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1“If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him and becomes another man’s wife,
he may not take her back again.
Doing that would utterly defile the land.
But you, Israel, have given yourself as a prostitute to many gods.
So what makes you think you can return to me?”
says the Lord .
2“Look up at the hilltops and consider this.[#tn Heb “and see.”]
You have had sex with other gods on every one of them.
You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert.
You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods.
3That is why the rains have been withheld,
and the spring rains have not come.
Yet in spite of this you are obstinate as a prostitute.
You refuse to be ashamed of what you have done.
4Even now you say to me, ‘You are my father![#tn Heb “Have you not just now called out to me, ‘[you are] my father!’?” The rhetorical question expects a positive answer.]
You have been my faithful companion ever since I was young.
5You will not always be angry with me, will you?
You will not be mad at me forever, will you?’
That is what you say,
but you continually do all the evil that you can.”
6When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods.[#tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.; #tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.]
7Yet even after she had done all that, I thought that she might come back to me. But she did not. Her sister, unfaithful Judah, saw what she did.[#tn Or “I said to her, ‘Come back to me!’” The verb אָמַר (’amar) usually means “to say,” but here it means “to think,” of an assumption that turns out to be wrong (so HALOT 66.4 s.v. אמר); cf. Gen 44:28; Jer 3:19; Pss 82:6; 139:11; Job 29:18; Ruth 4:4; Lam 3:18.sn Open theists suggest that passages such as this indicate God has limited foreknowledge; however, more traditional theologians view this passage as an extended metaphor in which God presents himself as a deserted husband, hoping against hope that his adulterous wife might return to him. The point of the metaphor is not to make an assertion about God’s foreknowledge, but to develop the theme of God’s heartbreak due to Israel’s unrepentance.; #tn The words “what she did” are not in the text but are implicit from the context and are supplied in the translation for clarification.]
8She also saw that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods.[#tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.; #tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.; #tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.; #tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.]
9Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.[#tc The translation reads the form as a causative (Hiphil, תַּהֲנֵף, tahanef) with some of the versions in place of the simple stative (Qal, תֶּחֱנַף, tekhenaf) in the MT.; #tn Heb “because of the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.”]
10In spite of all this, Israel’s sister, unfaithful Judah, has not turned back to me with any sincerity; she has only pretended to do so,” says the Lord .[#tn Heb “And even in all this.”; #tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”]
11Then the Lord said to me, “Under the circumstances, wayward Israel could even be considered less guilty than unfaithful Judah.[#tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel who had no such advantage.]
12“Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. Tell them,[#tn Heb “Go and proclaim these words to the north.” The translation assumes that the message is directed toward the exiles of northern Israel who have been scattered in the provinces of Assyria to the north.]
‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the Lord .
‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure.
For I am merciful,’ says the Lord .
‘I will not be angry with you forever.
13However, you must confess that you have done wrong,[#tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”]
and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.
You must confess that you have given yourself to foreign gods under every green tree,
and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord .
14“Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord , “for I am your true master. If you do, I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.[#tn Or “I am your true husband.”sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the Lord as Israel’s true master/husband versus Baal as Israel’s illegitimate lover/master. See 2:23-25.; #tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.]
15I will give you leaders who will be faithful to me. They will lead you with knowledge and insight.[#tn Heb “shepherds.”; #tn Heb “after/according to my [own] heart.”]
16In those days, your population will greatly increase in the land. At that time,” says the Lord , “people will no longer talk about having the ark that contains the Lord ’s covenant with us. They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more![#tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”; #tn Or “chest.”; #tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the Lord, cf. Exod 31:18; 32:15; 34:29.; #tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”]
17At that time the city of Jerusalem will be called the Lord ’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the Lord ’s name. They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts.[#map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.; #tn Heb “will gather to the name of the Lord.”; #tn Heb “the stubbornness of their evil hearts.”]
18At that time the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession. ”[#tn Heb “In those days.”; #tn Heb “the house of Judah will walk together with the house of Israel.”; #tn Heb “the land that I gave your [fore]fathers as an inheritance.”]
19“I thought to myself,[#tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.]
‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son!
What a joy it would be for me to give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’
I thought you would call me, ‘Father’
and would never cease being loyal to me.
20But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel,[#tn Heb “house of Israel.”]
like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,”
says the Lord .
21“A noise is heard on the hilltops.
It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.
Indeed they have followed sinful ways;
they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God.
22Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness.
Say, ‘Here we are. We come to you
because you are the Lord our God.
23We know our noisy worship of false gods
on the hills and mountains did not help us.
We know that the Lord our God
is the only one who can deliver Israel.
24From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,
has taken away all that our ancestors worked for.
It has taken away our flocks and our herds,
and even our sons and daughters.
25Let us acknowledge our shame.[#tn Heb “Let us lie down in….”]
Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve.
For we have sinned against the Lord our God,
both we and our ancestors.
From earliest times to this very day
we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’