Discovery BoxJeremiah 3:13 
Context3:13 However, you must confess that you have done wrong, 1
and that you have rebelled against the Lord your God.
You must confess 2 that you have given yourself to 3 foreign gods under every green tree,
and have not obeyed my commands,’ says the Lord.
Jeremiah 3:22-25
Context3:22 Come back to me, you wayward people.
I want to cure your waywardness. 4
Say, 5 ‘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. 6
We know that the Lord our God
is the only one who can deliver Israel. 7
3:24 From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,
has taken away 8 all that our ancestors 9 worked for.
It has taken away our flocks and our herds,
and even our sons and daughters.
3:25 Let us acknowledge 10 our shame.
Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve. 11
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.’
1 tn Heb “Only acknowledge your iniquity.”
2 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.
3 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.”
4 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.
5 tn Or “They say.” There is an obvious ellipsis of a verb of saying here since the preceding words are those of the
6 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.
7 tn Heb “Truly in the
8 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”).
9 tn Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).
10 tn Heb “Let us lie down in….”
11 tn Heb “Let us be covered with disgrace.”
