The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah

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“People know that if a man divorces his wife and then she marries another man, her first husband certainly must not take her back again to be his wife again. (Deut 24:1-4) She would be ceremonially unclean and she has broken the law of Yahweh. This nation is like this woman. But you have more idols than prostitutes have men whom they have slept with! So, why should I accept you if you return to me? It is Yahweh who says this.

“Look up at the barren hilltops. On every hilltop you have given yourselves to the idols in the way a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. You sat along the roadsides like an Arab nomad who is always waiting in the desert for someone to come; but you are waiting to have sex with those who pass by. Your unfaithfulness is the worship of idols, and your prostitution is just like your idol worship. The whole land is made unacceptable to Yahweh, and your worship of idols is your prostitution and your wickedness is what made you unclean.

That is why I have not sent you any rain at the times of the year when you needed it. But you are like prostitutes who are not at all ashamed for what they have done.

Now each of you says to me, ’You are my father! You have loved me ever since I was young!

So surely you will not be angry with me forever!’ You promised you would not obey me, and you did what you said! And you sinned over and over again! But you will not quit sinning!”

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

One day when Josiah was the king of Judah, Yahweh said to me, “Have you seen what the people of Israel have done? They have turned away from me, like a woman who has abandoned her husband and sleeps with other men. They have gone up on every hilltop and under every shady tree and worshiped idols there.

I thought that they would return to me, but they did not. And their brothers, the people of Judah, were watching all of this.

So I sent the people of Israel away to other countries, as a man writes a note saying that he is divorcing his wife and then sends her away because she has committed adultery. But I realized that, just as the people of Israel, the people of Judah were not at all afraid of me. Instead, they acted just as the people of Israel had done. They also turned away from me and began worshiping idols, just as women who leave their husbands and go to other men.

They did not care that worshiping idols offended me, so they have made the entire land unacceptable to me by worshiping idols of wood and stone.

The people of Judah have pretended to return to me, but they have not been sincere. This is true because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

A Call to Repentance

(Hosea 14:1–3; Zechariah 1:1–6)

Then Yahweh said to me, “Jeremiah, the people of Israel have turned away from me, but what the people of Judah have done is worse.

So go and tell this to the people of Israel, ’Yahweh says this to you Israelite people who have turned away from him: I am merciful. I will not continue to be angry with you forever. So return to me.

But you must admit that you are guilty, and that you have rebelled against me, Yahweh, your God, that you have worshiped idols under big trees everywhere, and you have not obeyed me. You have turned away from me.

But you belong to me, so come back to me, my children! If you do, I will take you, one from each city and two from each clan, and bring you back to Jerusalem.

If you do that, I will appoint for you leaders with whom I am pleased who will guide you well because they will know and understand what pleases me.

And when you become very numerous in your land, you will not need to talk about the Sacred Chest that contained the Ten Commandments. You will not think about it, and you will not want to make a new one.’

At that time people will say that my throne is in Jerusalem. People from all nations will come there to worship me, and they will no longer stubbornly do the evil things that they desire in their inner beings.

At that time you people of Israel and Judah will return from being exiled in lands to the north. You will return to the land that I gave to your ancestors to belong to them forever.

You people of Israel, I wanted to accept you to be my children. I wanted to give you this delightful land. It is a land more desirable than the land of any other nation! I wanted you to call me your father, and I wanted you to never stop honoring me.

But you have abandoned me like women who have abandoned their husbands.” That is what Yahweh said, and I told it to the people of Israel.

Then God said, “People will hear a noise on the barren hilltops. It will be the noise made by people weeping and pleading for God to be merciful to them. They will be admitting that they have forgotten Yahweh their God, and that they turned away from behaving as God wanted them to.

You Israelite people, come back to me! If you do that, I will cause you to never turn away from me again.” The people will reply, “We are returning to you, because you are Yahweh, our God.

When we worshiped idols on the mountains, we did not get any help. Even though we shouted very loudly in our worship, every promise we believed turned out to be lies and only lies. We now know that trusting in Yahweh our God is the only way Israel will be rescued!

From the time when we were young, the shameful god Baal has taken away from us everything that our ancestors worked hard to acquire. He has taken away their flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, their sons and their daughters.

So, now we should lie down feeling very ashamed, because we and our ancestors have sinned against Yahweh our God, and we have never obeyed him.”

“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says the LORD.

“Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed.

Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’?

“‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.”

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

Moreover, the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there.

I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute.

Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.

Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says the LORD.

A Call to Repentance

(Hosea 14:1–3; Zechariah 1:1–6)

The LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says the LORD. ‘I will not keep anger forever.

Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the LORD your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’” says the LORD.

“Return, backsliding children,” says the LORD, “for I am a husband to you. I will take one of you from a city, and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

It will come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “they will no longer say, ‘the ark of the LORD’s covenant!’ It will not come to mind. They won’t remember it. They won’t miss it, nor will another be made.

At that time they will call Jerusalem ‘The LORD’s Throne;’ and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the LORD’s name, to Jerusalem. They will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

“But I said, ‘How I desire to put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!’ and I said, ‘You shall call me “My Father”, and shall not turn away from following me.’

“Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says the LORD.

A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.

Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are the LORD our God.

Truly help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains, is in vain. Truly the salvation of Israel is in the LORD our God.

But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the LORD our God’s voice.”