3:6 When Josiah was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, you have no doubt seen what wayward Israel has done. 1 You have seen how she went up to every high hill and under every green tree to give herself like a prostitute to other gods. 2
3:12 “Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. 8 Tell them,
‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure. 9
For I am merciful,’ says the Lord.
‘I will not be angry with you forever.
3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. 10 If you do, 11 I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.
3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness. 12
Say, 13 ‘Here we are. We come to you
because you are the Lord our God.
1 tn “Have you seen…” The question is rhetorical and expects a positive answer.
2 tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.
3 tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew
4 tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.
5 tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.
6 tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.
7 tn Heb “Wayward Israel has proven herself to be more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”
sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel who had no such advantage.
8 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.
9 tn Heb “I will not cause my face to fall on you.”
10 tn Or “I am your true husband.”
sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the
11 tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.
12 tn Or “I will forgive your apostasies.” Heb “I will [or want to] heal your apostasies.” For the use of the verb “heal” (רָפָא, rafa’) to refer to spiritual healing and forgiveness see Hos 14:4.
13 tn Or “They say.” There is an obvious ellipsis of a verb of saying here since the preceding words are those of the