Israel Is Defiled
Jeremiah 3, verse 1. “If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him to become another man's, may she turn back and return to him again? Would not such a woman be greatly defiled? But you committed fornication with many shepherds and have returned to Me,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 3, verse 2. “Lift up your eyes straight ahead and see. Where have you not been defiled? You sat for them along the roads like a deserted crow, and defiled the land with your fornications and vices. Jeremiah 3, verse 3. Yes, you have many shepherds as an occasion of stumbling for yourself. The appearance of a prostitute has come upon you, but you shamelessly deny all this. Jeremiah 3, verse 4. Have you not called Me, as it were, a home, a father, and a founder of your virginity? Jeremiah 3, verse 5. Will this appearance continue forever, or be maintained to the end? Behold, you said and did these evil things as you were able.”
A Call to Return
Jeremiah 3, verse 6. Again the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “You saw what the habitation of Israel did to Me? They went up on every high mountain and under every shady tree to commit fornication there. Jeremiah 3, verse 7. Yet after Israel committed all these acts of fornication, I said, ‘Return to Me,’ but she did not return. Faithless Judah also saw Israel's faithlessness. Jeremiah 3, verse 8. I also saw it, and because of all the things in which the habitation of Israel committed adultery and was overtaken in it, therefore I put her away and placed in her hands a certificate of divorce. Yet even after this, faithless Judah did not fear, but she, too, proceeded to commit fornication. Jeremiah 3, verse 9. Her fornication was good for nothing, for she committed adultery with wood and stone. Jeremiah 3, verse 10. In all of this, faithless Judah did not turn to Me with her whole heart, but falsely.” Jeremiah 3, verse 11. Again the Lord said to me, “Israel justified herself more than faithless Judah. Jeremiah 3, verse 12. Go and read these words toward the north, and you shall say, ‘Return to Me, O habitation of Israel,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will not set My face against you. I am merciful,’ says the Lord, ‘and I will not be wrathful forever. Jeremiah 3, verse 13. However, realize your wrongdoing, for you behaved in an ungodly way against the Lord your God; and you passed on your evil ways to foreigners under every shady tree, because you did not obey My voice. Jeremiah 3, verse 14. “Return, O sons who have turned away,” says the Lord, “for I will rule over you and receive you—one from a city and two from a family—and I will lead you to Zion. Jeremiah 3, verse 15. I will give you shepherds according to My heart, and they will thoroughly shepherd you with knowledge. Jeremiah 3, verse 16. It shall come to pass that if you multiply and increase in the land in those days,” says the Lord, “they will no longer say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Holy One of Israel.’ It will not enter their heart, nor be named or visited; neither will this be done any more. Jeremiah 3, verse 17. In those days and at that time, they shall call Jerusalem the Throne of the Lord, and all the Gentiles shall be gathered to it. They shall no longer walk after the reasoning of their evil heart. Jeremiah 3, verse 18. In those days, the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north, and from all the countries to the land I gave as an inheritance to their fathers. Jeremiah 3, verse 19. “I declare” (may it be, O Lord!) “that I will set you among children and give you a choice land, the inheritance of the Almighty God of the Gentiles; and I declare that you shall call Me Father, and you shall not turn away from Me. Jeremiah 3, verse 20. Nevertheless, as a wife rejects her husband, so the house of Israel has rejected Me,” says the Lord. Jeremiah 3, verse 21. “For a sound from lips was heard, even bitter crying and the entreaty of the sons of Israel; because they did wrong in their ways and forgot their holy God. Jeremiah 3, verse 22. Return, O sons, return, and I will heal your ruin.” Jeremiah 3, verse 23. “Behold, we will be Your servants, for You are the Lord our God. Indeed, the hills and the power of the mountains were as a lie, for our salvation is only through the Lord our God. Jeremiah 3, verse 24. But from our youth, shame devoured the labors of our fathers: their sheep, their cattle, their sons and their daughters. Jeremiah 3, verse 25. We fall asleep in our shame and dishonor covers us, because we sinned against the Lord our God. From our youth even to this day, we and our fathers did not obey the voice of the Lord our God.”