Return ... backsliding--Hebrew, Shubah, Meshubah, a play on sounds. In order to excite Judah to godly jealousy ([Ro 11:14]), Jehovah addresses the exiled ten tribes of Israel with a loving invitation.
cause ... anger to fall--literally, "I will not let fall My countenance" (compare [Ge 4:5], ; [Job 29:3]), that is, I will not continue to frown on you.
keep--"anger" is to be supplied (see on [Jr 3:5]).
13. Only acknowledge--([De 30:1], ; [Pr 28:13]).
scattered thy ways, &c.--([Jr 2:25]). Not merely the calves at Beth-el, but the idols in every direction, were the objects of their worship ([Eze 16:15], [24, 25]).
14. I am married--literally, "I am Lord," that is, husband to you (so [Jr 31:32]; compare [Ho 2:19], 20; [Is 54:5]). Gesenius, following the Septuagint version of [Jr 31:32], and Paul's quotation of it ([He 8:9]), translates, "I have rejected you"; so the corresponding Arabic, and the idea of lordship, may pass into that of looking down upon, and so rejecting. But the Septuagint in this passage translates, "I will be Lord over you." And the "for" has much more force in English Version than in that of Gesenius. The Hebrew hardly admits the rendering though [Hengstenberg].
take you one of a city--Though but one or two Israelites were in a (foreign) city, they shall not be forgotten; all shall be restored ([Am 9:9]). So, in the spiritual Israel, God gathers one convert here, another there, into His Church; not the least one is lost ([Mt 18:14]; [Ro 11:5]; compare [Jr 24:5-7]).
family--a clan or tribe.
15. pastors--not religious, but civil rulers, as Zerubbabel, Nehemiah ([Jr 23:4]; 2:8).
16. they shall say no more--The Jews shall no longer glory in the possession of the ark; it shall not be missed, so great shall be the blessings of the new dispensation. The throne of the Lord, present Himself, shall eclipse and put out of mind the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat between the cherubim, God's former throne. The ark, containing the two tables of the law, disappeared at the Babylonian captivity, and was not restored to the second temple, implying that the symbolical "glory" was to be superseded by a "greater glory" ([Hag 2:9]).
neither ... visit it--rather, "neither shall it be missed" (so in [Jr 23:4]).
done--rather, "neither shall it (the ark) be made (that is, be restored) any more" [Maurer].
17. Jerusalem--the whole city, not merely the temple. As it has been the center of the Hebrew theocracy, so it shall be the point of attraction to the whole earth ([Is 2:2-4]; [Zec 2:10], ; 14:16-21).
throne of ... Lord--The Shekinah, the symbol of God's peculiar nearness to Israel ([De 4:7]) shall be surpassed by the antitype, God's own throne in Jerusalem ([Psa 2:6], ; [Eze 34:23], ; [Zec 2:5]).
imagination--rather, as Margin, "the obstinacy" or stubbornness.
18. Judah ... Israel ... together--Two distinct apostasies, that of Israel and that of Judah, were foretold ([Jr 3:8], ). The two have never been united since the Babylonish captivity; therefore their joint restoration must be still future ([Is 11:12], ; [Eze 37:16-22]; [Ho 1:11]).
north--([Jr 3:12]).
land ... given ... inheritance--([Am 9:15]).
19. The good land covenanted to Abraham is to be restored to his seed. But the question arises, How shall this be done?
put ... among ... children--the Greek for adoption means, literally, "putting among the sons."
the children--that is, My children. "How shall I receive thee back into My family, after thou hast so long forsaken Me for idols?" The answer is, they would acknowledge Him as "Father," and no longer turn away from Him. God assumes the language of one wondering how so desperate apostates could be restored to His family and its privileges (compare [Eze 37:3]; Calvin makes it, How the race of Abraham can be propagated again, being as it were dead); yet as His purpose has decreed it so, He shows how it shall be effected, namely, they shall receive from Him the spirit of adoption to cry, "My Father" ([Joh 1:12]; [Ga 4:6]). The elect are "children" already in God's purpose; this is the ground of the subsequent realization of this relationship ([Ep 1:5]; [He 2:13]).
pleasant land--([Jr 11:5]; [Eze 20:6]; [Da 11:16], Margin).
heritage of ... hosts--a heritage the most goodly of all nations [Maurer]; or a "heritage possessed by powerful hosts" ([De 4:38]; [Am 2:9]). The rendering "splendors," instead of "hosts," is opposed by the fact that the Hebrew for "splendor" is not found in the plural.
20. Surely--rather, "But."
husband--literally, "friend."
21. In harmony with the preceding promises of God, the penitential confessions of Israel are heard.
high places--The scene of their idolatries is the scene of their confessions. Compare [Jr 3:23], in which they cast aside their trust in these idolatrous high places. The publicity of their penitence is also implied (compare [Jr 7:29]; ).
22. Jehovah's renewed invitation ([Jr 3:12], ) and their immediate response.
heal--forgive ([2Ch 30:18], ; [Ho 14:4]).
unto thee--rather, "in obedience to thee"; literally, "for thee" [Rosenmuller].
23. multitude of mountains--that is, the multitude of gods worshipped on them (compare [Psa 121:1], 2, Margin).
24. shame--that is, the idols, whose worship only covers us with shame ([Jr 11:13]; [Ho 9:10]). So far from bringing us "salvation," they have cost us our cattle and even our children, whom we have sacrificed to them.
25. ([Ezr 9:7]).
Chapter 4
Jr 4:1-31. Continuation of Address to the Ten Tribes of Israel. (Jr 4:1, 2). The Prophet Turns Again to Judah, to Whom He Had Originally Been Sent (Jr 4:3-31)
1. return ... return--play on words. "If thou wouldest return to thy land (thou must first), return (by conversion and repentance) to Me."
not remove--no longer be an unsettled wanderer in a strange land. So Cain ([Ge 4:12], ).
2. And thou--rather, "And if (carried on from [Jr 4:1]) thou shalt swear, 'Jehovah liveth,' in truth, &c.", that is, if thou shalt worship Him (for we swear by the God whom we worship; compare [De 6:13]; ; [Is 19:18]; [Am 8:14]) in sincerity, &c.
and the nations--Rather, this is apodosis to the "if"; then shall the nations bless themselves in (by) Him" ([Is 65:16]). The conversion of the nations will be the consequence of Israel's conversion ([Psa 102:13], ; [Ro 11:12], ).
3. Transition to Judah. Supply mentally. All which (the foregoing declaration as to Israel) applies to Judah.
and Jerusalem--that is, and especially the men of Jerusalem, as being the most prominent in Judea.
Break ... fallow ground--that is, Repent of your idolatry, and so be prepared to serve the Lord in truth ([Ho 10:12]; [Mt 13:7]). The unhumbled heart is like ground which may be improved, being let out to us for that purpose, but which is as yet fallow, overgrown with weeds, its natural product.
4. Remove your natural corruption of heart ([De 10:16]; ; [Ro 2:29]; [Col 2:11]).
5. cry, gather together--rather, "cry fully" that is, loudly. The Jews are warned to take measures against the impending Chaldean invasion (compare [Jr 8:14]).
6. Zion--The standard toward Zion intimated that the people of the surrounding country were to fly to it, as being the strongest of their fortresses.