Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 3:21
A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping [and] supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, [and] they have forgotten the LORD their God.
21. bare heights ] For the choice of such places for lamentation cp. ch. Jer 7:29; Isa 15:2; Jdg 11:37.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
21 25. Vividly drawn picture of Judah’s repentance. From the high places, the very scenes of her idolatrous excess, there comes a sound, at first of inarticulate weeping. In response to Jehovah’s gracious invitation, the emotion ventures to express itself in words of deep shame and contrition.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Upon the high places – Upon those bare table-lands, which previously had been the scene of Israels idolatries Jer 3:2. The prophet supposes the offer of mercy to Israel if repentant to have been accepted, and describes Israels agony of grief now that she is convinced of her sins.
Weeping and supplications – literally, the weeping of earliest prayers for mercy.
For they have … – Rather, because they hare perverted their way, literally, made it crooked. It gives the reason of their cry for mercy.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 3:21-25
Return . . . and I will heal your backslidings.
Hope for the worst backsliders
I. The call from God. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.
1. It is a call to come back to God; and that means, first, remember Him; begin to think of Him; let Him be a living God to you.
2. The next thing is, really turn to Him.
3. There is one word in this call from God which proves that you are invited to come back just as you are, He says, Return, ye backsliding children; not Return, ye penitent children. I notice also that He does not say, Heal your wounds first, and then come back to Me; but He says, Return, ye backsliding children, with all your backslidings unhealed,–and I will heal your backslidings.
II. The method of obeying this call.
1. He who would return to God, and find salvation, must distinctly renounce all other trust except that which God Himself gives him and sets before him in the Gospel. First, there must be a distinct renunciation of all righteousness of your own. The next thing that you must renounce is, your own strength. With that must also go all trust in your own knowledge and abilities, and even in your own understanding.
2. There must also be a hearty, true-minded acceptance of God alone as our one hope. Notice how the text says, Truly in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. There must be no playing at this acceptance of God as our one hope; there must be no mocking of God by a pretended yielding up of ourselves to Him. It must be a true acceptance of God, to be our God henceforth and forever. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The essence of love
I. A kindly remembrance. God, speaking to backsliders, says, I remember thee.
II. A shocking calamity. Ye who once were as a lighthouse set upon a rock, to guide men, are now a delusion and a snare. Your light has gone out. What a corruption there would be if it were not for the salt of the ocean. When you were converted to God you were the salt in the ocean of humanity, but now the salt hath lost its power. You are useless, and humanity seethes in the pollution of sin. You live probably in a house where there are wicked ones; you work amongst swearers, and sceptics, and drunkards, but you are powerless. The salt has lost its savour. Oh, backslider, dismantled, ruined, empty, may God rebuild you!
III. A loving message. Return. Have you read of the widow whose daughter fell into the pathway of wrong! One night the poor girl returned to her mothers cottage. She went up the garden path and stood in the little porchway, and, to her surprise, she saw the door a little way open. She pushed it and entered. She went into the little room which used to be her own, and found a night light burning there, and her bed ready, as it always had been. She lay upon the bed, and was awoke by her mothers kiss. Mother, how is it that you left the door unlatched and the light burning? It was that you might not have a minute to wait when you came back. This is just the way in which our heavenly Father treats us. It is the essence of love!
IV. A gracious promise. Poor backslider, you are wretchedly miserable; for Gods message has sunk very deep into your heart. You have drunk from the cup of sin; but you have also been bitten by the poisonous serpent, and the worm of unhappiness is gnawing at your heart. God says, I will heal thy backslidings. He will not let wound keep running. He will heal it; not like the burns and scalds that have left terrible marks upon our flesh. When we return to God He heals the wound; and there shall be no mark left of it, for He says, I have blotted out thy transgressions. (W. Birch.)
Backsliding children
I. What it is to backslide. In Scripture the word backslide means a turning away from God altogether. It is usually, if not always, the sin of idolatry; it is the wife departing from her husband, as in this chapter (Jer 3:1-2; Jer 3:8; Pro 14:14). There may be in a spiritual sense a real though not apparent departing from God. There may be an unfaithfulness, not an act only, but a state. There may be half-heartedness for a time. The once tender conscience may become hardened; the once lowly spirit may become lifted up. With some it shows itself in worldly entanglements, seeking increase of business. In the midst of all this there may be no grossness, but specious arguments for exculpation. But there is woeful neglect of secret transactions with God. Prayer is not wholly omitted, but not conscientiously followed up. Perhaps there may be a lightness of spirit in prayer; perhaps there may be hardness. There may be an expressed value for the doctrines of grace; but they are as opiates to lull to sleep, not as stimulants to rouse to action. But, irrespective of all false notions with respect to the truth, there is oft much backsliding. The comforts of life have acted, it may be, as drags upon the wheels. Perhaps the very trials of life, instead of drawing us as magnets, have acted as repellants, and driven us away from God. Perhaps very weariness of body and exhaustion of mind have led to secret neglectings of God, and what was occasional at last became habitual. It is by the small edge of the wedge the whole wedge is at last inserted. When a river bursts through its embankment, one little spadeful of earth might have stopped the flood. He that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little. But the point is this–there may be fearful backsliding in heart, and not a speck of grossness in the life; and satisfied am I, that if we do not feel this, we shall, if we are Gods children, be taught it, it may be with many stripes.
II. The tender expostulation. Return. Here were idolaters in the grossest sense, and yet were they called to return. Before any symptom of amendment, any humblings of soul, yet Return. So Hearken unto Me, not ye broken-hearted only that walk, or are beginning to walk, righteously, but ye stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. What an aspect of tenderness! and what losers are they that see not this! The first overture was from God. The outstretched hand to an idolater, to a rebel. Oh, how clearly does it show us that if there were no election, there would be no salvation. Nature will reject all providences, all mercies, all overtures, even the outstretched hand of God.
III. The answer. Behold, we come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord our God. See the overcoming power of love. There was reproof of their departures, expostulation with them for their sin, there was displeasure for their iniquities, but there was the most winning display of love in them all, and it was this which overcame. Force may compel, fear may deter, reason may persuade, and the Holy Spirit may use them all, but the great principle that moves the human heart is love. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
An invitation to backsliders
The Jews were a people prone to idolatry. Though favoured with peculiar privileges, they were bent to backsliding. At the time when these words were addressed to them, Josiah sat on the throne. He was a pious king and strove to uproot idolatry. His efforts were seconded by Jeremiah; but both king and prophet failed. Many years before, the ten tribes of Israel, for their apostasy, had been carried into captivity. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto Me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord (verse 10). This state of things deeply affected the prophets mind, and caused him to give utterance to the most plaintive and pathetic language.
I. The characters addressed. Backsliding children.
1. These are undutiful children. They have proved unfaithful to their solemn vows and sacred obligations–to their Christian brethren–to their God and Father. He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie; but they turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. What crime can equal that of rebellion against parental authority? An unfaithful servant or steward is bad enough, but an unfaithful, undutiful child is vastly worse.
2. Ungrateful children. And theirs is ingratitude of the basest kind. It resembles the ingratitude of a freed slave who forgets his emancipator, and sells himself again into bondage.
3. Unwise children. Are they not unwise who forsake their own mercies and follow after lying vanities; who prefer broken cisterns to the fountain of living waters?
4. Unhappy children. They are often unhappy in their circumstances. Others may enjoy the world, but they cannot. Recollections of their lost Paradise, and apprehensions of future wrath, tend to embitter every earthly comfort.
5. Unsafe children. Heavens just wrath is awakened against them. Hells blackest gloom and fiercest flame await them.
6. But children still though they have forfeited the privileges of adoption, and have been deprived of the witness of the Spirit, their relation to God as their Creator is not dissolved, and their former interest in His favour is not forgotten.
II. The invitation given. Return.
1. By sincere repentance.
2. Earnest prayer.
3. Evangelical faith–faith in Christ.
4. Renewed self-dedication.
III. The promise made. I will heal your backslidings. The Lord heals backslidings in many ways,–frequently by restoring.
1. Providential blessings. Many men are chastised here that they may not be punished hereafter. The Israelites never departed from God without feeling the effects of His displeasure in their temporal circumstances.
2. Peace of conscience.
3. Purity of heart. How polluted is the heart of a backslider! His last state is worse than his first.
4. Honour and usefulness. (J. Hodgson.)
Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God.
True repentance
I. It proceeds from the inmost heart.
1. Weeping (verse 21).
2. Shame (verse 25).
II. It is free from all dissimulation. Its principle is sorrow at having grieved God by the abuse of His love (verse 21).
III. It is made known by the honest fruits of repentance.
1. Apostasies healed (verse 22).
2. Detestation of evil (verse 24).
3. Yearning for the Lord (verse 25). (Origen.)
Conversion to God
I. What is it for sinners to come to God?
1. A relinquishing of everything that is contrary to God, and keeps us at a distance from Him.
2. A making use of Christ as the way to God.
(1) There would have been no place for repentance if Christ had not interposed with His blood.
(2) There never would have been any principle or exercise of repentance if Christ did not produce it by His Spirit.
3. A giving up of ourselves to God, and resting in Him as our end.
II. How should sinners come to God, in obedience to the precept, and upon the encouragement of the promise?
1. How must they come in obedience to the precept?
(1) Sinners are to come to God humbly; and that in consideration of the command of God, upon two accounts. All acts of obedience to God are to be performed with humbleness of mind. Returning to God after former acts of disobedience requires special humiliation.
(2) We are to come to God readily. When God is so kind to admit your return, there is no reason that He should wait for it.
2. How must they come upon the encouragement of the promise?
(1) Sinners are to come to God believingly, with regard to the promise: for these two reasons,–
(a) If faith be not the spring of all our motions towards God, they cannot be acceptable to Him.
(b) The promise does encourage such a faith, as much as we need or can desire. Besides His gracious entreaties, affectionate offers, importunate pleadings, you have His positive assurances that He will receive you if you return (2Co 6:17).
(2) Sinners must come joyfully to God. The promise is ground of rejoicing, as well as of hope and trust; and God never designed that our sorrow for sin should be so extreme as to stifle or drown the joy of conversion. God who makes the promise rejoices in the performance (Zep 3:17; Luk 15:15). We who have the benefit of the promise must needs be still doubtful of it if we do not rejoice in it. If we had faith suitable to the faithfulness of God, it would transport the soul into an ecstasy, that we who have lifted up our heels so oft against God should be taken into His arms.
III. Wherein lies the blessedness of this?
1. When a sinner comes back to God he is brought out of a most miserable, wilderness condition, wherein if he had remained he must have perished.
2. When a sinner comes to God salvation comes to him.
3. When a sinner comes home to God, all his fellow creatures shall be some way or other serviceable to him, either willingly and gladly, or by constraint and over-ruling necessity.
4. When a sinner is come to God he must visit God by prayer in all his necessities, and be sure of sufficient relief.
5. A sinner that is come to God may sweetly walk and converse with God, through the residue of his life; and the benefit and sweetness of such communion is not to be imagined by those that have it not; they that are far from God can be no judges of the blessedness of those that are near unto Him.
6. A sinner that is come to God may go to Him with comfort and confidence at death, whether sooner or later.
IV. Use.
1. This shows that they who will not come to God are not come to themselves (Luk 15:17).
2. Ministers will have a dreadful and unpleasing account to give of those whom they leave unpersuaded.
3. God will be justified in their condemnation, to whom His precepts and promises avail nothing.
4. The devil can lay no blocks in our way against our coming unto God but what we may easily remove or courageously leap over, if we look no further than this text.
5. How unreasonable would it be if any of the storms we meet with in our way to God should ever drive us back, or shipwreck our faith!
6. How happy would it be if the efficacy of this doctrine were equal to the concernment of it! It extends to all that are born into the world, and therefore should operate upon all. (T. Cruso.)
The call of God obeyed
I. The state of the persons here addressed. Backsliding children.
1. They had forgotten the Lord their God. All sin may be traced to this. God is forgotten by us. We forget the majesty and purity of His nature; His nearness to us; that His eye is ever upon us; and that darkness and light are both alike to Him. We forget His unspeakable love and goodness, and our manifold, increasing obligations. Strange that, amidst innumerable tokens of remembrance, we should be careless and thoughtless!
2. They had perverted their way. This is the natural effect of forgetting God. Have not we perverted our way? In innumerable instances we have struggled against the voice of reason, the voice of conscience, the voice of God; and, against the plainest dictates of His Word, have wandered in foolish, forbidden paths.
3. They were filled with painful regret. The high places were the seat of Israels idolatry: there they committed abomination, and provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger. But where they sinned, there they gave vent to their sorrow; and there they supplicated Divine forgiveness and favour. And, truly, if we are the subjects of genuine repentance, we shall do the same: where we have sinned, we shall sorrow too.
II. The gracious language of God to these backsliding children.
1. A friendly call. Return. Doubtless authority marks this word, and the word of Jehovah is never to be trifled with. It is an invitation given; but it is also a command, which may not be slighted; a solemn charge, which cannot with impunity be refused.
2. A precious promise. I will heal, etc.
(1) Backsliding inflicts a disease, a dangerous and fatal disease. But the promise before us implies that God is ready to restore health and cure.
(2) The effects of sin are numerous and destructive. Sin not only dishonours God, and wounds the soul, but it creates a thick cloud of mental darkness: it is the fruitful source of trouble and disquietude. But when the Lord promises to heal backslidings, He engages to extract this bitterness, to avert this punishment.
(3) The promise here is not indiscriminately given; it is to the sinner that returns to God. Return, and I will heal your backslidings. He does this by an act of sovereign favour (Mic 7:18-19).
III. The obedient reply of these people.
1. This reply is practical: We tome unto Thee. As the prodigal: he did not spend his time in fruitless wishes or satisfy himself with good intentions and right resolutions: his language was, I will arise, and go to my father. Immediately, he arose, and came to his father.
2. The reply is prompt; made with the utmost readiness, and given without the least demur. The call is, Return; the answer instantly subjoined is, Behold, we come. It reminds us of the promptness of the Psalmist, in his compliance with the voice of heaven (Psa 27:8).
3. The reply is deliberate. The note of attention intimates this. Behold! we come. Though the penitent believer is ready, he is not rash; though, under the influence of Divine grace, he soon determines, he does it advisedly; his repentance is of that kind which never needs to be repented of.
4. The reply is unanimous. Here is the prayer and resolution of the Church: she prays as one person, actuated by one spirit draw me: she resolves as many persons, answering, with cheerful concurrence, we will run after Thee.
5. The reply springs from a clear conviction of duty, interest, and obligation. Thou art the Lord our God. It is the language of faith, and hope, and love; especially of gratitude, and self-dedication. (T. Kidd.)
Return to God
1. In the first place, we see what a true recovery from this state really is, Behold, we come unto Thee. This is true repentance. It is coming back to God, a returning home. There may be a turning to doctrinal comfort, and no returning to God. Till this, the backsliding continues. Behold, we come to Thee, say all returning backsliders; we come and lay our sins, our idols, ourselves, at Thy feet. And nothing short of this is real repentance, anything short of this is, under fair pretexts, soul deceptions.
2. But what else does it imply? Returning by the right way–faith. There is no real return to God but in the way we first met Him–in Jesus: No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. All the tears, all the sorrow and resolutions of amendment, have no power to bring us back to God. But when faith lays hold upon Jesus and His great atonement, it brings me up at once to God. I hang back no more. I hide myself no more. I make no vain excuses now. I hate my sins. I lie low. It is a valley, and it suits the lowly lily well.
3. And who is the author of all this? The same blessed Spirit who first revealed Jesus, and God the Father in Him. And nothing short of this. When sin in any measure regains power, deadening process instantly begins. The soul is commanded to confess; but in proportion to the length of time of the departure, and the degree of power of it, there seems an inability to confess. There is a want of spiritual sensibility. Oh then, how should we beware of the first appearance of evil! Beware, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
4. Consider the great motive by which it is led back, the motive by which He works. It is the overcoming power of love. There was displeasure. Wounds were inflicted, wounds pungent and trying–wounds full of anguish were they, such as no human balm could assuage; but it was but the varied countenance of love. These wounds did but speak two things–His unsullied holiness, and equally His untiring love.
The subject has a two-fold bearing. First, as it regards our treatment of others, then that of our own souls.
1. First, others. We are all, as saints, more or less called amid our familiar friends and associates, to deal with those in whom we hope there is a spark of grace, yet little true, spiritual, holy light.
2. And now a few words to the believer in reference to himself. It may be that some one may be conscious–This is my own state. I have been not merely today, nor yesterday, but for many yesterdays, departing from God. Alas! that this should be so common. But, however, trifle not with it. It is not to be trifled with. Seek instant healing. Tarry not. Every instant of delay only increases the disease. Nothing but the blood of the Lamb can heal. Take heard that it be applied by none but the Holy Spirit. (J. H. Evans, M. A.)
God forgotten
Lady Glenorchy, in her diary, relates her being seized with a fever, which threatened her life, during the course of which, she says, the first question of the Assemblys Catechism was brought to my mind–What is the chief end of man?–as if some one had asked it. When I considered the answer to it,–To glorify, God and to enjoy Him forever,–I was struck with shame and confusion. I found I had never sought to glorify God in my life, nor had I any idea of what was meant by enjoying Him forever. Death and judgment were set before me; my past sins came to my remembrance; I saw no way to escape the punishment due unto them, nor had I the least glimmering hope of obtaining pardon through the righteousness of another. From this unhappy state she was shortly after delivered, by faith in the Lord Jesus. (W. Whitecross.)
The call to repentance and its response
You may pound a lump of ice with a pestle into a thousand fragments, but it will still continue ice. But bring it beside your own bright and blazing fire, and soon in that genial glow, the living waters flow. A man may try to make himself contrite. He may search out his sins and dwell on all their enormity and still feel no repentance. But come to Jesus with His words of grace and truth. Let that flinty, stony spirit bask in the beams of the Sun of Righteousness, then will it melt. (James Hamilton.)
Responding to the call
It is as when a man is in court, and is called for, to go into the witness box. He is standing in the crowd, and his name is celled: what happens? As soon as he hears his name he begins to push through the throng to reach his place. What are you at? says one. I am called, says he. Stand back; why do you push so! says another. I am called by the judge, says he. A big policeman demands, Why are you making such confusion in court? But, says the man, I am called. My name was called out, and I must go. If he cannot come, if it is not possible for him to get through the throng, one of the authorities calls out, Make way for that man–he is summoned by the court. Officers, clear a passage and let him come. Such is the kind of response which God looks for as He calls sinners to repentance. Behold, we come unto Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God.
The far-reaching consequences of sin
For many years the trees of the forest had been lopped, and now, though the new ownership and laws forbade that any hatchet should be lifted up upon any tree, they could not outgrow the olden days. The drunkard is such a pollarded tree, he may stop drinking, but his body will long suffer. The same applies to all unchastity. Sometimes the mind rather than the body suffers, and memories of sin deform the intellectual powers, even after the sin is discontinued. False teaching is another form of lopping, affecting the soul. What branches of Bible truth some are giving up, with the result of hindered and deformed growth–growth never recovered. Thus in the natural, physical, mental, and spiritual realm lopping is a serious business.
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 21. A voice was heard upon the high places] Here the Israelites are represented as assembled together to bewail their idolatry and to implore mercy. While thus engaged, they hear the gracious call of Jehovah –
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A voice was heard: here the prophet seems to express Israels repentance and turning to God; and that which they were at present engaging themselves in; (the word being participial, and in the present tense;) delivered in a prophetical style, as that in Jer 31:15; and that not only out of a sense of their judgments that they were under, but chiefly of their sins they were guilty of, and the pardon of which they were now begging. which is intimated by weeping and supplication.
Upon the high places, viz. that their cry might be the more public, both open and loud, Jer 22:20; Mat 10:27; possibly alluding to the usual practice of praying on the tops of houses in great calamities, Isa 15:3; 22:1; Jer 7:29.
Weeping and supplications; or rather, weeping supplications; showing the intenseness of it; praying in weeping, and weeping in prayer, Zec 12:10, like Peters weeping, Mat 26:75.
Of the children of Israel; the end of which might be to provoke Judah also to repentance, or otherwise to charge upon them their stupidity, and threaten them with the like judgments, if they would not return upon Israels example.
They have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God: this expresseth rather the matter of their prayer than the cause of it, Lam 5:16, drawn chiefly from their sins, as also from their calamities.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
21. In harmony with thepreceding promises of God, the penitential confessions of Israel areheard.
high placesThe sceneof their idolatries is the scene of their confessions. Compare Jer3:23, in which they cast aside their trust in these idolatroushigh places. The publicity of their penitence is also implied(compare Jer 7:29; Jer 48:38).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
A voice was heard upon the high places,…. And so might be heard afar off; it shows that the repentance and confession of the Jews, when convinced and converted, will be very public, and made upon those places where they have committed their sins; see Jer 2:20, for this and the following verses declare the humiliation, repentance, and conversion of the Jews, and the manner in which they shall be brought to it, and be openly put among the children:
weeping and supplications of the children of Israel; not so much lamenting their calamities, as mourning over their sins, supplicating the pardon of them, and freely and ingenuously confessing them:
for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God; or, “because they have” k, c. this they shall be sensible of, that they have perverted the right ways of the Lord by their traditions, and have forgotten the worship of the Lord, as the Targum paraphrases it yea, the Lord himself, their covenant God and kind benefactor, and lightly esteemed of the true Messiah, the Rock of their salvation. The consideration of which will cause them to weep and mourn; which they will do when the Spirit of grace and supplication is poured out upon them; and they shall look upon him whom they have pierced, Zec 12:10. Some interpret this as the cause of their calamities, and not as the subject matter of their mourning; but the latter seems best to agree with what follows, which shows by what means they were brought to repentance, and were converted.
k “quia perverterunt viam suam”, Munster, Montanus, Junius Tremellius “eo quod”, Piscator; “quod pravam viam inierunt”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Vs. 21-25 REPENTANCE, AT LAST
1. Upon the high places Jeremiah hears the voice of Israel in weeping and supplication; they have perverted their way through their forgetfulness of Jehovah, their God, (vs 21; comp. Jer 7:29; Jdg 3:7).
2. Again the Lord pleads: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings!” (vs. 22a; Jer 30:17; Jer 33:6; Hos 6:1; Hos 14:4).
3. The offer of pardon is finally accepted; they acknowledge Jehovah as “the LORD our God”! (vs. 22b; comp. Jer 31:6; Jer 50:4-5).
4. And they acknowledge the wretchedness of their age-long rebellion against Him, (vs. 23-25).
a. The orgies (of Baal) practiced on the high places are a delusion!
b. The salvation of Israel is IN JEHOVAH ALONE! (Jer 17:14; Jer 31:7; Psa 3:8; Jon 2:9).
c. The nation has been consumed by shame (through Baal, the god of disgrace, Jer 11:13; Hos 9:10), and covered with confusion, because of its sin against the Lord -refusing to obey His voice, (vs. 24-25; Jer 14:20; Jer 22:21; Ezr 9:57; comp. 2Sa 12:16; 2Sa 13:31; 1Ki 21:4).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
What I have stated becomes now more evident, — that the case of the Israelites is here set before the Jews, that the perverse, whom God had spared, might know that the same punishment impended over them, except they returned in due time to him: for the Prophet declares, that the Israelites were weeping and in tears, because they had departed from their God, and violated their faith pledged to him. For what purpose did he do this? That the Jews, who indulged themselves in their own pleasures, might be awakened, and be convinced, that except they anticipated God’s judgments, the same tears and the same weeping were prepared for them. The Israelites, indeed, did not as yet thus weep and shew signs of true repentance; for the Prophet does not here commend their feeling or their piety, but intimates, that they were thus severely afflicted, because they had forsaken their God.
A voice, he says, was heard on high places, ‘ that is, It was everywhere sufficiently known how cruelly the Israelites were oppressed by their enemies. Now they cried, then they called themselves the most wretched of men: why was this lamentation? Because they had perverted their ways It is, then, the same as though he had said, — that it was a monstrous perverseness in the Jews, that being warned by the punishment of their brethren, they did not repent: for the calamity which happened to the Israelites filled all men with terror. That kingdom had, indeed, flourished for a long time; but the land had been emptied of its inhabitants, and was occupied by wild beasts, until some were sent from Persia and other parts in the East to cultivate it. How could a land so pleasant and so fruitful have become like a desert? Even because God had so predicted:
“
Ye have neglected,” he says, “my Sabbaths, and your land shall rest, and it shall no more be wearied by you.” (Lev 26:34.)
It was an awful sight; and nations, far and wide, were able to see how great must have been the impiety of that people, on whom God had taken such dreadful vengeance. Were not the Jews, who had this solitude before their eyes, and this devastation of the land, extremely stupid in overlooking all this?
We now see the design of the Prophet, when he says, A voice on high places was heard, as though the Israelites cried on the tops of mountains. And he adds, the weeping of the supplications, etc.: but he does not mean, that they were prayers which arose from faith; but simply that they were such lamentations as betokened misery and wretchedness. In giving a reason, the Prophet mentions not what the Israelites confessed, but only shews the cause why they so deeply deplored their calamities; it was, because they had perverted their ways, and forgotten Jehovah their God (94) He afterwards adds —
(94) The verse may be thus rendered, —
21. A voice on the high places! Heard is the weeping, the supplications Of the people of Israel; Because they had perverted their way, Had forgotten Jehovah their God.
Instead of “high places,” Blayney has “plains;” but there is no satisfactory reason for the change. As the verb in Hebrew commonly precedes its nominative, the construction adopted above is the most suitable to the character of the language. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(21) A voice was heard.Yes, the guilty wife was there, but she was also penitent. The high places which had been the scene of the guilt of the sons of Israel, where the cries of their orgiastic worship had been heard, now echoed with their weeping and supplication (or, more literally, the weeping of suppliant prayers), as they called to mind the hateful sins of the past.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
21. A voice was heard And so there is lamentation. The very high places which have witnessed their shameless idolatry shall witness their penitential distress. This publicity of their sorrow answers to that of their sin.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 3:21. For they have perverted For that they have perverted their way, and had forgotten, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 3:21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping [and] supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, [and] they have forgotten the LORD their God.
Ver. 21. A voice was heard upon the high places. ] Where they were wont to worship idols, now they weep for their sins, and pray for pardon.
For they have perverted their ways.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah
A COLLOQUY BETWEEN A PENITENT AND GOD
Jer 3:21 – Jer 3:22
We have here a brief dramatic dialogue. First is heard a voice from the bare heights, the sobs and cries of penitence, produced by the prophet’s earnest remonstrance. The penitent soul is absorbed in the thought of its own evil. Its sin stands clear before it. Israel sees its sin in its two forms. ‘They have perverted their way,’ or have led a wrong outward life of action, and the reason is that ‘they have forgotten God,’ or have been guilty of inward alienation and departure from Him. Here is the consciousness of sin in its essential character, and that produces godly sorrow. The distinction between mere remorse and repentance is here already, in the ‘weeping and supplication.’
I. So we have here a consciousness of sin in its true nature, as embracing both deeds and heart, as originating in departure from God, and manifested in perverted conduct.
A sinful man’s true mood should be sorrow-not flinging the blame on others, or on fate, or circumstances; not regarding his sin as misfortune or as inevitable or as disease.
Conscience is meant to produce that consciousness and that sorrow: but conscience may be dulled or silenced. It cannot be anyhow induced to call evil good, but it may be mistaken in what is evil. The gnomon is true, but a veil of cloud may be drawn over the sky.
Further, we have here supplication. These two former may both be experienced, without this third. There may be consciousness of sin and sorrow which lead to no blessing. ‘My bones waxed old through my roaring.’ Sorrow after a godly sort may be hindered by false notions of God’s great love, or by false notions of what a man ought to do when he finds he has gone wrong. It may be hindered by cleaving, subtle love of sin, or by self-trust. But where all these have been overcome there is true repentance.
II. The loving divine answer.
The instantaneousness of God’s answer is very beautiful. It is like the action of the father in the parable of the prodigal son, who saw his repentant boy afar off and ran and kissed him.
There seems to be, in both the invitation to return and in the promise to hear the backslidings, a quotation from Hos 14:1 – Hos 14:4 . We see here how God meets the penitent with a love that recognises all his sin and yet is love. It is not rebuke or reproach that lies in that designation, ‘backsliding children.’ It is tenderest mercy that lets us see that He knows exactly what we are, and yet promises His love and forgiveness. He loves us sinners with a love that beckons us back to Himself, with a love that promises healing. The truth which should be taken into the mind and heart of the man conscious of sin is God’s knowledge of it all already and yet His undiminished love, God’s welcome of him back, God’s ready pardon. All this is true for the world in Christ, and is true for every individual soul.
The answer and the invitation here are immediate.
There is often a long period of painful struggle. It looks as if the answer were not immediate. But that is because we do not listen to it.
III. The happy response of the returning soul.
The consciousness of sin remains and is even deepened subsequent verses, and yet is different. A light of hope is in it. The very sense of sin brings us to Him, to hide our faces on His heart like a child in its mother’s lap.
This response of the soul may be instantaneous. If it is not immediate, it too probably will never be at all.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 3:21-23
21A voice is heard on the bare heights,
The weeping and the supplications of the sons of Israel;
Because they have perverted their way,
They have forgotten the LORD their God.
22Return, O faithless sons,
I will heal your faithlessness.
Behold we come to You;
For You are the LORD our God.
23Surely, the hills are a deception,
A tumult on the mountains.
Surely in the LORD our God
Is the salvation of Israel.
Jer 3:21 A voice This would be the loud lament of Israel’s repentance.
1. weeping (BDB 113)
2. supplications (BDB 337)
They are repenting of
1. perverting their way – Hiphil PERFECT, BDB 730, KB 796
2. forgetting YHWH – Qal PERFECT, BDB 1013, KB 1489, cf. Jer 2:32; Jer 13:25
bare heights This has been used sarcastically of the place of Ba’al worship, but here it reflects a place of mourning (cf. Jdg 11:37).
Jer 3:22-23 These verses have words from
1. YHWH
a. return – Qal IMPERATIVE
b. I will heal – Qal IMPERFECT
2. the faithless sons
a. we come to You – Qal PERFECT
b. for You are the LORD our God
c. the hills (i.e., a place of fertility worship) are a deception
d. salvation is only in YHWH
Jer 3:25 continues the words of the faithless sons (i.e., their repentance)
e. let us lie down in our shame – Qal COHORTATIVE
f. let our humiliation cover us – Piel IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense
g. we have sinned against the LORD our God – Qal PERFECT
h. we and our fathers have sinned since our youth even to this day
i. We have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God
Jer 3:22 The UBS Handbook notes that the words
1. return (BDB 996, KB 1427)
2. faithless (BDB 1000)
3. faithlessness (BDB 1000)
all are based on the same Hebrew consonants, (p. 113).
Jer 3:23 surely The ADVERB (BDB 38) occurs twice and gives the words of the people a solemnity!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
the high places = the places where they had sinned. Compare Jer 3:2.
for = because.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
A voice: Jer 30:15-17, Jer 31:9, Jer 31:18-20, Jer 50:4, Jer 50:5, Isa 15:2, Eze 7:16, Zec 12:10-14, 2Co 7:10
for they have: Num 22:32, Job 33:27, Pro 10:9, Pro 19:3, Mic 3:9
and they have: Jer 2:32, Isa 17:10, Eze 23:35, Hos 8:14, Hos 13:6
Reciprocal: Deu 32:18 – forgotten Psa 9:17 – forget Isa 57:11 – and hast Jer 18:15 – my people Jer 22:23 – how Eze 14:22 – ye shall be Eze 22:12 – and hast Zec 12:12 – the land
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 3:21. A voice means the voice of the people of Israel in their Idolatrous worship, calling on the gods to hear them. High places means the hills and oilier spots where altars were erected for the services of heathen gods. Perverted their way denotes the corruptions that Israel had injected into the way of life. When men go after things that are contrary to the right way it is evident that they have forgotten the Lord their God which is here charged against Israel.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
3:21 {u} A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping [and] supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, [and] they have forgotten the LORD their God.
(u) Signifying, that God, whom they had forsaken, would bring their enemies to them, who would lead them captive, and make them to cry and lament.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The anticipation of Israel’s repentance 3:21-25
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
The Lord could hear, in the future, the Israelites weeping and praying in repentance on the hilltops, where they had formerly committed spiritual adultery (Jer 3:2). They would finally realize that they had perverted their way and had forgotten Yahweh.