22 Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding. "Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
God here exhorts the Israelites to repent, that by their example he might move the Jews. The benefit of what is here taught might indeed have reached to the miserable captives and exiles; but as Jeremiah was especially the teacher of his own nation, he labored chiefly no doubt for their advantage, as we have before stated. God then here declares, that he would be reconcilable to the Israelites, how grievously soever they had sinned, he afterwards introduces them as answering, Behold, we return, or we shall come to thee: for the Prophet speaks here of the future conversion of the ten tribes. It is then a dialogue between God and the Israelites. God himself freely invites them to repent: Return, he says, ye rebellious children; and then he promises to be a physician to heal their diseases: I will heal thy transgressions; that is, I will blot out thy sins, and absolve thee from guilt. God then undertakes to do these things; first, to stimulate the Israelites to repentance, and then to give them the hope of pardon: and he says that a remedy was provided for them, except they hardened themselves. Now, the Israelites, on the other hand, make this answer, Behold, we shall come to thee Here Jeremiah condemns the obstinacy of his own nation, by saying, that the Israelites, when thus kindly invited by God, would not be perverse, but would, on the contrary, be tractable and obedient. This indeed was not fulfilled, when a liberty to return was given to the people, except in the case of a few, who had a right feeling, and preferred the glory of God to their temporal advantages. But the number was small; nor was it a matter of surprise; for God had not previously said, without reason, that if one came from a city, and two from a tribe, he would be received, though others continued fixed in their perverseness. However this may have been, God here intimates that the Israelites would not be so refractory as not to obey his admonition when the hope of pardon and salvation would be presented to them: and this is mentioned, that the perverseness of the Jews might appear more detestable. But some think that the Israelites are here upbraided, because they hypocritically pretended that they always sought God. Hence they elicit this meaning, "Ye indeed say, Behold, we return to thee, thou art our God;" as though he condemned their hypocrisy, because they falsely alleged that they always sought him. But this view seems to me foreign to the intention of the Prophet. Hence I doubt not but that Jeremiah sets before the Jews, as in a picture, what ought to have constrained them not to persist so obstinately in their sinful courses: "Behold," he says, "God is prepared to receive into favor your brethren, who are undone and past all hope; and when they shall hear God's voice kindly and graciously inviting them to himself, they will doubtless return: why then do not ye obey?" And in the same sense is to be taken what follows, Surely, deceit is from the hills, and the multitude of mountains, or, from the multitude of mountains, as the letter m is to be repeated. Here the Prophet more fully expresses the evidence of their repentance, as though he had said, "We have been deceived by the hills and the multitude of mountains; we thought that there would be more defense from a large number of gods than if we worshipped one God: this deception has led to ruin. Let then all these deceits be now discarded; for we shall be content with the only true God." In short, the Israelites confess, in these words, that they had been drawn into ruin by the worst of errors, while they sought many gods, and did not acquiesce in the one true God. Then they add, for surely in Jehovah our God is salvation They set here the one true God in opposition to all their idols, as though they had said, that the cause of all their evils was, that they did not continue in the service of the one true God, but wandered after a multitude of Gods. We hence see that these two things cannot possibly be connected, -- to worship the true God, -- and to seek for ourselves various other gods, and to form vain hopes, as they do, who are not satisfied with the only true God. [1] It follows --
1 - The literal rendering of these two verses is the following:- 22. Return, ye apostate children, I will heal your apostasies. -- Behold us! We come to thee; For thou art Jehovah our God: 23. Surely, in vain are the hills, The multitude of mountains; Surely, in (or through) Jehovah our God Is the salvation of Israel. The word rendered "apostate," does not mean "rebellious," but such as turn away, i.e., from God; and the word for "apostasies" means the same, being from the same root. The m before the word for "hills," is not a preposition, as it is commonly taken, but a formative: so it appears from all the versions. Blayney conjectures that it belongs to the former word, and makes it lsqrym; but then he does not account for the l prefixed to it. There is no different reading. The Septuagint is, eis pseudos hesan hoi zounoi -- for a lie were the hills. The Vulgate, Syriac, and Arabic, are materially the same. -- Ed
Yahweh's answer to their prayer in Jeremiah 3:21 is immediately followed by their acceptance of the offer of divine mercy.
For - Rather, because This profession of faith gives the reason why they return to Yahweh. The whole description is most graphically conceived. The people weeping upon the hills: God's gracious voice bidding them return: the glad cry of the penitents exclaiming that they come: the profession of faith won from them by the divine love; these form altogether a most touching picture of a national repentance.
Return, ye backsliding children - This they gladly receive, and with one voice make their confession to him: "Behold, we come unto thee, for thou art Jehovah our God;" and thence to the end of the chapter, show the reasons why they return unto God.
1. Because he is the true God.
2. Because the idols did not profit them: they could give no help in time of trouble.
3. Because it is the prerogative of God alone to give salvation.
4. Because they had no kind of prosperity since they had abandoned the worship of their Maker. And this was not only their case, but it was the case of their forefathers, who all suffered in consequence of their idolatry and disobedience.
5. These reasons are concluded with a hearty confession of sin, at the thought of which they are confounded; for the remembrance of their sin was grievous to them, and the burden was intolerable. This confession ended, God appears in the next chapter with gracious promises, and proper directions how they are to return, and how to conduct themselves in future.
Return, ye backsliding children, [and] I will heal your backslidings. (x) Behold, we come to thee; for thou [art] the LORD our God.
(x) This is spoken in the person of Israel to the shame of Judah, who stayed so long to turn to God.
Return, ye backsliding children,.... This is the call of the Jews to repentance in the latter day; See Gill on Jeremiah 3:14.
and I will heal your backslidings; that is, I will forgive your sins. Sins are the diseases of the soul, and the wounds made in it; and pardoning them is healing them. So the Targum,
"I will forgive you when ye return;''
see Psalm 103:3, this is done by the application of the blood of Christ, the only physician, and whose blood is the balm that heals every wound; and this springs from the love of God, and his free favour to his people, even the riches of his grace and abounding mercy through Christ; and is the great motive and inducement, and what gives the greatest encouragement to return unto the Lord, Hosea 14:1.
Behold, we come unto thee; the Targum represents this as what the Jews pretended always to say, and did say, in a hypocritical manner, with which they are upbraided,
"lo, at all times ye say, we return to thy worship, save us;''
and Jarchi is of opinion that these are words the prophet put into their mouths, and taught them to say, and to confess in this manner: but they are rather their own words, arising from a true sense of sin, under the influence of divine grace, and encouraged with the hope and assurance of pardon; declaring that as they were called upon to return, so they did return, and now were come to God by repentance, with confession and acknowledgment of sin, and by prayer and supplication for pardon and by the exercise of faith upon him for it; and also were come into his house to wait upon him, and worship him in his ordinances:
for thou art the Lord our God; not merely as the God of nature and providence, or in a natural way, but in a way of special grace, of which they now will have an application by the Spirit of God.
Jehovah's renewed invitation (Jeremiah 3:12, Jeremiah 3:14) and their immediate response.
heal--forgive (2-Chronicles 30:18, 2-Chronicles 30:20; Hosea 14:4).
unto thee--rather, "in obedience to thee"; literally, "for thee" [ROSENMULLER].
The prophet further overhears in spirit, as answer to the entreaty of the Israelites, the divine invitation and promise: Return, ye backsliding children (cf. Jeremiah 3:14), I will heal your backslidings. ארפּה for ארפּא. Backslidings, i.e., mischief which backsliding has brought, the wounds inflicted by apostasy from God; cf. Hosea 14:5, a passage which was in the prophet's mind; and fore the figure of healing, cf. Jeremiah 30:17; Jeremiah 33:6. To this promise they answer: Behold, we come to Thee (אתנוּ for אתאנוּ from אתא, Isaiah 21:12, for אתה ), for Thou art Jahveh, art our God. Of this confession they further state the cause in Jeremiah 3:23-25.
*More commentary available at chapter level.