Discovery BoxJeremiah 3:12--4:4 
Context3:12 “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.
3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, 3
and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.
You must confess 4 that you have given yourself to 5 foreign gods under every green tree,
and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.
3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. 6 If you do, 7 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. 3:15 I will give you leaders 8 who will be faithful to me. 9 They will lead you with knowledge and insight. 3:16 In those days, your population will greatly increase 10 in the land. At that time,” says the Lord, “people will no longer talk about having the ark 11 that contains the Lord’s covenant with us. 12 They will not call it to mind, remember it, or miss it. No, that will not be done any more! 13 3:17 At that time the city of Jerusalem 14 will be called the Lord’s throne. All nations will gather there in Jerusalem to honor the Lord’s name. 15 They will no longer follow the stubborn inclinations of their own evil hearts. 16 3:18 At that time 17 the nation of Judah and the nation of Israel will be reunited. 18 Together they will come back from a land in the north to the land that I gave to your ancestors as a permanent possession. ” 19
‘Oh what a joy it would be for me to treat you like a son! 21
What a joy it would be for me to give 22 you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful piece of property there is in all the world!’ 23
I thought you would call me, ‘Father’ 24
and would never cease being loyal to me. 25
3:20 But, you have been unfaithful to me, nation of Israel, 26
like an unfaithful wife who has left her husband,” 27
says the Lord.
3:21 “A noise is heard on the hilltops.
It is the sound of the people of Israel crying and pleading to their gods.
Indeed they have followed sinful ways; 28
they have forgotten to be true to the Lord their God. 29
3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness. 30
Say, 31 ‘Here we are. We come to you
because you are the Lord our God.
3:23 We know our noisy worship of false gods
on the hills and mountains did not help us. 32
We know that the Lord our God
is the only one who can deliver Israel. 33
3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,
has taken away 34 all that our ancestors 35 worked for.
It has taken away our flocks and our herds,
and even our sons and daughters.
3:25 Let us acknowledge 36 our shame.
Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve. 37
For we have sinned against the Lord our God,
both we and our ancestors.
From earliest times to this very day
we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’
4:1 “If you, Israel, want to come back,” says the Lord,
“if you want to come back to me 38
you must get those disgusting idols 39 out of my sight
and must no longer go astray. 40
4:2 You must be truthful, honest and upright
when you take an oath saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ 41
If you do, 42 the nations will pray to be as blessed by him as you are
and will make him the object of their boasting.” 43
4:3 Yes, 44 the Lord has this to say
to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:
“Like a farmer breaking up hard unplowed ground,
you must break your rebellious will and make a new beginning;
just as a farmer must clear away thorns lest the seed is wasted,
you must get rid of the sin that is ruining your lives. 45
4:4 Just as ritual circumcision cuts away the foreskin
as an external symbol of dedicated covenant commitment,
you must genuinely dedicate yourselves to the Lord
and get rid of everything that hinders your commitment to me, 46
people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem.
If you do not, 47 my anger will blaze up like a flaming fire against you
that no one will be able to extinguish.
That will happen because of the evil you have done.”
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 “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”
4 tn The words “You must confess” are repeated to convey the connection. The Hebrew text has an introductory “that” in front of the second line and a coordinative “and” in front of the next two lines.
5 tc MT reads דְּרָכַיִךְ (dÿrakhayikh, “your ways”), but the BHS editors suggest דּוֹדַיִךְ (dodayikh, “your breasts”) as an example of orthographic confusion. While the proposal makes sense, it remains a conjectural emendation since it is not supported by any actual manuscripts or ancient versions.
tn Heb “scattered your ways with foreign [gods]” or “spread out your breasts to strangers.”
6 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
7 tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.
8 tn Heb “shepherds.”
9 tn Heb “after/according to my [own] heart.”
10 tn Heb “you will become numerous and fruitful.”
11 tn Or “chest.”
12 tn Heb “the ark of the covenant.” It is called this because it contained the tables of the law which in abbreviated form constituted their covenant obligations to the
13 tn Or “Nor will another one be made”; Heb “one will not do/make [it?] again.”
14 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
15 tn Heb “will gather to the name of the
16 tn Heb “the stubbornness of their evil hearts.”
17 tn Heb “In those days.”
18 tn Heb “the house of Judah will walk together with the house of Israel.”
19 tn Heb “the land that I gave your [fore]fathers as an inheritance.”
20 tn Heb “I, myself, said.” See note on “I thought that she might come back to me” in 3:7.
21 tn Heb “How I would place you among the sons.” Israel appears to be addressed here contextually as the
sn The imagery here appears to be that of treating the wife as an equal heir with the sons and of giving her the best piece of property.
22 tn The words “What a joy it would be for me to” are not in the Hebrew text but are implied in the parallel structure.
23 tn Heb “the most beautiful heritage among the nations.”
24 tn Heb “my father.”
25 tn Heb “turn back from [following] after me.”
26 tn Heb “house of Israel.”
27 tn Heb “a wife unfaithful from her husband.”
28 tn Heb “A sound is heard on the hilltops, the weeping of the supplication of the children of Israel because [or indeed] they have perverted their way.” At issue here is whether the supplication is made to Yahweh in repentance because of what they have done or whether it is supplication to the pagan gods which is evidence of their perverted ways. The reference in this verse to the hilltops where idolatry was practiced according to 3:2 and the reference to Israel’s unfaithfulness in the preceding verse make the latter more likely. For the asseverative use of the Hebrew particle (here rendered “indeed”) where the particle retains some of the explicative nuance; cf. BDB 472-73 s.v. כִּי 1.e and 3.c.
29 tn Heb “have forgotten the
30 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.
31 tn Or “They say.” There is an obvious ellipsis of a verb of saying here since the preceding words are those of the
32 tn Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.
33 tn Heb “Truly in the
34 tn Heb “From our youth the shameful thing has eaten up…” The shameful thing is specifically identified as Baal in Jer 11:13. Compare also the shift in certain names such as Ishbaal (“man of Baal”) to Ishbosheth (“man of shame”).
35 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).
36 tn Heb “Let us lie down in….”
37 tn Heb “Let us be covered with disgrace.”
38 tn Or “If you, Israel, want to turn [away from your shameful ways (those described in 3:23-25)]…then you must turn back to me.” Or perhaps, “Israel, you must turn back…Yes, you must turn back to me.”
39 tn Heb “disgusting things.”
40 tn Or possibly, “If you get those disgusting idols out of my sight, you will not need to flee.” This is less probable because the normal meaning of the last verb is “to wander,” “ to stray.”
41 tn Heb “If you [= you must, see the translator’s note on the word “do” later in this verse] swear/take an oath, ‘As the
42 tn 4:1-2a consists of a number of “if” clauses, two of which are formally introduced by the Hebrew particle אִם (’im) while the others are introduced by the conjunction “and,” followed by a conjunction (“and” = “then”) with a perfect in 4:2b which introduces the consequence. The translation “You must…. If you do,” was chosen to avoid a long and complicated sentence.
43 tn Heb “bless themselves in him and make their boasts in him.”
44 tn The Hebrew particle is obviously asseverative here since a causal connection appears to make little sense.
45 tn Heb “Plow up your unplowed ground and do not sow among the thorns.” The translation is an attempt to bring out the force of a metaphor. The idea seems to be that they are to plow over the thorns and make the ground ready for the seeds which will produce a new crop where none had been produced before.
46 tn Heb “Circumcise yourselves to the
47 tn Heb “lest.”
