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God Pleads with Israel to Repent

The word of the L ord came to me, saying: ²Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the L ord:

I remember the devotion of your youth,

your love as a bride,

how you followed me in the wilderness,

in a land not sown.

Israel was holy to the L ord,

the first fruits of his harvest.

All who ate of it were held guilty;

disaster came upon them,

says the L ord.

⁴ Hear the word of the L ord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel. ⁵Thus says the L ord:

What wrong did your ancestors find in me

that they went far from me,

and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?

They did not say, “Where is the L ord

who brought us up from the land of Egypt,

who led us in the wilderness,

in a land of deserts and pits,

in a land of drought and deep darkness,

in a land that no one passes through,

where no one lives?”

I brought you into a plentiful land

to eat its fruits and its good things.

But when you entered you defiled my land,

and made my heritage an abomination.

The priests did not say, “Where is the L ord?”

Those who handle the law did not know me;

the rulers transgressed against me;

the prophets prophesied by Baal,

and went after things that do not profit.

Therefore once more I accuse you,

says the L ord,

and I accuse your children’s children.

Cross to the coasts of Cyprus and look,

send to Kedar and examine with care;

see if there has ever been such a thing.

Has a nation changed its gods,

even though they are no gods?

But my people have changed their glory

for something that does not profit.

Be appalled, O heavens, at this,

be shocked, be utterly desolate,

says the L ord,

for my people have committed two evils:

they have forsaken me,

the fountain of living water,

and dug out cisterns for themselves,

cracked cisterns

that can hold no water.

Is Israel a slave? Is he a homeborn servant?

Why then has he become plunder?

The lions have roared against him,

they have roared loudly.

They have made his land a waste;

his cities are in ruins, without inhabitant.

Moreover, the people of Memphis and Tahpanhes

have broken the crown of your head.

Have you not brought this upon yourself

by forsaking the L ord your God,

while he led you in the way?

What then do you gain by going to Egypt,

to drink the waters of the Nile?

Or what do you gain by going to Assyria,

to drink the waters of the Euphrates?

Your wickedness will punish you,

and your apostasies will convict you.

Know and see that it is evil and bitter

for you to forsake the L ord your God;

the fear of me is not in you,

says the Lord G od of hosts.

For long ago you broke your yoke

and burst your bonds,

and you said, “I will not serve!”

On every high hill

and under every green tree

you sprawled and played the whore.

Yet I planted you as a choice vine,

from the purest stock.

How then did you turn degenerate

and become a wild vine?

Though you wash yourself with lye

and use much soap,

the stain of your guilt is still before me,

says the Lord G od.

How can you say, “I am not defiled,

I have not gone after the Baals”?

Look at your way in the valley;

know what you have done—

a restive young camel interlacing her tracks,

a wild ass at home in the wilderness,

in her heat sniffing the wind!

Who can restrain her lust?

None who seek her need weary themselves;

in her month they will find her.

Keep your feet from going unshod

and your throat from thirst.

But you said, “It is hopeless,

for I have loved strangers,

and after them I will go.”

As a thief is shamed when caught,

so the house of Israel shall be shamed—

they, their kings, their officials,

their priests, and their prophets,

who say to a tree, “You are my father,”

and to a stone, “You gave me birth.”

For they have turned their backs to me,

and not their faces.

But in the time of their trouble they say,

“Come and save us!”

But where are your gods

that you made for yourself?

Let them come, if they can save you,

in your time of trouble;

for you have as many gods

as you have towns, O Judah.

Why do you complain against me?

You have all rebelled against me,

says the L ord.

In vain I have struck down your children;

they accepted no correction.

Your own sword devoured your prophets

like a ravening lion.

And you, O generation, behold the word of the L ord!

Have I been a wilderness to Israel,

or a land of thick darkness?

Why then do my people say, “We are free,

we will come to you no more”?

Can a girl forget her ornaments,

or a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me,

days without number.

How well you direct your course

to seek lovers!

So that even to wicked women

you have taught your ways.

Also on your skirts is found

the lifeblood of the innocent poor,

though you did not catch them breaking in.

Yet in spite of all these things

you say, “I am innocent;

surely his anger has turned from me.”

Now I am bringing you to judgment

for saying, “I have not sinned.”

How lightly you gad about,

changing your ways!

You shall be put to shame by Egypt

as you were put to shame by Assyria.

From there also you will come away

with your hands on your head;

for the L ord has rejected those in whom you trust,

and you will not prosper through them.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

He afterwards adds, And I brought you in, etc. Here Jeremiah introduces God as the speaker; for God had, as with his hand stretched forth, brought in the children of Abraham into the possession of the promised land, which they did not get, as it is said in Psalm 44:3, by their own power and by their own sword; for though they had to fight with many enemies, yet it was God that made them victorious. He could then truly say, that they did not otherwise enter the land than under his guidance; inasmuch as he had opened a way and passage for them, and subdued and put to flight their enemies, that they might possess the heritage promised to them. I brought you in, he says, into the land, into Carmel Some consider this to be the name of a place; and no doubt there was the mount Carmel, so called on account of its great fertility. As then its name was given to it because it was so fertile, it is nothing strange that Jeremiah compares the land of Israel to Carmel. Some will have the preposition כ, caph, to be understood, “I have brought you into a land like Carmel.” But there is no need laboriously to turn in all directions the Prophet’s words. It is, as I think, a common noun, meaning fruitful, and used here to shew that the Israelites had been brought by God’s hand into a fertile land; for its fertility is everywhere celebrated, both in the Law and in the Prophets. ³¹³¹ That the word means a fruitful field or country is evident from Isaiah 10:18; Isaiah 16:10; Jeremiah 4:26, etc. there was also a city bearing this name, situated in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:55, and also a mountain belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua 19:26. — Ed.

That ye might eat its fruit and its abundance; that is, “I wished you to enjoy the large and rich produce of the land.” By these words God intimates that the Israelites ought to have been induced by such allurements cordially to serve him; for by such liberal treatment he kindly invited them to himself. The greater, then, the bounty of God towards the people, the greater was the indignity offered by their defection, when they despised the various and abounding blessings of God.

Hence he adds, And ye have polluted my land, ³²³²     “And ye came” is left out. The same verb in a causative sense is used at the beginning of the verse, rendered, “I brought.” It would be more striking to retain the same verb, and not to use “but when” in the latter instance, as in our version, —
   And I caused you to come into a fruitful land, To eat its fruit and its rich produce; And ye came and polluted my land, And made mine heritage an abomination.
   The whole runs thus much better, and has the conciseness of poetry: and the idea intended to be conveyed is more apparent — God caused them to come, and they came. — Ed. and mine heritage have ye made an abomination; as though he had said, “This is the reward by which my bounty towards you has been compensated. I indeed gave you this land, but on this condition, that ye serve me faithfully in it: but ye have polluted it.” He calls it his own land, as though he had said, that he had so given the land to the Israelites, that he remained still the lord of it as a proprietor, though he granted the occupation of it to them. He hence shews that they impiously abused his bounty, in polluting that land which was sacred to his name. For the same purpose he calls it his heritage, as if he said that they possessed the land by an hereditary right, and yet the heritage belonged to their Father. They ought, therefore, to have considered, that they had entered into the land, because it had been given to Abraham and to his children for an heritage, — by whom? By God, who was the fountain of this bounty. The more detestable, then, was their ingratitude, when they made the heritage of God an abomination It follows —

³¹ That the word means a fruitful field or country is evident from Isaiah 10:18; Isaiah 16:10; Jeremiah 4:26, etc. there was also a city bearing this name, situated in the tribe of Judah, Joshua 15:55, and also a mountain belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, Joshua 19:26. — Ed.

³² “And ye came” is left out. The same verb in a causative sense is used at the beginning of the verse, rendered, “I brought.” It would be more striking to retain the same verb, and not to use “but when” in the latter instance, as in our version, — And I caused you to come into a fruitful land, To eat its fruit and its rich produce; And ye came and polluted my land, And made mine heritage an abomination. The whole runs thus much better, and has the conciseness of poetry: and the idea intended to be conveyed is more apparent — God caused them to come, and they came. — Ed.