BOOK 24 OF 66 · MAJOR PROPHETS · KING JAMES BIBLE

Jeremiah 3

Jeremiah book home•Chapter 3 of 52•25 verses

Chapter overviewAt a glance + deeper study

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Jeremiah 3 Overview

Judah is compared with an adulterous wife who has polluted the land; Israel’s earlier apostasy and Assyrian exile should have warned her, yet the LORD still calls backsliding Israel to return and promises shepherds, restored Zion, and reunited Israel and Judah.

JeremiahBook

3Chapter

25Verses

Major ProphetsDivision

Before you read Jeremiah 3

Coming from

Jeremiah prosecutes Judah for abandoning the LORD who brought them from Egypt, exchanging their glory for useless idols, trusting foreign powers, and pursuing spiritual adultery while denying guilt.

In this chapter

Leads into

Jeremiah calls for genuine return and heart circumcision, then sounds an alarm as a destroyer from the north approaches; the land is pictured as reverting toward creation chaos under devastating judgment.

Key understandingExplore deeper

The chapter distinguishes the northern kingdom Israel from Judah. Israel had already been sent away, but Judah proved even more treacherous despite seeing that judgment.

The interpretive center of Jeremiah 3 is the chapter’s own movement: seeing others judged does not automatically produce repentance. Read its poetry, signs, historical references, and later biblical connections from that center rather than treating isolated phrases as detached slogans.

Major truths in this chapterExplore deeper

Seeing others judged does not automatically produce repentance

Judah had Israel’s exile as a warning and still persisted.

God’s call to return remains astonishingly gracious

The repeated invitation addresses people guilty of profound covenant infidelity.

Restoration includes faithful leadership and reunification

Future shepherds feed with knowledge, and Israel and Judah come together.

Connections to the rest of ScriptureExplore deeper

2 Kings 17

The northern kingdom’s exile provides the historical background for Israel’s 'bill of divorce.'

Jeremiah 31

The reunification and restoration of Israel and Judah develop into the new covenant promise.

Hosea 1–3

Hosea also uses marriage and adultery imagery to portray Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness and God’s restoring love.

What is clear, and where care is neededExplore deeper

Do not turn the divorce language into a direct manual for Christian marriage law.

It is prophetic covenant metaphor grounded in Israel’s idolatry.

Do not erase the distinction between Israel and Judah.

The chapter explicitly compares the two kingdoms and promises their future reunion.

Read Jeremiah 3 watching for…

Israel and Judah distinguished

the divorce imagery

Judah’s greater treachery

the repeated call to return

future shepherds and reunion

Chapter outline4 sections

1-5Judah’s spiritual adultery is exposed, yet the LORD still calls her to return 6-11Backsliding Israel is shown less guilty than treacherous Judah 12-19The LORD calls Israel to return and promises shepherds, unity, and restoration 20-25Israel’s treachery is confessed with weeping and acknowledgment of sin

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain; and thou hadst a whore's forehead, thou refusedst to be ashamed.

Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.

Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

And it shall come to pass, when ye be multiplied and increased in the land, in those days, saith the LORD, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the LORD: neither shall it come to mind: neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more.

At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.

In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.

But I said, How shall I put thee among the children, and give thee a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the hosts of nations? and I said, Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me.

Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

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.

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.