Jeremiah 3
3
Your Sex-and-Religion Obsessions
1 God’s Message came to me as follows:
“If a man’s wife
walks out on him
And marries another man,
can he take her back as if nothing had happened?
Wouldn’t that raise a huge stink
in the land?
And isn’t that what you’ve done—
‘whored’ your way with god after god?
And now you want to come back as if nothing had happened.”
God’s Decree.
2-5“Look around at the hills.
Where have you not had sex?
You’ve camped out like hunters stalking deer.
You’ve solicited many lover-gods,
Like a streetwalking whore
chasing after other gods.
And so the rain has stopped.
No more rain from the skies!
But it doesn’t even faze you. Brazen as whores,
you carry on as if you’ve done nothing wrong.
Then you have the nerve to call out, ‘My father!
You took care of me when I was a child. Why not now?
Are you going to keep up your anger nonstop?’
That’s your line. Meanwhile you keep sinning nonstop.”
Admit Your God-Defiance
6-10 God spoke to me during the reign of King Josiah: “You have noticed, haven’t you, how fickle Israel has visited every hill and grove of trees as a whore at large? I assumed that after she had gotten it out of her system, she’d come back, but she didn’t. Her flighty sister, Judah, saw what she did. She also saw that because of fickle Israel’s loose morals I threw her out, gave her her walking papers. But that didn’t faze flighty sister Judah. She went out, big as you please, and took up a whore’s life also. She took up cheap sex-and-religion as a sideline diversion, an indulgent recreation, and used anything and anyone, flouting sanity and sanctity alike, stinking up the country. And not once in all this did flighty sister Judah even give me a nod, although she made a show of it from time to time.” God’s Decree.
11-12a Then God told me, “Fickle Israel was a good sight better than flighty Judah. Go and preach this message. Face north toward Israel and say:
12b-15 “‘Turn back, fickle Israel.
I’m not just hanging back to punish you.
I’m committed in love to you.
My anger doesn’t seethe nonstop.
Just admit your guilt.
Admit your God-defiance.
Admit to your promiscuous life with casual partners,
pulling strangers into the sex-and-religion groves
While turning a deaf ear to me.’”
God’s Decree.
“Come back, wandering children!”
God’s Decree.
“I, yes I, am your true husband.
I’ll pick you out one by one—
This one from the city, these two from the country—
and bring you to Zion.
I’ll give you good shepherd-rulers who rule my way,
who rule you with intelligence and wisdom.
16“And this is what will happen: You will increase and prosper in the land. The time will come”—God’s Decree!—“when no one will say any longer, ‘Oh, for the good old days! Remember the Ark of the Covenant?’ It won’t even occur to anyone to say it—‘the good old days.’ The so-called good old days of the Ark are gone for good.
17“Jerusalem will be the new Ark—‘God’s Throne.’ All the godless nations, no longer stuck in the ruts of their evil ways, will gather there to honor God.
18“At that time, the House of Judah will join up with the House of Israel. Holding hands, they’ll leave the north country and come to the land I willed to your ancestors.
* * *
19-20“I planned what I’d say if you returned to me:
‘Good! I’ll bring you back into the family.
I’ll give you choice land,
land that the godless nations would die for.’
And I imagined that you would say, ‘Dear father!’
and would never again go off and leave me.
But no luck. Like a false-hearted woman walking out on her husband,
you, the whole family of Israel, have proven false to me.”
God’s Decree.
21-22a The sound of voices comes drifting out of the hills,
the unhappy sound of Israel’s crying,
Israel lamenting the wasted years,
never once giving her God a thought.
“Come back, wandering children!
I can heal your wanderlust!”
* * *
22b-25 “We’re here! We’ve come back to you.
You’re our own true God!
All that popular religion was a cheap lie,
duped crowds buying up the latest in gods.
We’re back! Back to our true God,
the salvation of Israel.
The Fraud picked us clean, swindled us
of what our ancestors bequeathed us,
Gypped us out of our inheritance—
God-blessed flocks and God-given children.
We made our bed and now lie in it,
all tangled up in the dirty sheets of dishonor.
All because we sinned against our God,
we and our fathers and mothers.
From the time we took our first steps, said our first words,
we’ve been rebels, disobeying the voice of our God.”
* * *
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Jeremiah 3: MSG
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THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of NavPress. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers.
Jeremiah 3
3
Wages of Apostasy
1If # One Hb ms, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read Saying: If a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him to marry another,
can he ever return to her? # Dt 24:1-4
Wouldn’t such a land # LXX reads woman become totally defiled?
But you!
You have played the prostitute with many partners # Ezk 16:26,28 —
can you return to Me? # Hs 2:7
This is the Lord’s declaration.
2Look to the barren heights # Dt 12:2; Ezk 16:52 and see.
Where have you not been immoral?
You sat waiting for them beside the highways # Gn 38:14; Pr 7:10-12; Ezk 16:25
like a nomad in the desert.
You have defiled the land
with your prostitution and wickedness. # Nm 14:33
3This is why the showers haven’t come # Zch 14:7 —
why there has been no spring rain.
You have the brazen look # Ezk 3:7-8 of a prostitute # Lit have a prostitute’s forehead
and refuse to be ashamed. # Jr 6:15; 8:12
4Have you not lately called to Me, “My Father. # Ex 4:22; Is 1:2; 64:8; Hs 11:1; Gl 4:6
You were my friend in my youth. # Ps 71:17; Hs 2:15
5Will He bear a grudge forever? # Lv 19:18; Ps 103:9; Is 57:16; Nah 1:2
Will He be endlessly infuriated? ”
This is what you have said,
but you have done the evil things
you are capable of.
Unfaithful Israel, Treacherous Judah
6In the days of King Josiah the Lord asked me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there. # Jr 2:20 7I thought: After she has done all these things, she will return to Me. # Hs 14:1 But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah # Ezk 16:46 saw it. 8I # One Hb ms, Syr read She observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. # Dt 24:1-4; Is 50:1; Hs 2:2 Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself. # Ezk 23:11 9Indifferent to # Lit From the lightness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones # Is 57:6 and trees. # Dt 28:36; Jr 2:27; Ezk 20:32; Hab 2:19; Rv 9:20 10Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to Me with all her heart # Hs 7:14 — only in pretense.”
This is the Lord’s declaration.
11The Lord announced to me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. # Ezk 16:51-52; 23:11 12Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say:
Return, unfaithful Israel. # Pr 28:13
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will not look on you with anger, # Lit not cause My face to fall on you
for I am unfailing in My love. # Ps 86:5; 145:17
This is the Lord’s declaration.
I will not be angry forever. # Ps 103:9; Is 57:16; Mc 7:18
13Only acknowledge your guilt # Lv 26:40; 1Jn 1:9 —
you have rebelled against the Lord your God. # 2Kg 18:20; Is 36:5; Jr 2:29
You have scattered your favors to strangers
under every green tree # Dt 12:2; 2Kg 16:4; 2Ch 28:4; Is 57:5; Jr 2:20; 3:6,13; Ezk 20:47
and have not obeyed My voice.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
14“Return, you faithless children” # Hs 14:1 — this is the Lord’s declaration — “for I am your master, # Hs 2:16-17 and I will take you, # Hs 2:19-20 one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15I will give you shepherds who are loyal to Me, # Lit shepherds according to My heart # 1Sm 13:14; Jr 23:4; Ezk 34:23; Ac 20:28; Eph 4:11 and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill. 16When you multiply and increase in the land, # Gn 1:28; Ex 1:12 in those days” — the Lord’s declaration — “no one will say any longer, ‘The ark of the Lord’s covenant.’ # Ex 37:1-9; Dt 31:24-29; 1Kg 8:6 It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. It will never again be made. 17At that time Jerusalem will be called, Yahweh’s Throne, # Ezk 43:7; Rv 22:1,3 and all the nations will be gathered to it, # Is 2:2-4; 43:9; 56:6-7; 66:18; Jr 16:19 to the name of Yahweh in Jerusalem. # Dt 12:5 They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel, # Is 11:12-13; Jr 50:4-5; Ezk 37:15-22; Hs 11:1 and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I have given your ancestors to inherit.” # Am 9:15
True Repentance
19I thought: How I long to make you My sons
and give you a desirable land,
the most beautiful inheritance # Dt 32:8-9; Ps 16:6; Lm 2:15; Ezk 20:6,15 of all the nations.
I thought: You will call Me, my Father,
and never turn away from Me.
20However, as a woman may betray her lover, # Lit friend
so you have betrayed # Ex 21:8-9; Is 48:8; Hs 1:2; 5:7; 6:7 Me, house of Israel.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
21A sound is heard on the barren heights,
the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,
for they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the Lord their God. # Is 17:10
22Return, you faithless children.
I will heal your unfaithfulness. # Is 57:18; Hs 5:15–6:3; 14:1-3
“Here we are, coming to You,
for You are the Lord our God.
23Surely, falsehood comes from the hills,
commotion from the mountains, # Ps 121:1-2
but the salvation of Israel
is only in the Lord our God. # Ps 3:8; Jr 17:5-8
24From the time of our youth
the shameful one # = Baal has consumed
what our fathers have worked for —
their flocks and their herds,
their sons and their daughters.
25Let us lie down in our shame;
let our disgrace cover us. # Jb 8:22; Ezr 9:6
We have sinned against the Lord our God, # Is 64:5; Jr 8:14; 14:7,20; Lm 3:42; 5:16; Dn 9:5
both we and our fathers,
from the time of our youth even to this day. # Ezr 9:7; Ezk 2:3
We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.”
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