Jeremiah 3
3
Sin and Shame
1The Lord said to the people of Israel:
If a divorced woman marries,
can her first husband
ever marry her again?
No, because this
would pollute the land.
But you have more gods
than a prostitute has lovers.
Why should I take you back?
2Just try to find one hilltop
where you haven't gone
to worship other gods
by having sex.#3.2 hilltop … sex: See the note at 2.20.
You sat beside the road
like a robber in ambush,
except you offered yourself
to every passerby.
Your sins of unfaithfulness
have polluted the land.
3So I, the Lord, refused
to let the spring rains fall.
But just like a prostitute,
you still have no shame
for what you have done.
4You call me your father
or your long-lost friend;
5you beg me to stop being angry,
but you won't stop sinning.
The Lord Asks Israel To Come Back to Him
6 #
2 K 22.1—23.30; 2 Ch 34.1—35.27. When Josiah#3.6 Josiah: Ruled 640–609 b.c. was king, the Lord said:
Jeremiah, the kingdom of Israel#3.6 Israel: The northern kingdom (see the note at 2.4). was like an unfaithful wife who became a prostitute on the hilltops and in the shade of large trees.#3.6 prostitute … trees: See the note at 2.20. 7-8I knew that the kingdom of Israel had been unfaithful and committed many sins, yet I still hoped she might come back to me. But she didn't, so I divorced her and sent her away.
Her sister, the kingdom of Judah, saw what happened, but she wasn't worried in the least, and I watched her become unfaithful like her sister. 9The kingdom of Judah wasn't sorry for being a prostitute, and she didn't care that she had made both herself and the land unclean by worshiping idols of stone and wood. 10And worst of all, the people of Judah pretended to come back to me. 11Even the people of Israel were honest enough not to pretend.
12Jeremiah, shout toward the north:
Israel, I am your Lord—
come back to me!
You were unfaithful
and made me furious,
but I am merciful,
and so I will forgive you.
13Just admit that you rebelled
and worshiped foreign gods
under large trees everywhere.
14You are unfaithful children,
but you belong to me.
Come home!
I'll take one or two of you
from each town and clan
and bring you to Zion.
15Then I'll appoint wise rulers
who will obey me,
and they will care for you
like shepherds.
16You will increase in numbers,
and there will be no need
to remember the sacred chest
or to make a new one.#3.16 make a new one: The sacred chest was probably destroyed or taken away by the Babylonians when they captured Jerusalem in 586 b.c.
17The whole city of Jerusalem
will be my throne.#3.16,17 sacred chest … throne: The sacred chest was thought to be God's throne on earth.
All nations will come here
to worship me,
and they will no longer follow
their stubborn, evil hearts.
18Then, in countries to the north,
you people of Judah and Israel
will be reunited,
and you will return to the land
I gave your ancestors.
19I have always wanted
to treat you as my children
and give you the best land,
the most beautiful on earth.
I wanted you to call me “Father”
and not turn from me.
20But instead, you are like a wife
who broke her wedding vows.
You have been unfaithful to me.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
The People Confess Their Sins
The Lord said:
21Listen to the noise
on the hilltops!
It's the people of Israel,
weeping and begging me
to answer their prayers.
They forgot about me
and chose the wrong path.
22I will tell them, “Come back,
and I will cure you
of your unfaithfulness.”
They will answer,
“We will come back, because you
are the Lord our God.
23On hilltops, we worshiped idols
and made loud noises,
but it was all for nothing—
only you can save us.
24Since the days of our ancestors
when our nation was young,
that shameful god Baal#3.24 that shameful god Baal: The Hebrew text has “The Shame,” which was sometimes used as a way of making fun of the Canaanite god Baal. has taken
our crops and livestock,
our sons and daughters.
25We have rebelled against you
just like our ancestors,
and we are ashamed of our sins.”
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.
Yirmeyah 3
3
1They say, If an ish put away [in divorce] his isha, and she go from him, and become another manʼs, shall he return unto her again? Shall not that eretz be defiled and forbidden? But thou hast played the zonah with re'im rabbim (many lovers); yet shuv (turn) to Me, saith Hashem.
2Lift up thine eyes unto the hilltops, and see! Where hast thou not been lain with? In the drakhim (ways, roads) hast thou sat [waiting] for them, as the nomad in the midbar; and thou hast defiled the eretz with thy zenut (whoredom, prostitution) and with thy ra'ah (wickedness).
3Therefore the revivim (showers) have been withheld, and there hath been no malkosh (latter rain, spring rain); and thou hadst a metzach isha zonah (whoreʼs forehead), and thou refusedst to blush with shame.
4Wilt thou not from this time cry unto Me, Avi, Thou art the Alluf (Guide, Friend) of my neurim (youth)?
5Will He reserve His anger l'olam? Will He keep it lanetzach? Hinei, this is what you preach, but you practice all hara'ot (the evils) you can.
6 Hashem said also unto me in the days of Yoshiyah HaMelech, Hast thou seen that which meshuvah Yisroel (backsliding Yisroel) hath done? She is gone up upon every high hill and under every green tree, and there hath played the zonah.
7And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto Me. But she returned not. And her treacherous achot Yehudah saw it.#3:7 i.e., saw Israelʼs refusal to renounce fertility cult idolatry
8And I saw, when for all the causes whereby meshuvah Yisroel (backsliding Yisroel) committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her a sefer keritut (bill of divorce); yet her treacherous achot Yehudah feared not, but went and played the zonah also.
9And it came to pass through the lightness with which she#3:9 Yisroel took her zenut (whoredom), that she defiled HaAretz, and committed adultery with HaEven (the Stone)#3:9 of the fertility cult of Ba'al worship and with HaEtz (the Wood).#3:9 of the fertility cult of Ba'al worship
10And yet for all this her treacherous achot Yehudah hath not returned unto Me with her kol lev, but in sheker (falsity, pretense, an insincere religious spirit), saith Hashem.
11And Hashem said unto me, Meshuvah Yisroel hath come nearer to justifying herself than treacherous Yehudah.
12Go and proclaim these devarim toward the north, and say, Return, thou meshuvah Yisroel, saith Hashem; and I will not cast down Mine anger to fall upon you; for I am chasid (displaying chesed, mercy), saith Hashem, and I will not keep anger l'olam.
13Only acknowledge thine avon (iniquity, guilt of wrongdoing), that thou hast rebelled against Hashem your G-d, and hast scattered thy favors to the zarim under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed My voice, saith Hashem.
14Shuvu (Turn), O banim shovaviv (backsliding children), saith Hashem; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one from a town, and two from a mishpakhah, and I will bring you to Tziyon:
15And I will give you ro'im according to Mine lev, which shall feed you with da'as and seichel.
16And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in HaAretz, in those days, saith Hashem, they shall say no more, The Aron Brit Hashem: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they ask for it; neither shall another be fashioned.
17At that time they shall call Yerushalayim the Kisse Hashem; and all the Goyim shall be gathered unto it, to the Shem Hashem, to Yerushalayim; neither shall they walk any more after the sherirut libam harah (the stubbornness of their evil heart).
18In those days Bais Yehudah shall walk with Bais Yisroel, and they shall come together out of the eretz tzafon to HaAretz that I have given for a nachalah unto Avoteichem.
19But I said, How shall I set thee among the banim, and give thee an eretz chemdah (a land of desire), the most beautiful nachalah of the Goyim? And I said, Thou shalt call Me, Avi; and shalt not turn back from following Me.
20Surely as an isha treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with Me, O Bais Yisroel, saith Hashem.
21A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and tachanunei Bnei Yisroel (supplications of the Children of Israel); for they have perverted their derech, and they have forgotten Hashem Eloheihem.
22Shuvu (return), ye banim shovavim (backsliding children), and I will heal your meshuvot (backslidings). Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art Hashem Eloheinu.
23Truly in sheker is Salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly in Hashem Eloheinu is the Teshu'at Yisroel (Salvation of Israel).
24For HaBoshet (the Shame),#3:24 i.e. the Ba'al fertility cult false religion hath devoured the labor of Avoteinu from ne'ureinu (our youth): their tzon and their bakar, their banim and their banot.
25We lie down in our Boshet (Shame), and kelimateinu (our humiliation) covereth us; for we have sinned against Hashem Eloheinu, we and Avoteinu, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of Hashem Eloheinu.
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