Logos Bible Study

Jeremiah 3:22–25

The NET BibleOther versions

English

Arabic

Czech

French

German

Hebrew

Hungarian

Italian

Korean

Latin

Portuguese

Russian

Simplified Chinese

Spanish

Traditional Chinese

3:22Come back to me, you wayward people.

I want to cure your waywardness.55

Say,56 ‘Here we are. We come to you

because you are the Lord our God.

3:23We know our noisy worship of false gods

on the hills and mountains did not help us.57

We know that the Lord our God

is the only one who can deliver Israel.58

3:24From earliest times our worship of that shameful god, Baal,

has taken away59 all that our ancestors60 worked for.

It has taken away our flocks and our herds,

and even our sons and daughters.

3:25Let us acknowledge61 our shame.

Let us bear the disgrace that we deserve.62

For we have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our ancestors.

From earliest times to this very day

we have not obeyed the Lord our God.’

Read in Logos

Footnotes

  1. 55 Or “I will forgive your apostasies.” Heb “I will [or want to] heal your apostasies.” For the use of the verb “heal” (רָפָא, rafa’) to refer to spiritual healing and forgiveness see Hos 14:4.
  2. 56 Or “They say.” There is an obvious ellipsis of a verb of saying here since the preceding words are those of the Lord and the following are those of the people. However, there is debate about whether these are the response of the people to the Lord’s invitation, a response which is said to be inadequate according to the continuation in 4:1–4, or whether these are the Lord’s model for Israel’s confession of repentance to which he adds further instructions about the proper heart attitude that should accompany it in 4:1–4. The former implies a dialogue with an unmarked twofold shift in speaker between 3:22b–25 and 4:1–4:4 while the latter assumes the same main speaker throughout with an unmarked instruction only in 3:22b–25. This disrupts the flow of the passage less and appears more likely.
  3. 57 Heb “Truly in vain from the hills the noise/commotion [and from] the mountains.” The syntax of the Hebrew sentence is very elliptical here.
  4. 58 Heb “Truly in the Lord our God is deliverance for Israel.”
  5. 59 Heb “From our youth the shameful thing has eaten up …” The shameful thing is specifically identified as Baal in Jer 11:13. Compare also the shift in certain names such as Ishbaal (“man of Baal”) to Ishbosheth (“man of shame”).
  6. 60 Heb “fathers” (also in v. 25).
  7. 61 Heb “Let us lie down in.…”
  8. 62 Heb “Let us be covered with disgrace.”

The NET Bible First Edition, Copyright 1996-2005 by Biblical Studies Press

In other versions

ESVEnglish Standard Version

“Return, O faithless sons;

I will heal your faithlessness.”

“Behold, we come to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

Truly the hills are a delusion,

the orgies on the mountains.

Truly in the Lord our God

is the salvation of Israel.

“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. 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.”

Copyright 2001 Crossway Bibles

NIVNew International Version (2011)

“Return, faithless people;

I will cure you of backsliding.”

“Yes, we will come to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

Surely the idolatrous commotion on the hills

and mountains is a deception;

surely in the Lord our God

is the salvation of Israel.

From our youth shameful gods have consumed

the fruits of our ancestors’ labor—

their flocks and herds,

their sons and daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame,

and let our disgrace cover us.

We have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our ancestors;

from our youth till this day

we have not obeyed the Lord our God.”

Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 Biblica, Inc.

CSBChristian Standard Bible

Return, you faithless children.

I will heal your unfaithfulness.

“Here we are, coming to you,

for you are the Lord our God.

Surely, falsehood comes from the hills,

commotion from the mountains,

but the salvation of Israel

is only in the Lord our God.

From the time of our youth

the shameful one has consumed

what our ancestors have worked for—

their flocks and their herds,

their sons and their daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame;

let our disgrace cover us.

We have sinned against the Lord our God,

both we and our ancestors,

from the time of our youth even to this day.

We have not obeyed the Lord our God.”

Copyright 2017 Holman Bible Publishers

NLTNew Living Translation

“My wayward children,” says the Lord,

“come back to me, and I will heal your wayward hearts.”

“Yes, we’re coming,” the people reply,

“for you are the Lord our God.

Our worship of idols on the hills

and our religious orgies on the mountains

are a delusion.

Only in the Lord our God

will Israel ever find salvation.

From childhood we have watched

as everything our ancestors worked for—

their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters—

was squandered on a delusion.

Let us now lie down in shame

and cover ourselves with dishonor,

for we and our ancestors have sinned

against the Lord our God.

From our childhood to this day

we have never obeyed him.”

Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.

LEBThe Lexham English Bible

Return, O apostate children,

I will heal your backsliding.

‘Look, we come to you,

for you are Yahweh our God.

Surely, an illusion comes from the hills,

the turmoil on the mountains.

Surely, in Yahweh our God

is the salvation of Israel.

But the shameful thing has devoured

the labor of our ancestors from our youth,

their flocks, and their cattle,

their sons and their daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame,

and let our disgrace cover us.

For against Yahweh our God we have sinned,

we and our ancestors,

from our youth and until this day.

and we have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God.’

Copyright 2012 Lexham Press

KJV 1900King James Version

Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the Lord our God. 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. For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 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.

Public Domain