Jeremiah 3

Return, Backsliding Children

The Lord opens with the law that forbids a divorced wife's return, then calls the divorced northern tribes home anyway, promising to gather them one by one to Zion.

The reign of Josiah (626–608 B.C. by the Bible Dictionary); verse 6 dates its second part “in the days of Josiah the king” Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapter 3 belongs to Jeremiah's earliest preaching. The Bible Dictionary puts chapters 1–6 in the reign of Josiah (626–608 B.C.), and verse 6 says it outright: “The LORD said also…

Chapter 3 belongs to Jeremiah's earliest preaching. The Bible Dictionary puts chapters 1–6 in the reign of Josiah (626–608 B.C.), and verse 6 says it outright: “The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king.” The chapter carries on the charge of chapter 2, where the Lord remembers “the love of thine espousals” (Jer. 2:2). The picture is a marriage. The Lord is the husband; Israel and Judah are two sisters who were His wife; and idolatry is adultery, a charge the text states bluntly.

The chapter moves in four steps. Verses 1–5 press the charge against Judah, beginning from a law of Moses. Verses 6–11 look back at the northern kingdom, divorced and carried off by Assyria, and at Judah, which watched and did the same. Verses 12–18 turn to the north with an invitation to come home and a promise of gathering. Verses 19–25 close with the Lord's regret and the confession He hopes to hear.

The Church's chapter heading says: “In the last days, the Lord will gather the people of Israel, one from a city and two from a family, and bring them to Zion.” The Bible Dictionary lists verses 12–19 among the book's notable passages. The Church edition links verse 22 to the Savior's words to the survivors of the destruction in the Americas: “will ye not now return unto me… that I may heal you?” (3 Ne. 9:13).

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 3 turns on a door the law says is shut, and on the Lord's opening it anyway.

The chapter begins with the law. A man who divorces his wife cannot take her back once she has belonged to another (Deut. 24:1–4). Israel has belonged to “many lovers,” and the chapter's first sentence seems to close the case. But the next four sections are one long invitation. The Lord calls the divorced north to “Return” (verse 12), says “I am married unto you” (verse 14), and promises to bring them home “one of a city, and two of a family.” The reader who began with the law is left to see that the invitation does not come from the law's side of the case.

The chapter's vocabulary carries the thread. In Hebrew, the word behind “backsliding” (mešubah) is built on the verb shuv, “turn back,” and the same verb is the Lord's invitation, “return.” The sin and the cure are one root; everything depends on which way a person turns. Verse 4 shows what an empty return sounds like (“My father, thou art the guide of my youth”), and verses 22–25 show a real one: “Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.”

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–5

The law that shuts the door

In plain words

They say, “If a man divorces his wife, and she goes from him and becomes another man's, can he go back to her? Wouldn't that land be badly polluted?” That is what you have done, playing the harlot with many lovers. Yet return to Me (or, as some read it, “and would you return to Me?”). Look up to the high places: where have you not been taken? You sat by the roadsides waiting for lovers, like a nomad in the desert, and you have polluted the land with your whoring and your wickedness. So the showers have been held back, and there has been no spring rain. You have a harlot's brazen face and refuse to be ashamed. From now on will you not call to Me, “My father, you are the guide of my youth. Will He be angry forever?” Look: that is how you talk, and you do all the evil you can.

1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Related Scriptures #

The law behind the question

The question restates a law of Moses, and by that law the answer is no.

The question restates a law of Moses, and by that law the answer is no. Deut. 24:1–4 lets a husband give his wife a “bill of divorcement.” If she then becomes another man's wife, her first husband “may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the Lord: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin.” Jeremiah's “shall not that land be greatly polluted?” echoes that last clause.

The verse continues “the marriage symbolism he began in Jeremiah 2:32,” so that “played the harlot” means turning to “other gods.” Set Israel inside that picture and the law seems to close the door: she has gone to many lovers, and the husband she left cannot take her back. The verse is the setup for the chapter's surprise. The Lord will go on to invite Israel back anyway (verses 12, 14, 22).

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

Language #

An invitation or a question?

The KJV makes this an invitation, but the Hebrew allows a question. The verb shov is an infinitive absolute, glossed “and yet return,” and some modern translations read the clause…

The KJV makes this an invitation, but the Hebrew allows a question. The verb shov is an infinitive absolute, glossed “and yet return,” and some modern translations read the clause as a question: “and you would return to Me?” On one reading the question is right and the command wrong, “since the continuity is destroyed”: verse 2 goes straight on to the evidence of Israel's idolatry, which makes a warm “return” hard to hear at this point.

Translations divide, and which is right is a translator's judgment. The KJV reading is not out of step with the chapter, because the Lord plainly says “Return” in verses 12, 14, and 22. Either way, the verse sets two things side by side: what the law says (no return) and what the Lord says (return).

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

2 Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

Context #

The high places and the roadside

The high places were hilltop altars, and the Lord points Judah's eyes to them as evidence.

The high places were hilltop altars, and the Lord points Judah's eyes to them as evidence. Altars on hilltops were an early custom, and some were dedicated to Jehovah; but “when idolatry came in, many of these altars were desecrated and used for heathen worship.” Reformers such as Hezekiah and Josiah tried to centralize worship in Jerusalem and ordered the high places removed. The hills are where Israel's unfaithfulness is visible: “where thou hast not been lien with.”

On one reading, the “Arabian in the wilderness” is a Bedouin “who lies in wait for travellers, to plunder them,” and Judah sitting “in the ways” is idolatry set up at the roadside to catch every passer-by.

Sources: “High places”, Bible Dictionary. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

3 Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore’s forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Related Scriptures #

The rain withheld

Withholding the rain is the covenant's own penalty for turning to other gods.

Withholding the rain is the covenant's own penalty for turning to other gods. The law promised “rain in due season” to the obedient (Lev. 26:3–4), and warned that if Israel served other gods, “he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit” (Deut. 11:16–17). The “latter rain” is the second of the pair the same chapter names, “the first rain and the latter rain” (Deut. 11:14); the Church edition gives “spring rain” as another rendering. Verse 3 reports the very penalty the covenant had named. The Church edition links the verse to Jer. 14:4, where the ground is parched for lack of rain.

The people see the sign and do not change. In the same verse they have “a whore's forehead” and refuse “to be ashamed.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

4 Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

Context #

Words without a turn

The cry “My father” is pious language that is not matched by a changed life.

The cry “My father” is pious language that is not matched by a changed life. Jeremiah “tried to stem, almost alone, the tide of idolatry and immorality, of self-deception founded on superficial reforms (Jer. 3:4–5; 7:8–10).” Josiah's reform was real but brief: “Aside from this brief period of reform, Judah became increasingly insensitive to spiritual things during Jeremiah's time.”

On one reading, “from this time” points to the years of Josiah's reform, when worship was cleansed publicly, and the cry “is but lip-service, for it goes on in its sins.” Verse 5 gives the Lord's answer: “thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest,” so the speech and the life contradict each other. “The guide of my youth” recalls the Lord's own memory of Israel's beginnings in Jer. 2:2. The people are using the language of the old marriage while breaking it.

Sources: “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

5 Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

Verses 6–11

Two sisters

In plain words

In the days of King Josiah the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what backsliding Israel did? She went up every high hill and under every green tree and played the harlot there. I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will come back to me,’ but she did not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it. I saw that for all of Israel's adultery I had sent her away and given her a divorce paper, yet her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid; she went and played the harlot too. Her casual immorality defiled the land, and she committed adultery with stone and wood. Even after all this, treacherous Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense.” The Lord said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.”

6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

Context #

Two sisters, one divorced

“Israel” here means the northern kingdom, the ten tribes, and “Judah” the southern, and the Lord calls them sisters.

“Israel” here means the northern kingdom, the ten tribes, and “Judah” the southern, and the Lord calls them sisters. The northern kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians “in the century before Jeremiah's time”; the Lord “had given her a bill of divorcement and sent her out of the land (she was taken captive by the Assyrians).” 2 Kgs. 17:6 records the event: the king of Assyria “took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria.”

The Lord's complaint is not only that Israel fell, but that Judah watched it happen and learned nothing. “One sister (Judah) watched the other (Israel) ignore the warnings of the prophets and ultimately reject the Lord,” and “despite having witnessed Israel's downfall, continued in their sinful ways.” That is why the Lord considers Judah the more “treacherous.” Ezekiel tells the same story with the sisters named Aholah (Samaria) and Aholibah (Jerusalem), the passage the Church edition links to verse 7 (Ezek. 23:2–4).

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Jeremiah 1–3; 7; 16–18; 20, Scripture Helps: Old Testament. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Related Scriptures #

A divorce that is not final

The divorce is real (the northern tribes were driven out), but the chapter does not treat it as final.

The divorce is real (the northern tribes were driven out), but the chapter does not treat it as final. Verse 8 says the Lord gave Israel “a bill of divorce,” and yet verse 14 says “I am married unto you.” Isaiah puts the same image as a question: “Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away?” (Isa. 50:1), which Jacob also reads to the Nephites (2 Ne. 7:1). On that passage, “the Lord… had not set Israel aside permanently but only until she repented of her wrong doings,” and “the breach between the husband and his wife was clearly the result of her doings and not his.”

So the divorce in verse 8 is the exile: the Lord's separating Himself from a people who had left Him. The Lord's invitation in verse 12 stands on the same ground: “all they need do to be reclaimed is to turn back to Him.”

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Leland Gentry, “God Will Fulfill His Covenants with the House of Israel”, In The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, the Doctrinal Structure, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), 159–76. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

Language #

Whole heart or falsehood

Judah's return is condemned as insincere: “not with her whole heart, but feignedly.”

Judah's return is condemned as insincere: “not with her whole heart, but feignedly.” “Feignedly” translates the Hebrew bešeqer, “in falsehood,” from a noun the lexicon defines as “deception, disappointment, falsehood.” The sin is not that Judah did nothing but that what she did was for show.

The Church edition links this verse to the words of the Personage who addressed Joseph Smith in the First Vision: “they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me” (JS—H 1:19). The same noun returns in verse 23, where the hills' promise of help turns out to be a delusion.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

Language #

Israel more righteous than Judah

The Lord's verdict is a shock: Israel, whose sin led to exile, looks better than Judah.

The Lord's verdict is a shock: Israel, whose sin led to exile, looks better than Judah. Ezekiel makes the same comparison with the same Hebrew verb (tsadaq, “be righteous”): Jerusalem “hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations” because she “multiplied” her own beyond Samaria's (Ezek. 16:51), the passage the Church edition links here.

The verse does not say Israel was innocent. The comparison rests on Judah's having “witnessed Israel's downfall” and continued “in their sinful ways.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Jeremiah 1–3; 7; 16–18; 20, Scripture Helps: Old Testament.

Verses 12–18

Return, and I will gather you

In plain words

“Go and call these words toward the north: ‘Return, backsliding Israel, says the Lord. I will not let my anger fall on you, for I am merciful, and I will not be angry forever. Only acknowledge your guilt: that you rebelled against the Lord your God, scattered your ways to strangers under every green tree, and did not obey my voice. Return, backsliding children, for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a town and two from a clan, and bring you to Zion. I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. When you have multiplied and increased in the land, no one will say any more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord.’ It will not come to mind or be remembered or missed, and no new one will be made. At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord, and all nations will gather to it, to the name of the Lord at Jerusalem, and no longer follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. In those days Judah will walk with Israel, and together they will come from the land of the north to the land I gave your fathers.’”

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

Context #

The call goes to the north

Jeremiah, standing in Jerusalem, is told to speak toward the north, where the ten tribes had been carried: the call is to Israel, not Judah.

Jeremiah, standing in Jerusalem, is told to speak toward the north, where the ten tribes had been carried: the call is to Israel, not Judah. The “backsliding Israel” addressed here is the northern kingdom of verses 6–11, and the promise looks ahead to “the return of the lost tribes from the north.” Ten of the twelve tribes lived in the northern kingdom; they were conquered, and “some of them later escaped into the lands of the north and became lost to the rest of the world.”

The Church edition links “proclaim” to the Lord's command to “proclaim my gospel, as with the voice of a trump” (D&C 30:9), and “missionary work and gathering to Zion” is among the promises of verse 14. The scattered tribes are called by a message, not only a march. D&C 133:26–34 speaks of those “in the north countries” coming “in remembrance before the Lord.”

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Chapter 42: The Gathering of the House of Israel, Gospel Principles (2011). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Language #

The cure has the same root as the sin

“Backsliding” and “return” are one Hebrew root, which turns the chapter's message into a pun.

“Backsliding” and “return” are one Hebrew root, which turns the chapter's message into a pun. The noun mešubah, “backsliding,” means “turning back, apostasy,” and shares its root with the verb shuv, “to turn back.” That same verb is the Lord's invitation: “Return, thou backsliding Israel” is, in Hebrew, nearly “Turn back, O turned-away one.” The noun appears in verses 6, 8, 11, 12 and 22, and the verb in verses 1, 7, 10, 12, 14, 19 and 22.

Where the KJV reads “return,” “turn,” and “turn away” (verse 19), the Hebrew is the same verb each time. The Lord's complaint is that Israel keeps turning, and the Lord's request is that she turn once more, in the other direction.

13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

Language #

Married, or master?

“Married” translates a verb (baʿal) glossed “marry, rule over”; for this verse the lexicon gives “be lord (husband) over,” so the word holds both husband and master.

“Married” translates a verb (baʿal) glossed “marry, rule over”; for this verse the lexicon gives “be lord (husband) over,” so the word holds both husband and master. On one reading the verb is in the past: “I have wedded you to me,” or “I am your husband,” a reminder of the covenant made at Sinai, which, “though suspended for a time, was not wholly broken up.” That fits the Lord's own look back: “I was an husband unto them” (Jer. 31:32).

The Lord “used the concept of marriage to teach the Israelites about His covenant relationship with them,” and “even though the people of Israel had ‘played the harlot’ and broken their covenant, the Lord still desired a relationship with them.” President Russell M. Nelson taught that once we have made a covenant with God, “He will never tire in His efforts to help us, and we will never exhaust His merciful patience with us.”

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub. Jeremiah 1–3; 7; 16–18; 20, Scripture Helps: Old Testament. Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant”, Liahona, Oct. 2022. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Latter-day Prophets #

One by one

“One of a city, and two of a family” says the Lord will gather Israel a few at a time, not as a nation all at once.

“One of a city, and two of a family” says the Lord will gather Israel a few at a time, not as a nation all at once. Verses 12–19 are a prophecy of “gathering one of a city and two of a family to Zion, a pleasant land where Israel and Judah can dwell in safety and peace,” and the promise of verse 14 is “missionary work and gathering to Zion.” The Church's chapter heading reads the verse of the last days.

The order is spiritual, then physical: “The Israelites are to be gathered spiritually first and then physically. They are gathered spiritually as they join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and make and keep sacred covenants.”

Sources: “Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Chapter 42: The Gathering of the House of Israel, Gospel Principles (2011). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

15 And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Language #

Shepherds, not pastors

“Pastors” is the KJV's word for “shepherds” (the Church edition's footnote says so), and the Hebrew is the one in Jer. 23:1, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the…

“Pastors” is the KJV's word for “shepherds” (the Church edition's footnote says so), and the Hebrew is the one in Jer. 23:1, “Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” The two verses are a pair: leaders who scattered the flock, and leaders “according to mine heart” who will feed it.

The promise is of “knowledge and understanding taught by faithful pastors (church leaders).” When Jeremiah repeats it, the shepherds “which shall feed them” (Jer. 23:4) are “the righteous prophets and priesthood leaders who, unlike the priests and prophets of Jeremiah's time, lead their people to do good and obey the Lord.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

16 And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

Imagery #

Why the ark will not be missed

The ark was the holiest object in Israel's worship, so the promise that it will not be missed is startling.

The ark was the holiest object in Israel's worship, so the promise that it will not be missed is startling. It was “the oldest and most sacred of the religious symbols of the Israelites,” and its Mercy Seat “was regarded as the earthly dwelling place of Jehovah.” It “had certainly disappeared before the building of the second temple.”

Verse 16 promises “the fulfillment of the old covenant and the establishment of a new covenant,” and verse 17 “the restoration of Jerusalem to righteousness.” The verses set the two statements side by side: the ark is not remembered, and “at that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD.” On one reading the second explains the first: they will not “feel the want of it, because Jerusalem will then be the throne of the Lord.” The text does not say how the ark was lost.

Sources: “Ark of the Covenant”, Bible Dictionary. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

Related Scriptures #

Jerusalem as the Lord's throne

The gathering of Israel in verse 14 becomes a gathering of the nations in verse 17.

The gathering of Israel in verse 14 becomes a gathering of the nations in verse 17. The Church edition links the verse to Zechariah, where the Lord says “I will dwell in the midst of thee,” and “many nations shall be joined to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people” (Zech. 2:10–11). Jerusalem is the center, but the people who gather are no longer only Israel.

The verse also names what ends: “neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.” The Church edition gives “stubbornness” as an alternative for “imagination.”

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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 to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

Latter-day Prophets #

Judah and Israel together

The two sisters, who were set against each other in verses 6–11, are reunited.

The two sisters, who were set against each other in verses 6–11, are reunited. The promise includes “the return of the lost tribes from the north and the reuniting of the children of Judah in the lands of their inheritance.” The Church edition's footnotes on the verse link it to Jer. 16:15 and to 2 Ne. 29:14, where the Lord says, in Nephi's record, “my people, which are of the house of Israel, shall be gathered home unto the lands of their possessions.”

In the latter-day gathering, Ephraim and Manasseh gather in the Americas, Judah at Jerusalem, and “the ten lost tribes will receive from the tribe of Ephraim their promised blessings (see D&C 133:26–34).” The prophecy does not describe how, only that the division of verses 6–11 is healed.

Verses 19–25

The father's hope and the children's confession

In plain words

“I thought, ‘How I will set you among my sons and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage among the nations!’ I thought you would call me ‘My Father’ and never turn from me. But as a faithless wife leaves her husband, so you have been faithless to me, house of Israel.” A voice is heard on the bare hills, the weeping and pleading of Israel's children, because they have twisted their way and forgotten the Lord their God. “Return, backsliding children; I will heal your backslidings.” “Here we are, we come to you, for you are the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and the multitude of mountains. Only in the Lord our God is Israel's salvation. Shame has eaten up all our fathers worked for, from our youth: their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters. Let us lie down in our shame and let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth to this day, and have not obeyed His voice.”

19 But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

Context #

What the Lord had hoped

Verse 19 looks back to what the Lord had hoped when He gave Israel the land.

Verse 19 looks back to what the Lord had hoped when He gave Israel the land. “I said, How shall I put thee among the children” is, on one reading, “how I will make thee glorious among the sons,” and “I thought” points back to the giving of the land to the fathers. The Lord's hope was relationship, not just property: “Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.”

The words answer verse 4. There Judah said “My father” while she kept her sins; here the Lord says what “My father” was supposed to mean. The reply is in verse 20: “as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me.”

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.

Context #

The hills now full of weeping

The high places that were the scene of the sin in verse 2 become the place where the repentance is heard.

The high places that were the scene of the sin in verse 2 become the place where the repentance is heard. On one reading, verses 21–25 are “the announcement as to how Israel comes to a consciousness of sin and returns penitent,” so the weeping on the hills is something the prophet foresees, not something he sees. The cause is the one the chapter has named: “they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.”

In verse 4 the Lord quotes the people's words; from verse 22 on they speak for themselves, in a confession.

22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

Witness of Christ #

The Lord who heals

The Lord who says “Return” and “I will heal” is, in Latter-day Saint teaching, Jesus Christ: Jehovah “is the premortal Jesus Christ.”

The Lord who says “Return” and “I will heal” is, in Latter-day Saint teaching, Jesus Christ: Jehovah “is the premortal Jesus Christ.” In the darkness that followed the destruction in the Americas, the voice that says “I am Jesus Christ the Son of God” (3 Ne. 9:15) says almost the same words: “will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?” (3 Ne. 9:13). The Church edition links the verse to that passage and to 3 Ne. 18:32, where He tells His disciples to keep ministering to a person who has not repented, “for ye know not but what they will return and repent, and come unto me with full purpose of heart, and I shall heal them.”

The healing here is for “backslidings,” a word the lexicon defines as “turning back, apostasy,” so the Lord promises to mend the damage turning away has done. The people's reply (“Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God”) is what verse 4 only pretended to say.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. “Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

Language #

The hills deceived them

“In vain” in verse 23 is the Hebrew šeqer, “falsehood,” the same word that is rendered “feignedly” in verse 10.

“In vain” in verse 23 is the Hebrew šeqer, “falsehood,” the same word that is rendered “feignedly” in verse 10. Judah's return was false (verse 10), and the help she looked for from the hills was just as false: salvation was never there. The lexicon includes this verse under “for disappointment, in vain.”

The verse's two halves set the false hope on the hills against the true one: “in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.” Verses 24–25 count the cost of the first: “shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers.” The confession at the end of the chapter (“we have sinned against the LORD our God”) is the full turn that verse 10 lacked.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.

24 For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 3

Jeremiah 3 shows the Lord as a husband who will not let the law be the last word on His relationship with His people. Jehovah is “the premortal Jesus Christ,” so the speaker who says “Return, thou backsliding Israel… I am merciful” (verse 12) and “I will heal your backslidings” (verse 22) is the One who, in the darkness after the destruction in the Americas, says “that I may heal you” (3 Ne. 9:13). The Lord's promise of shepherds “according to mine heart” (verse 15) and of Jerusalem as His throne (verse 17) look ahead to a gathering in which He is the center, and the people's last words (“Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God”) are the answer He has been waiting for since verse 4.

Worth exploring next

The marriage image. Read Hosea 1–3, which uses the same symbol, and Ezek. 23:1–4, the two sisters named.
The divorce question. Compare Deut. 24:1–4 with Isa. 50:1 and 2 Ne. 7:1.
The gathering from the north. Read Jer. 16:14–21 and D&C 133:26–35.
The Savior's invitation. Read 3 Ne. 9:13–14 and 3 Ne. 18:32.
The next step. Read Jer. 31:31–34 for the new covenant that verse 16 anticipates.

This chapter elsewhere in scripture

3 Ne. 9:13 — The risen Lord asks the survivors to return and repent “that I may heal you,” as in verse 22.
2 Ne. 29:14 — The Lord promises that His people of the house of Israel “shall be gathered home unto the lands of their possessions,” as in verse 18.
Isa. 50:1 — Isaiah asks, “Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement?” as in verse 8.
D&C 133:26–34 — Those “in the north countries” come to Zion, to receive blessings through Ephraim; compare verses 12 and 18.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
“High places”, Bible Dictionary.
“Ark of the Covenant”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Chapter 25: Prophecies of a Latter-day Gathering (Jeremiah 23; 30–31; 33; 46–51; Obadiah), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Chapter 42: The Gathering of the House of Israel, Gospel Principles (2011).
Jeremiah 1–3; 7; 16–18; 20, Scripture Helps: Old Testament.
Russell M. Nelson, “The Everlasting Covenant”, Liahona, Oct. 2022.
Leland Gentry, “God Will Fulfill His Covenants with the House of Israel”, In The Book of Mormon: Second Nephi, the Doctrinal Structure, ed. Monte S. Nyman and Charles D. Tate Jr. (Provo, UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young University, 1989), 159–76.
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (the Masoretic Hebrew text), Read in the Hebrew–English interlinear on Bible Hub.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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