Jeremiah 3:12

The Lord Calls on Israel and Judah to Repent

3:12 “Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. 1  Tell them,

‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the Lord.

‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure. 2 

For I am merciful,’ says the Lord.

‘I will not be angry with you forever.

Jeremiah 49:13

49:13 For I solemnly swear,” 3  says the Lord, “that Bozrah 4  will become a pile of ruins. It will become an object of horror and ridicule, an example to be used in curses. 5  All the towns around it will lie in ruins forever.”

1 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.

2 tn Heb “I will not cause my face to fall on you.”

3 tn Heb “I swear by myself.” See 22:5 and the study note there.

4 sn Bozrah appears to have been the chief city in Edom, its capital city (see its parallelism with Edom in Isa 34:6; 63:1; Jer 49:22). The reference to “its towns” (translated here “all the towns around it”) could then be a reference to all the towns in Edom. It was located about twenty-five miles southeast of the southern end of the Dead Sea apparently in the district of Teman (see the parallelism in Amos 1:12).

5 tn See the study note on 24:9 for the rendering of this term.