Jeremiah 4

The Alarm and the Heart

The Lord tells Judah what turning back would take, then the alarm sounds, the land goes dark, and the prophet cannot hold his peace.

Josiah’s reign (626–608 B.C. in the Bible Dictionary’s outline of chapters 1–6); the chapter gives no date of its own Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Chapters 2–3 charge Judah with breaking her covenant, pictured as a marriage broken by idolatry, and end with an offer: Israel is told that all she need do to be reclaimed is to…

Chapters 2–3 charge Judah with breaking her covenant, pictured as a marriage broken by idolatry, and end with an offer: Israel is told that all she need do to be reclaimed is to turn back to the Lord. Chapter 4 opens by saying what that return would take (verses 1–4) and then shifts, without a seam, to what comes if it is refused. A trumpet sounds, people run for the walled towns, and an enemy is coming “from the north” (verses 5–9). The rest of the chapter alternates between the Lord's description of the invasion and Jeremiah's own reaction to it.

The chapter has no date of its own. The Bible Dictionary places chapters 1–6 in the reign of Josiah, 626–608 B.C. The Church's heading calls it a call to repentance and a lament “for the miseries of Judah.” Its images (the lion, the scorching wind, the whirlwind, the earth returned to chaos, the woman in labor) are “various figurative images” of one coming catastrophe, the invasion from the north that the boiling pot of Jer. 1:13–14 had shown.

The Church edition ties the chapter to Restoration scripture at two points: verse 22 to King Benjamin's words in Mosiah 5:13 and to Hel. 12:4, and verse 23 to the creation account in Moses 2:2.

The thread through the chapter

Jeremiah 4 is about a trouble that starts in the heart and reaches the heart.

Jeremiah 4 is about a trouble that starts in the heart and reaches the heart. The word is the thread. The Lord's demand is for a change inside: “take away the foreskins of your heart” (verse 4), “wash thine heart from wickedness” (verse 14). The cause of the coming ruin is the same place: the people's wickedness is bitter “because it reacheth unto thine heart” (verse 18). When the disaster is announced, “the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes” (verse 9). And the prophet's own heart gives way: “I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me” (verse 19).

Around that thread the chapter makes three moves. It offers a return, with a blessing for the nations at stake (verses 1–4). It sounds the alarm, from the north down the country to Jerusalem (verses 5–18). And it follows the prophet as he takes in what he has been shown, until he sees the world itself come apart (verses 19–31). One thing holds the dark picture from being the last word: “yet will I not make a full end” (verse 27). The chapter ends on a cry for help, and no answer is recorded.

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

Verses 1–4

If you will return

In plain words

“If you will return, Israel, return to me,” says the Lord, “and if you will put your abominations away from my sight and stray no more, and swear, ‘As the Lord lives,’ truthfully, justly, and righteously, then the nations will bless themselves by Him and glory in Him.” To the men of Judah and Jerusalem He says: “Plow up new ground and do not sow among thorns. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; take away the foreskins of your hearts, or my fury will break out like a fire no one can put out, because of what you have done.”

1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

2 And thou shalt swear, The LORD liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in him, and in him shall they glory.

Related Scriptures #

If Israel returns, the nations bless themselves

The nations “bless themselves” in the Lord only if Israel returns to Him: the verse echoes the promise to Abraham, here made conditional.

The nations “bless themselves” in the Lord only if Israel returns to Him: the verse echoes the promise to Abraham, here made conditional. Verse 1 sets the condition (“If thou wilt return… and if thou wilt put away thine abominations”), which is the offer of chapter 3, where all Israel “need do to be reclaimed is to turn back to Him.” Verse 2 names the result: Israel swears by the living Lord “in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness,” and the nations bless themselves “in him.”

The Hebrew verb is the reflexive form the lexicon lists, together, for Jer. 4:2 and for Gen. 22:18, where the Lord tells Abraham “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.” In both places the sense is to invoke a blessing on oneself by a name, Abraham's seed there, the Lord here. So the verse ties Israel's return to the blessing of the nations. The text does not say more than that.

Sources: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

3 For thus saith the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

Imagery #

Fallow ground and thorns

“Fallow ground” is ground that has not been worked, and the command is to break it up before sowing.

“Fallow ground” is ground that has not been worked, and the command is to break it up before sowing. Hosea has the same words and the same reason: “break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord” (Hosea 10:12).

On one reading the “new ground” is “a figure for the reformation of life,” and the thorns are “the evil inclinations of the unrenewed heart,” which choke the seed as the thorns do in the parable of the sower (Matt. 13:7). Both passages are the ones the Church edition gives in its footnotes here.

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

4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

Imagery #

Circumcision of the heart

To circumcise the heart is to remove whatever keeps a person from feeling and answering God, so that the sign of the covenant is matched by the thing it stood for.

To circumcise the heart is to remove whatever keeps a person from feeling and answering God, so that the sign of the covenant is matched by the thing it stood for. The men of Judah already carried the physical mark, but “the true circumcision after a person is accountable is that of the heart,” as the Lord taught in many places (among them Jer. 9:25–26 and Rom. 2:25–29). It means accepting the covenant in the heart and becoming clean “through faith, repentance, and baptism.”

Restoration scripture explains why the sign was given to infants. In the Joseph Smith Translation the Lord gives Abraham the covenant of circumcision “that thou mayest know forever that children are not accountable before me until they are eight years old” (JST Genesis 17:11). Circumcision thus marked a child as already pure and an heir of the covenant, and the “foreskin” became a figure for being covered or insensitive to spiritual things. By Jeremiah's day the people “may have had this physical mark of purity… but they now lacked the spiritual receptivity to match it.” Circumcising the heart can then be read on several levels: removing “any barrier between us and God,” taking the covenant inward, and returning to the purity and humility of a child.

Moses had put the same matter two ways: Israel is commanded to “circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart” (Deut. 10:16), and promised that “the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart” (Deut. 30:6). Verse 14 returns to the demand in other words: “wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved.”

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 17, Gospel Library. Scripture Central, “Why Does Jeremiah Refer to Circumcising the Heart?”, KnoWhy #872. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 5–9

Blow the trumpet

In plain words

Announce it in Judah and Jerusalem: blow the trumpet, cry out, gather, and let us go to the fortified cities. Raise the signal toward Zion, run, do not stop, for I am bringing disaster from the north. A lion has left its thicket, a destroyer of nations is on the way to make your land a waste. Put on sackcloth and wail, for the Lord's anger has not turned back. On that day the king and the princes will lose heart, the priests will be appalled, and the prophets stunned.

5 Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem; and say, Blow ye the trumpet in the land: cry, gather together, and say, Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the defenced cities.

6 Set up the standard toward Zion: retire, stay not: for I will bring evil from the north, and a great destruction.

Imagery #

A standard toward Zion

The standard is a war signal, and it points to Jerusalem. In the scriptures an ensign is “a flag or standard around which people gather,” and “in ancient times an ensign served as…

The standard is a war signal, and it points to Jerusalem. In the scriptures an ensign is “a flag or standard around which people gather,” and “in ancient times an ensign served as a rallying point for soldiers in battle.” With the trumpet of verse 5, it tells the countryside to run for the fortified cities. Zion here is the place: Solomon built the temple on Mount Zion, and the text itself says that “the city of David” is Zion (1 Kgs. 8:1). People are told to flee toward it.

The enemy comes “from the north,” the direction of the boiling pot that Jeremiah saw at his call: “Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land” (Jer. 1:14), the verse the Church edition links here. The standard and trumpet return in verse 21, when Jeremiah asks how long he must see and hear them.

Sources: “Ensign”, Guide to the Scriptures. “Zion”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

7 The lion is come up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the Gentiles is on his way; he is gone forth from his place to make thy land desolate; and thy cities shall be laid waste, without an inhabitant.

Context #

The lion and the destroyer of nations

The lion is Babylon, “about to come out of the thicket where it stayed hidden until it sallied forth on the hunt.”

The lion is Babylon, “about to come out of the thicket where it stayed hidden until it sallied forth on the hunt.” The second figure says the same without the image: “the destroyer of the Gentiles” is a conqueror of nations. The Hebrew word behind “Gentiles” (goy) is the ordinary word for “nation, people,” with “Gentiles” a later sense of it, so “destroyer of the Gentiles” need mean no more than a destroyer of nations.

The verse itself does not name Babylon; the identification is an interpretation, and it fits the “north” of verse 6 and of Jer. 1:14.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

8 For this gird you with sackcloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the LORD is not turned back from us.

9 And it shall come to pass at that day, saith the LORD, that the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes; and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall wonder.

Verse 10

Jeremiah protests

In plain words

Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! You have surely deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘You will have peace,’ and now the sword is at their throats.”

10 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul.

Context #

Jeremiah’s cry of dismay at the promised peace

Jeremiah himself speaks here (“Then said I”), and what he is protesting is the promise of “peace.”

Jeremiah himself speaks here (“Then said I”), and what he is protesting is the promise of “peace.” The people were told “Ye shall have peace” by prophets speaking in the Lord's name (Jer. 23:17). After Josiah's death Jeremiah stood almost alone against that “self-deception founded on superficial reforms” and the “fanatical confidence in the Lord’s protection” that came with it.

The verse is hard, because it lays the deceiving at the Lord's door. The nearest parallel is Jer. 14:13, which begins with the same exclamation, “Ah, Lord God!,” and the same promise of “assured peace”; there the Lord answers: “The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them” (Jer. 14:14). Read beside that answer, verse 10 is Jeremiah's protest as the promised peace is shown to be empty, and the Lord's reply in chapter 14 places the false assurance with the prophets who spoke it. That is a reading from the nearest passage in the book, not a statement in chapter 4 itself.

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

Verses 11–18

The wind and the watchers

In plain words

It will be said to this people: a scorching wind from the bare heights of the wilderness is blowing toward my people, not to winnow or cleanse but a wind too strong for that, and now I will pass sentence on them. The enemy comes like clouds, his chariots like a whirlwind, his horses faster than eagles: “Woe to us, we are ruined!” Jerusalem, wash your heart clean of evil and be saved. How long will you harbor wicked thoughts? A voice announces trouble from Dan and from the hills of Ephraim. Tell the nations, announce it against Jerusalem: besiegers are coming from a far country, shouting against the cities of Judah. They surround her like men guarding a field, because she has rebelled against me. Your own conduct brought this on you; it is bitter, and it reaches your heart.

11 At that time shall it be said to this people and to Jerusalem, A dry wind of the high places in the wilderness toward the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse,

Imagery #

The dry wind, the clouds, and the whirlwind

The wind is the desert's scorching wind, not a breeze for separating wheat from chaff.

The wind is the desert's scorching wind, not a breeze for separating wheat from chaff. “The scorching desert winds were devastating in the Holy Land if they blew very long or hard, for they sucked the moisture from plants, animals, and people with terrible effect.” The verse says the wind is “not to fan, nor to cleanse,” which marks the contrast: it is not the gentle winnowing wind, but “a full, hard wind.”

The next image has the same target. “Babylon's troops would be like a huge thundercloud covering the sky, and its effect would be that of a tornado” (verse 13); the chariots and the horses “swifter than eagles” are the army itself.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

12 Even a full wind from those places shall come unto me: now also will I give sentence against them.

13 Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are spoiled.

14 O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?

15 For a voice declareth from Dan, and publisheth affliction from mount Ephraim.

16 Make ye mention to the nations; behold, publish against Jerusalem, that watchers come from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Judah.

17 As keepers of a field, are they against her round about; because she hath been rebellious against me, saith the LORD.

18 Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it reacheth unto thine heart.

Verses 19–22

The prophet cannot be silent

In plain words

“My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain. My heart pounds within me; I cannot keep silent, for I have heard the trumpet and the battle cry. Disaster follows disaster; the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are ruined, my curtains in a moment. How long must I see the signal and hear the trumpet?” The Lord answers: “My people are fools; they do not know me. They are senseless children with no understanding. They are clever at doing evil and do not know how to do good.”

19 My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

Language #

My bowels, my bowels

From verse 19 the prophet is speaking, most likely of his own feelings though in words all the faithful would share, and he feels in his body what he has been told to announce.

From verse 19 the prophet is speaking, most likely of his own feelings though in words all the faithful would share, and he feels in his body what he has been told to announce. In the Hebrew way of speaking “the bowels are the seat of the deepest feelings,” so this is the cry of sore pain: the heart pounds, the soul hears the trumpet, and he cannot keep silent.

Lamentations has almost the same words after the city falls: “my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me” (Lam. 1:20), the verse the Church edition links to this one. The Bible Dictionary says Lamentations was “written by Jeremiah,” so what he sees coming here he mourns there as having come.

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

20 Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

21 How long shall I see the standard, and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

Related Scriptures #

Not knowing the Lord

Not knowing God, in the Book of Mormon's words, is a result of not serving Him.

Not knowing God, in the Book of Mormon's words, is a result of not serving Him. The people are “wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge”; their foolishness is not lack of intelligence. King Benjamin asks, “how knoweth a man the master whom he has not served, and who is a stranger unto him, and is far from the thoughts and intents of his heart?” (Mosiah 5:13). Hel. 12:4 says of the children of men “how quick to do iniquity, and how slow to do good,” under a chapter heading that begins, “Men are unstable and foolish and quick to do evil.” The Church edition lists both passages at this verse.

Benjamin's question treats knowing God as a matter of service and nearness, not information. On that reading, “they have not known me” says the same thing as “they are wise to do evil”: the people are skilled and are far from the Master.

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

Verses 23–28

The earth undone

In plain words

“I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty; at the heavens, and their light was gone. I looked at the mountains, and they were shaking, and all the hills swayed. I looked, and there was no one; every bird of the sky had fled. I looked, and the fruitful land was a desert, and all its towns lay in ruins before the Lord, before His burning anger.” This is what the Lord says: “The whole land will be desolate, yet I will not destroy it completely. Because of this the earth will mourn and the heavens above grow dark, for I have spoken, I have decided, and I will not relent or turn back.”

23 I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

Language #

Creation undone

The chapter shows the land returned to the state of the earth before creation.

The chapter shows the land returned to the state of the earth before creation. “Without form, and void” (Hebrew tohu and bohu) is the wording of Gen. 1:2, and the lexicon lists this verse as “land reduced to primaeval chaos.” The Church edition cross-references Moses 2:2 (“the earth was without form, and void”) and gives the alternative rendering “empty and desolate,” the phrase of Abr. 4:2.

The vision goes further. Where Genesis begins with light, here “the heavens, and they had no light”; the mountains shake; “there was no man”; “all the birds of the heavens were fled”; the fruitful place is a wilderness. “So great would be the destruction that it would be as if the Creation had been undone.”

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 (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. Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).

24 I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

25 I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

26 I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

27 For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

Related Scriptures #

Not a full end

Even in this chapter the judgment has a limit, and the book repeats it: “make not a full end” (Jer. 5:10), the verse the Church edition links here.

Even in this chapter the judgment has a limit, and the book repeats it: “make not a full end” (Jer. 5:10), the verse the Church edition links here. The covenant's own terms had set the same limit: though Israel be “in the land of their enemies,” “I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them” (Lev. 26:44). Lehi, who prophesied in Jerusalem alongside Jeremiah, foresaw the same limit: after Jerusalem was destroyed and many carried captive to Babylon, “they should return again, yea, even be brought back out of captivity” (1 Ne. 10:3; Nephi records his father's words).

Verse 28 holds both truths together. “I will not repent” renders a Hebrew word the Church edition footnotes as “relent”: the Lord will not withdraw the decree of desolation. And verse 27 says the desolation will be partial.

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).

28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither will I turn back from it.

Verses 29–31

Zion's cry

In plain words

At the sound of horsemen and archers every town flees; people run into thickets and climb among the rocks. The towns are abandoned and no one lives in them. And you, ruined one, what are you doing, dressing in crimson, putting on gold jewelry, enlarging your eyes with paint? You make yourself beautiful in vain: your lovers despise you; they want your life. I hear a cry like a woman in labor, anguish like one bearing her first child, the cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath and reaching out her hands: “Woe to me, I am fainting before murderers.”

29 The whole city shall flee for the noise of the horsemen and bowmen; they shall go into thickets, and climb up upon the rocks: every city shall be forsaken, and not a man dwell therein.

30 And when thou art spoiled, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with crimson, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou rentest thy face with painting, in vain shalt thou make thyself fair; thy lovers will despise thee, they will seek thy life.

Imagery #

Crimson and gold

The finery is a desperate effort that will fail. Jerusalem is pictured as a woman who dresses up to win back lovers who are about to turn on her, and the picture is of Judah's…

The finery is a desperate effort that will fail. Jerusalem is pictured as a woman who dresses up to win back lovers who are about to turn on her, and the picture is of Judah's turn to her false gods: “like a harlot rejected by her former lovers, Judah would seek for help from her false gods in an ever more desperate search for relief, but she would find none.”

The image continues the marriage symbolism of chapters 2–3, where Judah is the unfaithful wife. The Church edition footnotes “lovers” as “sensuous lovers” and gives “enlargest thine eyes” as another rendering of the phrase the KJV translates “rentest thy face with painting.” The lovers do not rescue her; they “seek thy life.”

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

31 For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail, and the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child, the voice of the daughter of Zion, that bewaileth herself, that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now! for my soul is wearied because of murderers.

Related Scriptures #

A woman in travail

The chapter ends with the daughter of Zion, “a poetic personification of the city Jerusalem,” crying out “as of a woman in travail,” “that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now!”

The chapter ends with the daughter of Zion, “a poetic personification of the city Jerusalem,” crying out “as of a woman in travail,” “that spreadeth her hands, saying, Woe is me now!” That gesture returns in Lamentations after the fall: “Zion spreadeth forth her hands, and there is none to comfort her” (Lam. 1:17), the verse the Church edition links here. In Jeremiah 4 her cry is still a warning of what is coming; in Lamentations it is the cry after it has come.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture Central, “Why Does Isaiah Prophesy of the Daughter of Zion?”, KnoWhy #550.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 4

The Lord who says “return unto me” (Jer. 4:1) is Jehovah, the premortal Jesus Christ. The inner change He asks for in verse 4 is accepting the covenant in the heart and becoming clean “through faith, repentance, and baptism,” and in the Book of Mormon it is what Christ's people receive. King Benjamin's people report that the Spirit “has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil” (Mosiah 5:2), and Benjamin tells them that because their hearts are changed “through faith on his name,” they are “born of him” and “have become his sons and his daughters” (Mosiah 5:7). Moses had said the Lord Himself would do the circumcising (Deut. 30:6), so the demand “circumcise yourselves” and the promise “the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart” belong together: the change is asked of the people and done by Him.

Worth exploring next

The offer in chapter 3. Read Jer. 3:12–19 and see how the call to return in verse 1 picks up where it leaves off.
The heart. Compare Deut. 10:16 and Deut. 30:6 with Mosiah 5:1–7.
“Peace, peace.” Read Jer. 14:13–16 and Jer. 23:16–17 with verse 10.
The undoing of creation. Read Gen. 1:1–5 and Moses 2:1–5 beside verses 23–26.
The same cry after the fall. Read Lam. 1:17–20.
Lehi on Jerusalem's end and return. Read 1 Ne. 10:2–3.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Joseph Smith Translation, Genesis 17, Gospel Library.
Scripture Central, “Why Does Jeremiah Refer to Circumcising the Heart?”, KnoWhy #872.
Scripture Central, “Why Does Isaiah Prophesy of the Daughter of Zion?”, KnoWhy #550.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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 (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.
“Ensign”, Guide to the Scriptures.
“Zion”, Bible Dictionary.
“Lamentations, book of”, Bible Dictionary.
“Jehovah”, Bible Dictionary.

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