure is not the end. God appears in grace at the lowest point, and the one way back is to acknowledge the sin.
And even for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jehovah.
Jeremiah 3:10 is God's verdict on Judah at its best religious moment: King Josiah had torn down the idols and restored the temple worship. God has just sent Judah's older sister Israel away for unfaithfulness, and now He asks the hardest question a religious person can face: what does He do with a return that everyone can see but He knows is not real?
God gave this word while Josiah was king. One writer takes the verse as proof of what that reformation really was:
Jeremiah received the message that begins with verse 6 during the reign of Josiah... The tenth verse proves beyond doubt that the reformation under Josiah was not a true spiritual revival.
The people did go along with him:
The king was faithful, so they readily agreed to get rid of idolatry. But their hearts stayed as far from God as ever.
Josiah stood before the people and promised to obey God's book, and the whole nation stood with him. One writer sets that scene beside our verse:
On the young king's part this was all real, no doubt. But you only have to read the earlier part of Jeremiah's prophecy to see how hypocritical it was with most of the people... They had entered into covenants with the Lord before with great enthusiasm, and the result was always the same — breakdown, and a wider departure from God than ever before.
God gives the two sisters different names. Israel is the backslider; Judah is the treacherous one. The difference is not the amount of sin but how much each one knew:
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was even more treacherous. She knew better, yet she despised the warning and sinned even more boldly.
Israel broke away openly. Judah kept the temple and the forms:
Judah as a nation still claimed to be true, because they held on to the house of David, and outwardly to the temple and the worship of Jehovah. Yet in heart they were as rebellious as the Israelites... The hypocrisy of Judah was more hateful to God than Israel's open desertion of Him. God had His faithful few in both kingdoms.
The verse turns on the phrase "not with her whole heart." God wanted honesty, not a better performance:
God would rather have reality, even if our souls are far off, than unreality — a nearness we claim but are not in... The Lord will not accept anything that is not real.
The reform did not last. God would not rest in it, and His reason shows what He looks for:
The reformation was the last effort of the Spirit of God to restore the people as a nation, and it was followed by the dreadful relapse in the time of the sons of Josiah... But why could God not rest in the improved outward state of the kingdom of Judah in Josiah's day? He looked beneath the surface. He looked for reality, for a tender conscience, for a heart that submits to His word — and He did not find them... God will never be satisfied with anything less than thoroughness.
A movement in a good direction always gathers a crowd, and God still reads each heart inside it:
Many claimed to follow the King in his holy zeal. But Jehovah, who knows the secrets of every heart, said, "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense" (Jer. 3:10). In all ages the people love to move with the tide. If the tide flows in the right direction, many will go with it — outwardly. If it flows the wrong way, most will go with it eagerly.
The verdict is not the end of the chapter. God exposes the false return, then calls for a true one, and the way back is short:
"Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God"... There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession... See how tender the call is: "Return, O faithless children, declares the LORD; for I am your master."
- Reform — Josiah tore down the idols and restored the worship. Inside the people, it changed nothing.
- Pretense — Judah did return in public, but "not with her whole heart." The covenant was real in the king and false in the crowd.
- Treachery — Israel sinned in the open, and God calls her backsliding. Judah sinned while keeping the temple and the forms, and God calls her treacherous, because she knew better.
- Reality — God prefers honest distance to a nearness we only claim. He looks beneath the surface for a tender conscience, and will not settle for less.
- Return — the same chapter that exposes the false turning calls for a true one. It asks only that we acknowledge our sin.
And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding Israel hath shewn herself more just than treacherous Judah.
Josiah was busy reforming Judah when God handed down a shocking verdict: the northern kingdom, exiled long before for open idolatry, came out better than Judah with her temple and her prophets. Why would God rate open sin above careful religion — and what does He do next with the sister He has just called worse?
The verdict has a date. Judah was in the middle of a national reform.
This section is an appeal to Jerusalem, with exhortations to repentance, and warnings about what had happened to Israel. It was given in the days of Josiah, when there had been a reformation, but they had not turned to God with the whole heart: backsliding Israel had justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
Another writer states what that reform was worth.
It is in this chapter that we have the solemn revelation that, as far as the people were concerned, the reformation under Josiah was only hypocrisy.
(Older translations read "has justified herself more than treacherous Judah," and the writers below often use that wording. The sense is comparative: God is not calling Israel innocent.)
Israel's sin was public, and God had already judged it. Judah watched that happen and went the same way. That is why God calls her treacherous.
Israel's uncleanness was notorious, and God had called her back in vain. But Judah was more treacherous still. She despised the warning though she knew better, and sinned even more shamelessly.
The two kingdoms sinned in different ways. One walked out in the open. The other kept up the forms with the heart elsewhere.
Israel as a nation rebelled against God. Judah as a nation kept up the profession, since they held to the house of David and outwardly to the temple and worship of Jehovah. Yet in heart they were as rebellious as the Israelites. God said of them, "This people draws near with their lips, but their heart is far from Me." Judah's hypocrisy was more hateful to God than Israel's open rebellion. God had His remnant in both kingdoms.
The comparison is not about which sin looks worse. It is about what God accepts.
God would rather have reality, even if our souls are at a distance, than unreality and a professed nearness when we are not in it. There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear." "Judah has not returned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretence, says the Lord." There is a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real. In King Josiah's day there had been a revival. You would think that they had really turned to the Lord, but it was simply the effect of Josiah's influence. It was only pretence.
This verdict does not close the case. It also weighs what Judah's promises under Josiah were worth.
In Jeremiah 3 we have a pleading of the Lord with them. He shows them that, bad as Israel might have been, Judah — who had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah — would turn out no better. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
The call that follows the verdict asks for one thing.
"Only acknowledge your iniquity." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." The call is tender: "Turn, O backsliding children, says the Lord, for I am married to you."
God aimed this call at exiles who had been gone for a century, and He is not finished with them.
Here is a message to be proclaimed toward the north, calling on backsliding Israel to return. He promises mercy to them. One hundred years before, the house of Israel had gone northward as captives. The Lord knew where they lived and sent them this message of mercy. He knows today where the house of Israel is, the ten tribes, and at some future time the gracious offer given here will be fulfilled in their return.
- Real — God will not accept anything that is not real. Judah's return was only pretence.
- Religion — Judah kept the temple and the worship, and sinned anyway. God found her hypocrisy more hateful than Israel's open rebellion.
- Reform — Josiah's revival was the effect of the king's influence, not a turning of the heart.
- Return — God sends mercy north to exiles He had already judged. His one condition: acknowledge your iniquity.
- Remnant — God had His own in both kingdoms, and the offer of return still waits for a future day.
Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith Jehovah I will not make my face dark upon you; for I am merciful, saith Jehovah; I will not keep [anger] for ever.
God speaks these words to a people already scattered. The northern kingdom had gone north as captives, and God now sends this call after them. So the verse raises two questions. How can God invite back a people He has already judged? And why does He base that invitation on His own character rather than on anything they have done?
(The ESV says "faithless Israel." Older translations say "backsliding Israel." The writers quoted below use that older wording.)
God sends the message in one direction. That direction has a history.
Here is a message to proclaim toward the north, calling on backsliding Israel to return. He promises mercy to them. One hundred years before, the house of Israel had gone northward as captives. The Lord knew where they lived, and He sent them this message of mercy. He knows today where the house of Israel is, the ten tribes. At some future time the gracious offer given here will be completed in their return.
Just before this call, God says that faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. One writer explains that comparison.
Israel's uncleanness was well known, and God had called her back without result. But Judah was even more treacherous. She despised the warning, though she knew better, and sinned even more boldly.
Israel sinned in the open. Judah kept up appearances. God prefers the first.
God would rather have what is real, even if our souls are far from Him, than what is unreal — a nearness we claim but are not actually in. There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear." "Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD." We get a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
The term first appears in chapter 2 and then dominates chapter 3. It is not a word of dismissal.
Now here is the first time we get the word "backsliding." You then find the expression again in verses 6, 8, 11, 12, 14, and 22 of Jeremiah 3. It is the characteristic word in the early part of Jeremiah. But the word assumes recovery. It assumes the heart will turn back to God, because that is what the Lord wants. He longs to have us very near Him.
God gives a reason for holding back His anger, and that reason lies in Himself, not in Israel. The chapter opens by showing how far gone the people were.
God, however, is nowhere more Himself than in His mercy and pity toward His fallen people. A man could not take back the wife who had left him for another. Israel had been unfaithful with many lovers, and still the Lord says: return to me. He points out how often and how shamelessly they had been unfaithful, even while they called Him the father and guide of their youth. But whatever they said, they persevered in evil-doing.
The same writer says when that mercy appears.
He shows them that Judah would turn out no better than Israel, bad as Israel had been. Judah had held out for a time and had made fair promises under King Josiah. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
The call does not come with a list of conditions. Verse 13 names a single one.
Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say: God has spoken to my soul through His Word. I am drinking at broken cisterns. How am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession.
Verse 14 supplies the reason underneath verse 12 — He is married to them.
The whole history of Israel as a nation proves that the Lord hates sending His people away. If He did not hate it, He would have renounced Israel long ago, and many times over. They broke His covenant again and again, and so lost every claim on His favour and love. But He bore with them with great patience, for His gifts and His calling are never taken back. In the prophets He kept reminding them that He was joined to them, that He was married to them, and that He could not cast them off.
- Return — the word. "Backsliding" already points to a way back. The name God gives the wanderer leans toward her coming home.
- Return — the cause. The anger is withheld "for I am merciful." The reason sits in God's character, not in Israel's record.
- Return — the condition. One thing only: acknowledge the wrongdoing. Confession, not repair work, is the road back.
- Return — the reach. God aims the message north, at exiles carried away a century before. He knows where they are.
- Return — the ground. He is married to them. That bond, not their faithfulness, is why the call keeps coming.
Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against Jehovah thy God, and hast turned thy ways hither and thither to the strangers under every green tree; and ye have not hearkened to my voice, saith Jehovah.
God speaks here to Israel, the ten northern tribes. He had already put them away for their unfaithfulness. Now He names the one condition for their return. It is startling how little He asks: an honest owning of what they have done.
This call comes after a long list of charges against the nation. God exposes both kingdoms before He invites either one home.
I need not dwell on the bitter charges of the prophet. The Jews did a double evil. They forsook the Lord, the only source of living waters. They turned instead to cisterns that could hold no water, rushing into idolatry and all its corrupting influences. But in Jeremiah 3 we have a pleading of the Lord with them. He shows them that bad as Israel might have been, Judah would turn out no better. Judah had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
Just before this call, God sets the two kingdoms side by side. Israel sinned in the open. Judah made a show of returning, but her heart was not in it. That contrast explains why God asks first for honesty.
God would rather have reality, even though our souls are at a distance, than unreality and a claimed nearness we are not in. There was open backsliding and rebellion on the part of the ten tribes. But what did Judah do? "Judah did not fear." "Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD." There is a great lesson there. The Lord will not have anything but what is real.
The verse points to what they did "under every green tree." That was not a private failure. It covered the whole land.
High places for idol worship dotted the whole land, and in the shade of every green tree the people carried on the detestable practices of the nations. These unholy and unclean rites deserved the name the prophets so often give them: harlotry. It fits in both senses, the spiritual and the literal. What could God do with such a nation but put them away?
The small word "only" carries the weight of the verse. It marks out a single road home, and one that anyone can take.
Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back? You say, I feel God has spoken to my soul through His Word, I am drinking at broken cisterns — how am I to get back? Listen. "Only acknowledge your guilt." There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." How tender that call is. There was no break of relationship on God's part.
This word came in the days of Josiah, when the nation had turned back to God and blessing had returned. Even then, God did not drop the call to confess.
The historical books of the Old Testament show us how the merciful Lord renewed His blessing whenever the people returned to Him. But if we read the prophets, we see how God searches deeply. He judges the evil that must not remain after the blessing has returned. In the time of Josiah we see a good return of the people towards God, and abundant blessing with it. Even so, at the Lord's command, Jeremiah still says to the people, "Acknowledge your guilt."
What follows the call is a promise far larger than a return from exile. It looks to a day still ahead.
Nothing can be more distinct than this prediction, and nothing more gracious. Here we clearly have God's grace stepping in for the whole people in the last days. That is after both the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and the Babylonian one that was about to happen. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but all of them. He would recall Israel, and He would recall Judah. He would bring them both back into the land. He would bless them there so richly that all the ancient blessing they had known, even what was known under David and Solomon, would fade beside the brighter glory of the whole united people. From that time they would never depart from the Lord again.
- Bottom — God lays every charge first. Then, when a person has sunk to the lowest, He appears in His grace.
- Real — God prefers honest distance to pretended nearness. Judah's return was only "in pretense," and He will not have anything but what is real.
- Only — God asks one thing, and anyone can give it: own the sin. Confession is the single road back.
- Deep — Even a real revival does not cancel this word. God still judges the evil that remains after blessing returns.
- Beyond — On the far side of confession is more than pardon. God brings His whole people home, and they never depart from Him again.
Return, backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you, and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
The Lord calls a runaway people home, on the ground of a bond He still holds. Two questions press: what is that bond, and who are the "one from a city and two from a family" He promises to bring to Zion?
The chapter first sets out Israel's failure. What makes the appeal remarkable is its timing.
I need not dwell on the bitter charges of the prophet. The Jews did a double evil. They forsook the Lord, the only source of living waters. They turned instead to cisterns that could hold no water, running to idolatry and all its corrupting influences. But in Jeremiah 3 we have a pleading of the Lord with them. He shows them that Judah would turn out no better than Israel. Judah had held out for a time and gave fair promises under Josiah. The crisis would surely come; but when a man has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
Another writer sees the same order: judgment first, then grace.
Once judgment has fallen on Israel, God can let His heart flow out in the testimony of grace. This must give a place to Judah as well, since the two are to be united.
The ESV gives God's reason as "for I am your master." The writers here quote older translations, which read "I am a husband to you" or "I am married to you." Either way, God holds Israel in a bond her unfaithfulness did not dissolve — and Isaiah uses the same language.
The Jewish body was so married — "for I am married to you, says Jehovah" (Jer. 3:14; Isa. 54:4-6). "For your Maker is your husband; Jehovah has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when you were refused, says your God."
One writer uses this verse to mark a difference between what Israel had with the Lord and what the church has now.
The prophet Jeremiah addressed Israel as married to Jehovah (ch. 3:14). But the Church is only promised in marriage; the wedding is still ahead.
The call is to return, and the verse just before names what returning involves.
Backslider! He called them then, and told them to come back. Now He calls you back. You might ask, How can I get back?... Listen: "Only acknowledge your iniquity" (Jer. 3:13). There is only one way back, and what is it? Confession. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). What a tender call it is.
"One from a city and two from a family" sounds like a thin harvest. God picks them out one by one, yet what He gathers is a whole nation restored.
Nothing can be more distinct than this prediction, nor more gracious. Here God's grace steps in for the whole people in the latter day. That is after the Assyrian captivity, which had already happened, and after the Babylonian one, which was still to come. After all that, God would recall His people — not part of them, but the whole of them. He would recall Israel and He would recall Judah. He would bring them both back into the land. He would bless them there so richly that even the ancient blessing they once had — the ark of the covenant, and all that was known under David and Solomon — would pass away. It would be completely outshone by the brighter glory of the whole united people in the latter day. And from that time they would never leave the Lord again.
One writer places the fulfilment of this promise ahead of us, not behind.
The call which follows is a call to return and confess to the One who is married to them. It looks on to a future day. Then the ark of the covenant of the Lord will be outshone by a greater glory, and the true King will reign... This has never yet taken place, as we know. It supposes the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to Israel as David's greater Son. Their conscience will be truly reached then, and they will return to the One they had forsaken and forgotten.
- Bond — the appeal rests on a tie God still owns. He speaks as a husband to a wife who left Him, and her unfaithfulness did not cancel it.
- Bottom — the call comes after the failure is complete: when a person has sunk to the lowest, God appears in His grace.
- Confession — there is one way back. Own the sin, and God forgives and cleanses.
- Gathering — He takes them one from a city and two from a family. Yet the whole people come to Zion, never to leave again.
- Fulfilment — none of this has happened yet. Writers point to the return of Christ as David's greater Son, when Israel's conscience answers at last.