Jeremiah 6
English Standard Version

Impending Disaster for Jerusalem
6 Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,
    from the midst of Jerusalem!
Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
    and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem,
for disaster looms out of the north,
    and great destruction.
2 The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
    the daughter of Zion.
3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
    they shall pitch their tents around her;
    they shall pasture, each in his place.
4 “Prepare war against her;
    arise, and let us attack at noon!
Woe to us, for the day declines,
    for the shadows of evening lengthen!
5 Arise, and let us attack by night
    and destroy her palaces!”

6 For thus says the LORD of hosts:
“Cut down her trees;
    cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;
    there is nothing but oppression within her.
7 As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her evil;
violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8 Be warned, O Jerusalem,
    lest I turn from you in disgust,
lest I make you a desolation,
    an uninhabited land.”

9 Thus says the LORD of hosts:
“They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
    the remnant of Israel;
like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
    over its branches.”
10 To whom shall I speak and give warning,
    that they may hear?
Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
    they cannot listen;
behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;
    they take no pleasure in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD;
    I am weary of holding it in.
“Pour it out upon the children in the street,
    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
both husband and wife shall be taken,
    the elderly and the very aged.
12 Their houses shall be turned over to others,
    their fields and wives together,
for I will stretch out my hand
    against the inhabitants of the land,”
declares the LORD.
13 “For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
says the LORD.

16 Thus says the LORD:
“Stand by the roads, and look,
    and ask for the ancient paths,
where the good way is; and walk in it,
    and find rest for your souls.
But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 I set watchmen over you, saying,
    ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’
18 Therefore hear, O nations,
    and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
19 Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
    the fruit of their devices,
because they have not paid attention to my words;
    and as for my law, they have rejected it.
20 What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
    or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
    nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21 Therefore thus says the LORD:
‘Behold, I will lay before this people
    stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
fathers and sons together,
    neighbor and friend shall perish.’”

22 Thus says the LORD:
“Behold, a people is coming from the north country,
    a great nation is stirring from the farthest parts of the earth.
23 They lay hold on bow and javelin;
    they are cruel and have no mercy;
    the sound of them is like the roaring sea;
they ride on horses,
    set in array as a man for battle,
    against you, O daughter of Zion!”
24 We have heard the report of it;
    our hands fall helpless;
anguish has taken hold of us,
    pain as of a woman in labor.
25 Go not out into the field,
    nor walk on the road,
for the enemy has a sword;
    terror is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, put on sackcloth,
    and roll in ashes;
make mourning as for an only son,
    most bitter lamentation,
for suddenly the destroyer
    will come upon us.

27 “I have made you a tester of metals among my people,
    that you may know and test their ways.
28 They are all stubbornly rebellious,
    going about with slanders;
they are bronze and iron;
    all of them act corruptly.
29 The bellows blow fiercely;
    the lead is consumed by the fire;
in vain the refining goes on,
    for the wicked are not removed.
30 Rejected silver they are called,
    for the LORD has rejected them.”

The message of Jeremiah is mostly to the people of Jerusalem--the royals, the Levites and the priests living and working around the Temple, and the people that traded their lives of being farmers and shepherds for living in the city.  They thought they were protected by the walls, but the fact that the palace and the Temple were there, and that Jerusalem was up on a high mountain.  If you knew you the enemy was coming, this was the place you would want to be and where you would probably feel most safe.

Jeremiah speaks metaphorically to say that Jerusalem is like a polluted well with no source of fresh water to clean out the pollution and replace the bad water with good water.  This is why it was so important to the people to keep wells and cisterns covered so they would not become polluted--they understood this concept of bad water that was undrinkable.  All the people are greedy and corrupt--even the prophets and the priests are guilty.  They have scorned the LORD, so they will become the objects of His wrath.

He speaks, but they cannot listen, because they do not have the spiritual "circumcised" ears to hear His message and understand it.  His message does not make sense to the natural man (as I described before, they were in the most defensible position in the region and felt safe and secure, and they felt pretty good about their morality and their wisdom.  Both young and old alike were foolish and immoral and stood condemned.  Men and women together were condemned.  Rich and poor together were condemned.  "There is none righteous, no, not even one" as the book of Romans tells us.  All were deserving of the wages of sin, which is death and eternal separation from God.  There will be no peace that comes from obedience and adherence to the Law of God.  True peace comes from being at peace with God--then we can know the peace of God.

They want to foolishly discard the "old ways" and find a "new way" of living (nothing really new about it) where they are in charge and God is not.  God tells them to return to the "old way"--the covenant He made with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and David.  They will not, but the LORD is still calling them to repentance.  If they would have returned, He probably would have forgiven them and given them the blessings of His covenant once again (or at least delayed His judgment until future generations got so far off track that their rebellion could not be ignored).  He will bring disaster upon them because they will not listen too or heed his warnings, and He's going to use pagan Gentiles to do it.

​The LORD is going to let His people be conquered and taken captive.  He will turn their laughing into mourning and weeping.  They will lose everything that they currently value (they will not lose Him, but they currently don't value Him).  Their lives that they imagine as sweet will become bitter--so bitter that they will not be able to sing the Psalms when the Babylonians ask them to sing.  They will hang up their harps in the willow trees of that place and not be able to make music with them.  They will put on sackcloth and ashes and mourn, crying for the LORD to relent and change His mind, but the amount of the days of their punishment have been set--one year for each Sabbath year that they failed to let the Land rest as they were supposed to--70 years total.  The punishment is long, but not forever.  A new generation that has known nothing other than their captivity will return to the Land--for them, it will be like when the Israelites entered Canaan after their bondage in Egypt.  This wicked generation will die in Exile as the wicked generation of the book of Numbers died in the wilderness.  Yet, there was a remnant of the righteous among them that made it almost the entire time, just like how the LORD preserved Joshua and Caleb, He preserved Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. 

Just like fire tests metal to see if it is pure, so this trial would test God's people and burn away their impurities.  Many would start living like the Gentiles around them because that's what they wanted to be.  Some would try to preserve their culture while they were away (this is where the synagogues come from).  Some will be truly devoted to the LORD in the face of threats of death, though many will compromise or give up on their faith completely.  Everyone will be shown for who they truly are when they are persecuted because no one will "fake it" anymore when they are faced with the threat of death for being true to the LORD.  This is why, in many ways, persecution is good for God's people.  Those who are "His people" in name only will renounce their faith and deny Him quickly when they think it might save their lives.  Jesus said it this way, "

Matthew 16:24-27
English Standard Version

Take Up Your Cross and Follow Jesus
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. 26 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come with his angels in the glory of his Father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done.

Jeremiah 5:14-31
English Standard Version

The LORD Proclaims Judgment
14 Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of hosts:
“Because you have spoken this word,
behold, I am making my words in your mouth a fire,
    and this people wood, and the fire shall consume them.
15 Behold, I am bringing against you
    a nation from afar, O house of Israel,
declares the LORD.
It is an enduring nation;
    it is an ancient nation,
a nation whose language you do not know,
    nor can you understand what they say.
16 Their quiver is like an open tomb;
    they are all mighty warriors.
17 They shall eat up your harvest and your food;
    they shall eat up your sons and your daughters;
they shall eat up your flocks and your herds;
    they shall eat up your vines and your fig trees;
your fortified cities in which you trust
    they shall beat down with the sword.”

18 “But even in those days, declares the LORD, I will not make a full end of you. 19 And when your people say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve foreigners in a land that is not yours.’”

20 Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
21 “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
22 Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
    Do you not tremble before me?
I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
24 They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25 Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
26 For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
They set a trap;
    they catch men.
27 Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
therefore they have become great and rich;
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    they judge not with justice
the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29 Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the LORD,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”

30 An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
31 the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?

God will not hold Israel guiltless.  They cannot claim ignorance as God sent Jeremiah (and other prophets) to them with this message of warning.  Judgment will come exactly as the LORD has said and it will consume, but not destroy, the people.  God does not specifically name Babylon as the one He is going to use to punish Judah and Jerusalem, but He describes them as an ancient nation whose language they do not know (Babel was the origins of Babylon, and they are still the seat of that rebellious movement).  God says that this invading force will devour and destroy the crops and resources of the Promised Land.

God will cause everyone to believe that the "nation of Israel" has ceased to exist.  They will go into Exile and people will forget about them being a people in their own land.  They assume their identity will be lost and that they will lose their religious beliefs and practices as they are away from the Temple and living among those who worship other gods with other religious practices.  God did not allow that to happen though--He preserved a remnant for Himself for His pleasure and His glory.  It is miraculous that all the times that the children of Israel have lived in Exile (Egypt, Assyria and Babylon, the Diaspora, and the Holocaust) in all these times and places the LORD preserved the people's language, culture, and religious beliefs--never before has a people been dispersed from their land for thousands of years and have their language, culture, and everything else about them come back to life again when they come back into their land.  It is truly an act of God.

God asks the people why they do not fear Him.  He gives them facts and asks some rhetorical questions much like those He asked Job to let them see how much power He has.  He doesn't just create, He sustains.  If it wasn't for His constant intervention, the oceans would overtake the land, but He give boundaries to them.  He establishes and tears down nations.  He brings the changes in the seasons and the changes in weather patterns that we need.  The winds and the waves obey Him every command whether that is to bring what is necessary for life and prosperity or to bring judgment and destruction.

The LORD is just and cannot let sin and outright iniquity go unpunished (the He is willing to punish His own Son in our place).  He will send men after His people who are hunters of men who follow the example of Nimrod from the book of Genesis (he was probably the first king of the Babylonian Empire).  They fancy themselves to be able to contend with gods and beat them.  Yet, are the "people of God" any different?  God says they are not, and they deserve the same punishment that these Gentiles deserve.  This also gives us some hint though that Babylon will not go unpunished for their sins they will commit, even though it is part of God's plan to use them to accomplish His plans to discipline and punish the people that are called Jacob and not Israel (Jacob was a deceiver and trickster and God changed his name when he had his salvation experience.  Though both names are appropriate for the Hebrew people, God often calls them "Jacob" when they are acting like unsaved people and calls them Israel when they are living like the regenerate people that He has called them to be).

The people have decided not to listen to the voice of God's prophet and to listen to the voice of the false prophets that tell them what they want to hear--peace and prosperity.  They refuse to listen to a message that they need to repent and that judgment and destruction are at their doorstep or that the LORD would use a pagan king to punish them.  They believe that they have license to sin and that they are untouchable as long as they go through the motions of the ritual sacrifices, though their hearts are not in it and they do not obey the Law.  They believe God is stupid and easily manipulated like the pagan deities.  They will find out that He is all-knowing, all-powerful, holy and just.  They will learn the hard way.

Jeremiah 5:1-13
English Standard Version

Jerusalem Refused to Repent
5 Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem,
    look and take note!
Search her squares to see
    if you can find a man,
one who does justice
    and seeks truth,
that I may pardon her.
2 Though they say, “As the LORD lives,”
    yet they swear falsely.
3 O LORD, do not your eyes look for truth?
You have struck them down,
    but they felt no anguish;
you have consumed them,
    but they refused to take correction.
They have made their faces harder than rock;
    they have refused to repent.

4 Then I said, “These are only the poor;
    they have no sense, LORD,
    the justice of their God.
5 I will go to the great
    and will speak to them,
for they know the way of the LORD,
    the justice of their God.”
But they all alike had broken the yoke;
    they had burst the bonds.

6 Therefore a lion from the forest shall strike them down;
    a wolf from the desert shall devastate them.
A leopard is watching their cities;
    everyone who goes out of them shall be torn in pieces,
because their transgressions are many,
    their apostasies are great.

7 “How can I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me
    and have sworn by those who are no gods.
When I fed them to the full,
    they committed adultery
    and trooped to the houses of whores.
8 They were well-fed, lusty stallions,
    each neighing for his neighbor's wife.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?
declares the LORD;
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?

10 “Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
    but make not a full end;
strip away her branches,
    for they are not the LORD's.
11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
    have been utterly treacherous to me,
declares the LORD.
12 They have spoken falsely of the LORD
    and have said, ‘He will do nothing;
no disaster will come upon us,
    nor shall we see sword or famine.
13 The prophets will become wind;
    the word is not in them.
Thus shall it be done to them!’”

God sends Jeremiah on a mission to scour the streets of Jerusalem to see if there is even one man who is righteous and does not deserve the wrath of God that the people have been warned of.  The book of Romans answers this question for us, "There is none righteous; no, not even one."  They go through the motions of worshiping the LORD, but their actions tell another story--they swear falsely, they are stubborn and stiff-necked, and they refuse to repent.

Jeremiah tries to make excuses for the people saying that surely the LORD is only describing the poor people (who are poor in his eyes because they are suffering the consequences of their wickedness, since prosperity and blessing are tied to obedience in the Mosaic Covenant).  Jeremiah decides to go look for the righteous among the wealthy and prosperous people--certainly they have material blessings because they are keeping the LORD's covenant, right?  Not so!  Jeremiah says that they all alike have broken the covenant of the LORD and are deserving of His wrath.

The curses of the Law should come upon them.  Lions, wolves, leopards and other kinds of wild beasts should attack them in their cities and places where they have felt safe.  The animals that used to hide themselves in the forest and desert will no longer be afraid of them and will stalk and hunt them and their little ones.  Why would the LORD do this?  Because the apostasy (the turning away) is so great.  How else is the LORD to get the attention of His people if they will not listen to the Law or the Prophets?

The people cry out for God to pardon them, but at no cost and having learned no lesson.  They want to keep their false gods that are proving to not be real (for they are powerless to save the people since they are false gods).  God has provided for His people keeping them fed and they have taken what He has given them and made sacrifices to other gods that they whore after.  They have given the glory that only belongs to the LORD to idols.  The LORD compares this to adultery as the people of Israel and Judah have been unfaithful in their covenant relationship with Him.  God tells the people that they are acting like animals that have no sense of morality--driven only by instinct and lust.

The LORD says that he is going to go through His vineyard (the nation) and cut off nearly all the branches (the people), but He will not completely destroy the vine.  There is hope that maybe this diseased vine will get better and will produce good fruit again, but, for now, all the branches of the diseased vine must be cut off.  They do not belong to the LORD as they have sworn that they belong to the false gods of the Gentile nations, so they will be treated as such.  Let their gods try to save them.  Will their prophets be able to tell them how to escape the coming judgment of the LORD?  No!  There is no escape, and these so-called prophets have no real knowledge.  The people have exchanged the truth for a lie that they are more comfortable with, but that lie will lead to their destruction because they stopped listening to and obeying the voice of Truth.

Jeremiah 4:19-31
English Standard Version

Anguish over Judah's Desolation
19 My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in pain!
    Oh the walls of my heart!
My heart is beating wildly;
    I cannot keep silent,
for I hear the sound of the trumpet,
    the alarm of war.
20 Crash follows hard on crash;
    the whole land is laid waste.
Suddenly my tents are laid waste,
    my curtains in a moment.
21 How long must I see the standard
    and hear the sound of the trumpet?

22 “For my people are foolish;
    they know me not;
they are stupid children;
    they have no understanding.
They are ‘wise’—in doing evil!
    But how to do good they know not.”

23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void;
    and to the heavens, and they had no light.
24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking,
    and all the hills moved to and fro.
25 I looked, and behold, there was no man,
    and all the birds of the air had fled.
26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert,
    and all its cities were laid in ruins
    before the LORD, before his fierce anger.

27 For thus says the LORD, “The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

28 “For this the earth shall mourn,
    and the heavens above be dark;
for I have spoken; I have purposed;
    I have not relented, nor will I turn back.”

29 At the noise of horseman and archer
    every city takes to flight;
they enter thickets; they climb among rocks;
    all the cities are forsaken,
    and no man dwells in them.
30 And you, O desolate one,
what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,
    that you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold,
    that you enlarge your eyes with paint?
In vain you beautify yourself.
    Your lovers despise you;
    they seek your life.
31 For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor,
    anguish as of one giving birth to her first child,
the cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath,
    stretching out her hands,
“Woe is me! I am fainting before murderers.”

Jeremiah writes God's words about how He feels about having to punish the people of Judah, destroy their cities, including Jerusalem and to let the Temple be destroyed.  It pains Him to have to do this, and He wishes it wasn't necessary, but He knows it must happen.  They have heard the prophets and they have seen the other warning signs of wars and rumors of wars, but they have not heeded the warnings.

God calls them stupid and rebellious children who only know how to do what is wrong and will never know how to do what is right.  They are wise in their own eyes, but their "wisdom" is foolishness.  Everything they thought was certain and secure will be disrupted so that they will have no foundation to build on but the LORD.  Yet, it was this judgment that they deserved that was poured out on Jesus--look at how it talks about the earth reacting quaking and the sky becoming black at midday.  All that happened at the crucifixion.  We don't know that it happened at any other time before or since like it happened on that day.  The Son drank of the cup of the wrath of God to the bitter dregs so that we didn't have to.

Judgment is coming, and the people are still flaunting their sin.  They are dressed in scarlet and adorned in golden jewelry (like the women who walk the street looking to pick up men).  The people are proud of their sin and advertise it.  They will try to take cover behind the rocks, but they will jump into thorn bushes (they will not escape punishment).  The LORD is in some ways sorry that He "gave birth" to this people, to this nation, but He knows that salvation for them and all the people of the world is coming.  The people just need to not be completely destroyed before then.  God will make sure that His plan moves forward despite the people that call themselves the people of God doing everything they can to torpedo that plan.  If only they had listened to God's call to be His people and be a light to the Gentile nations.  Now it is said of them, "If the light in them is darkness, how great is that darkness."  Yet, God does use this people to take the gospel to the whole world and to be the authors of both the Old Testament and New Testament books, and certainly, God is not finished with His people Israel yet as we read in the Prophets, but also in the Gospels, in Acts, and in the Epistles, and in the book of Revelation.  God certainly has a plan for Israel to be His witnesses and to be evangelists to take His gospel message to the whole world. 

Jeremiah 4:5-18
English Standard Version

Disaster from the North
5 Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say,

“Blow the trumpet through the land;
    cry aloud and say,
‘Assemble, and let us go
    into the fortified cities!’
6 Raise a standard toward Zion,
    flee for safety, stay not,
for I bring disaster from the north,
    and great destruction.
7 A lion has gone up from his thicket,
    a destroyer of nations has set out;
    he has gone out from his place
to make your land a waste;
    your cities will be ruins
    without inhabitant.
8 For this put on sackcloth,
    lament and wail,
for the fierce anger of the LORD
    has not turned back from us.”

9 “In that day, declares the LORD, courage shall fail both king and officials. The priests shall be appalled and the prophets astounded.” 10 Then I said, “Ah, LORD God, surely you have utterly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, ‘It shall be well with you,’ whereas the sword has reached their very life.”

11 At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A hot wind from the bare heights in the desert toward the daughter of my people, not to winnow or cleanse, 12 a wind too full for this comes for me. Now it is I who speak in judgment upon them.”

13 Behold, he comes up like clouds;
    his chariots like the whirlwind;
his horses are swifter than eagles--
    woe to us, for we are ruined!
14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from evil,
    that you may be saved.
How long shall your wicked thoughts
    lodge within you?
15 For a voice declares from Dan
    and proclaims trouble from Mount Ephraim.
16 Warn the nations that he is coming;
    announce to Jerusalem,
“Besiegers come from a distant land;
    they shout against the cities of Judah.
17 Like keepers of a field are they against her all around,
    because she has rebelled against me,
declares the LORD.
18 Your ways and your deeds
    have brought this upon you.
This is your doom, and it is bitter;
    it has reached your very heart.”

God tells Judah and Jerusalem to prepare for an invasion from the North.  He tells them to blow the trumpets to assemble the people, not to fight in the war (for they will lose if they try), but to take shelter as much as possible in the walled city of Jerusalem (apparently, it will be kept safe) and to flee if they are unable to make it a walled city.

Though the LORD told them ahead of time, they will accuse Him of deceiving them and making them think that they were safe and going to prosper.  He did not such thing, but He allowed them to believe these delusions that had been concocted for them.  Now the king, the priests, the prophets and the people will all be taken by surprise when their lives are put in jeopardy by this opposing force.  However, it is the LORD Himself who is pictured as the one bringing judgment and wrath.  Though He is using other nations to do so, He is the one executing judgment.  He will even bring the forces of nature to bear to do battle against the wickedness of the people of Judah and Jerusalem.  Even the pagan people who the LORD will use to judge His people will know they are being used by the LORD to execute His judgment.

Jeremiah 3:6-4:4
English Standard Version

Faithless Israel Called to Repentance
6 The LORD said to me in the days of King Josiah: “Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? 7 And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. 9 Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the LORD.”

11 And the LORD said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say,

“‘Return, faithless Israel,
declares the LORD.
I will not look on you in anger,
    for I am merciful,
declares the LORD;
I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt,
    that you rebelled against the LORD your God
and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree,
    and that you have not obeyed my voice,
declares the LORD.
14 Return, O faithless children,
declares the LORD;
    for I am your master;
I will take you, one from a city and two from a family,
    and I will bring you to Zion.

15 “‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16 And when you have multiplied and been fruitful in the land, in those days, declares the LORD, they shall no more say, “The ark of the covenant of the LORD.” It shall not come to mind or be remembered or missed; it shall not be made again. 17 At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the LORD, and all nations shall gather to it, to the presence of the LORD in Jerusalem, and they shall no more stubbornly follow their own evil heart. 18 In those days the house of Judah shall join the house of Israel, and together they shall come from the land of the north to the land that I gave your fathers for a heritage.

19 “‘I said,
    How I would set you among my sons,
and give you a pleasant land,
    a heritage most beautiful of all nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
    and would not turn from following me.
20 Surely, as a treacherous wife leaves her husband,
    so have you been treacherous to me, O house of Israel,
declares the LORD.’”

21 A voice on the bare heights is heard,
    the weeping and pleading of Israel's sons
because they have perverted their way;
    they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22 “Return, O faithless sons;
    I will heal your faithlessness.”
“Behold, we come to you,
    for you are the LORD our God.
23 Truly the hills are a delusion,
    the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the LORD our God
    is the salvation of Israel.

24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day, and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

4 “If you return, O Israel,
declares the LORD,
    to me you should return.
If you remove your detestable things from my presence,
    and do not waver,
2 and if you swear, ‘As the LORD lives,’
    in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then nations shall bless themselves in him,
    and in him shall they glory.”

3 For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:

“Break up your fallow ground,
    and sow not among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;
    remove the foreskin of your hearts,
    O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;
lest my wrath go forth like fire,
    and burn with none to quench it,
    because of the evil of your deeds.”

God does not mince His words when He speaks to Jeremiah about Israel playing the whore when they go to worship all the other gods of all the other nations on every hilltop and in every grove during the days of King Josiah.  Josiah was a "good" king, but the people still bound themselves to their idols.  She never returned home, never tired of her life of shameful rebellion, and now the Land is polluted by her sin.  Only in pretense does she come back when she wants something.

God calls out Judah and says that the northern kingdom of Israel is "more righteous" than they are.  That was a slap in the face to the kingdom of Judah that was made up the people of Judah, Benjamin and Levi and had the Temple and all who served in it and the kings.  They fancied themselves the righteous ones when Israel had wicked kings like Jeroboam and Ahab, but the LORD sees the heart and is not fooled by the outward actions that are just going through the motions of "going to church" with an insincere heart for the people of the southern kingdom.

God calls all of Israel (but especially the northern 10 tribes) to return to Him and to stop worshiping their idols (they will not and will be first to go into Exile).  God promises that if the northern tribes return to the LORD, they will have access to Mount Zion (The Temple) again, which they have been cut off from.  He also promises good king (shepherds) for them.  He will reunite the divided kingdom under one king who will be a good king--ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, but the kingdom was reunited after the Exile.

​The LORD wishes to restore them and bless them again, even though they have been treacherous and deserve nothing of the sort.  (Aren't we glad that the LORD doesn't give us what we deserve).  The LORD continues to send them prophets to call His people to repentance, but they do not listen to them--they even threaten the prophets with persecution and death.  The prefer the false prophets that will say whatever the king and the people are willing to pay for.  Want the gods to curse your enemies?  That can be arranged for a price.  Want a prophecy of blessing?  That too can be bought for a price.  You get the idea.  The whole system of false gods and false prophets was meant to enrich the priestly class and the gods were really powerless to do anything to bless or to curse because they were not real.  These demons only had the limited power that the LORD allowed them to have.

The LORD invites the northern kingdom (and the southern kingdom too) to return to Him, but they have to get rid of their idols if they are going to come back.  They cannot have a divided heart and a double-mind.  That would be like inviting the woman you had married back to be your wife while she is having an open elicit affair with another man that everyone knows about.  You would not do that--you would tell her that she has to stop seeing other men and live in accordance with her marital vows if she is to return to your house and live as your wife.

The LORD then changes metaphors and says they are like land that was once a vineyard that has laid fallow and needs to be tilled and cultivated so that the stones and weeds and thorns are removed and the walls rebuilt so that animals do not make their dens and nests there.  God calls them to circumcise their hearts so that they become His people not only with an outward commitment to the covenant, but an inward one.  Otherwise, there is no choice than for the landowner (the LORD) to set the land on fire to burn up the weeds and thorns and thistles if the land refuses to grow good things even after it is cultivated.  The LORD will eventually judge them if they do not turn to Him in repentance.  That day is coming soon when the kingdoms of Assyria and Babylon (both very wicked kingdoms) will be used by God to judge His people.

Jeremiah 3:1-5
English Standard Version

3 “If a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
    will he return to her?
Would not that land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
    and would you return to me?
declares the LORD.
2 Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see!
    Where have you not been ravished?
By the waysides you have sat awaiting lovers
    like an Arab in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
    with your vile whoredom.
3 Therefore the showers have been withheld,
    and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have the forehead of a whore;
    you refuse to be ashamed.
4 Have you not just now called to me,
    ‘My father, you are the friend of my youth--
5 will he be angry forever,
    will he be indignant to the end?’
Behold, you have spoken,
    but you have done all the evil that you could.”

This is a continuation of the last passage where the LORD is laying out how He has been wronged, His Bride, Israel, has broken covenant with Him and that He has every right to execute judgment against them for breaking covenant (and to seek a divorce from them).  They have not only acted as if they have divorced Him (a divorce He never agreed to), but they have already wed themselves to the pagan god of the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Philistines and every other pagan group that was around them or even powerful nations that were some distance away (Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, etc.).  They are like a prostitute that sells herself for a "flash in the pan" with many men--there is nothing lasting or truly satisfying about it.  It can't compare to the true covenant relationship of marriage that it is a cheap imitation of, and yet, people return it like a dog returns to its vomit.

The physical destruction that is going to eventually come upon the people of Israel will be an outward showing of what has already happened to them internally.  They are ravaged and their defenses are broken down.  Their Land will become as polluted as their lives are--full of all kinds of unclean things.  They will be intermixed with the Gentiles, and many will lose their identity as they choose to become one with them. 

God compares them to a rebellious child that has sown his wild oats and is facing the consequences of his actions and cries out to the father he has cursed and abandoned when he wants someone to take the consequences of his actions away.  The LORD will make them face the consequences of their actions so that they will learn that the Law is good and that there is blessing in keeping the covenant and choosing to be the LORD's covenant people.  It will be a hard lesson for them that they will not want to repeat.  Yet, by the time of Jesus, they have tried to retell their history like it never even happened.  They spoke of Moses and God leading them to the Promised Land, but they did not speak of their rebellious, stiff-necked ancestors that didn't want the blessings God had for them.  They refused to speak of the Exile and pretended that they had been slaves to no one even as they were currently occupied by the Romans.  This kind of revisionist history is dangerous as we should try to learn from the mistakes of the past that have been recorded for us so that we do not make them again. Now people simply refuse to read the history that is there in front of them.  It's just as dangerous.  Times may have changed a bit, but God has not, and, for the most part, humans have not changed either.  Therefore, there is much that we can still learn from the Old Testament about God and the people He wants to be in covenant with.