3 Therefore the ashowers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a bharlot’s forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.
4 Will you not from this time cry to Me, ‘My Father, You areathe guide of bmy youth?
5aWill He remain angry forever? Will He keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and done evil things, As you were able.”
A Call to Repentance
6 The Lord said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what abacksliding Israel has done? She has bgone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.
7aAnd I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous bsister Judah saw it.
8 Then I saw that afor all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had bput her away and given her a certificate of divorce; cyet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.
9 So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she adefiled the land and committed adultery with bstones and trees.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me awith her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the Lord.
11 Then the Lord said to me, a“Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward athe north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I ambmerciful,’ says the Lord; ‘I will not remain angry forever.
13aOnly acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the Lord your God, And have bscattered your charms To calien deities dunder every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the Lord.
14 “Return, O backsliding children,” says the Lord; a“for I am married to you. I will take you, bone from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to cZion.
he—"thou," the second person, had preceded. The change to the third person implies a putting away of God to a greater distance from them; instead of repenting and forsaking their idols, they merely deprecate the continuance of their punishment. Jeremiah 3:12 and Psalms 103:9, answer their question in the event of their penitence.
spoken and—rather (God's reply to them), "Thou hast spoken (thus), and yet (all the while) thou hast done evil," etc.
as thou couldest—with all thy might; with incorrigible persistency [CALVIN].
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Jeremiah 3:5:
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