Jeremiah 4:1

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord,.... To which they had been encouraged, and as they had promised they would, and said they did, Jeremiah 3:14: return unto me; with thy whole heart, and

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

CHAPTER 4 An invitation to true repentance, by promises, ; and judgments coming on them by the Babylonians, contrary to the predictions of their false prophets, for their sins, . A grievous lamentation for the miseries of Judah, . Return unto me: this seems to be a continuation of the former sermon; so that Israel having promised repentance, they are here directed how it must be qualified, viz. it must not be hypocritical and reigned, but real and hearty, , as Josiah’ s was, ; and it must be unto the Lord; not to this idol and that idol, hither and thither, shifting their way; but unto me; see ; or to my worship, and as thou hast promised, . And this sense agrees best with the coherence. Or it maybe all emphatical, short, peremptory expression; If thou wilt return, return; make no longer demur or delay about it; like that . The Hebrew read the words in the future tense, if thou wilt return, thou shalt return; and so they may be taken partly as a promise, and that with reference either to their returning into their own land; and so they concern Israel; thus : see . But if the word be taken in the notion of resting, not returning, as some do, and as it is taken , then it rather concerns Judah: q. d. Thou shalt abide quietly where thou art, and shalt not wander into captivity; and this may agree with the last expression in the verse, not remove. Or else with reference to the assistance that God would give them to return unto him; partly, and that rather, as a direction (for in the Hebrew, though the word return be in the future tense, yet it is often used imperatively). Abominations, viz. idols, a metonymy of the adjunct, which are so abominable in God’ s sight, ,8; called dungy gods, . See . Out of my sight; though God’ s eye be every where; and hence implieth that idols are no where to be admitted, either in private or public; yet it doth particularly relate to the place of his more immediate presence, as their land and temple, , and spiritually to our hearts, hypocrites thinking it enough if they conceal their wickedness from man’ s eye. Then shalt thou not remove: if this be read imperatively, then it is, remove not, as it may be read; and so it agrees with Israel, Depart not away from me to thy idols upon the mountains and hills: if read in the future tense, then it agrees with Judah, Thou shalt not go out of thine own land into exile. See the first clause of the verse.

Jeremiah 4:1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.Ver. 1. If thou wilt return, O Israel.] As thou seemest willing to do, and for very good reason. Thou art but a beaten rebel, and to stand it out with me is to no purpose; thou must either turn or burn. Neither will it help thee to return fainly, for I love truth in the inward parts, and hate hypocrisy, halting, and tepidity. If therefore thou wilt return, Return unto me.] Return as far as to me; not from one evil course to another, for that is but to be tossed as a ball from one of the devil’ s hands to the other, but "to me with thy whole heart," seriously, sincerely, and zealously; for Non amat, qui non zelat. To a tyrant thou shalt not turn, but to one that will both assist thee, and accept thee. And if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight,] i.e., Thine idols out of thine house and out of thine heart. Then shalt thou not remove.] But still dwell in the land and do good; feeding on faith, as Tremellius rendereth that Psalms 37:3.

IV. (1) If thou wilt return.—The “if” implies a return from the hopes with which Jeremiah 3 ended to the language of misgiving, and so, inferentially, of earnest exhortation. Abominations.—Literally, things of shame, as in Jeremiah 3:24; the idols which Israel had worshipped. Then shalt thou not remove.—Better, as continuing the conditions of forgiveness, if thou wilt not wander.

CHAPTER IV Sequel of the exhortations and promises addressed to Israel in the preceding chapter, 1, 2. The prophet then addresses the people of Judah and Jerusalem, exhorting to repentance and reformation, that the dreadful visitation with which they were threatened might be averted, 3, 4. He then sounds the alarm of war, 5, 6. Nebuchadnezzar, like a fierce lion, is, from the certainty of the prophecy, represented to be on his march; and the disastrous event to have been already declared, 7-9. And as the lying prophets had flattered the people with the hopes of peace and safety, they are now introduced, (when their predictions are falsified by the event,) excusing themselves; and, with matchless effrontery, laying the blame of the deception upon God, ("And they said," c., so the text is corrected by Kennicott,) 10. The prophet immediately resumes his subject and, in the person of God, denounces again those judgments which were shortly to be inflicted by Nebuchadnezzar, 11-18. The approaching desolation of Jerusalem lamented in language amazingly energetic and exquisitely tender, 19-21. The incorrigible wickedness of the people the sole cause of these calamities, 22. In the remaining verses the prophet describes the sad catastrophe of Jerusalem by such a beautiful assemblage of the most striking and afflictive circumstances as form a picture of a land "swept with the besom of destruction." The earth seems ready to return to its original chaos; every ray of light is extinguished, and succeeded by a frightful gloom; the mountains tremble, and the hills shake, under the dreadful apprehension of the wrath of Jehovah; all is one awful solitude, where not a vestige of the human race is to be seen. Even the fowls of heaven, finding no longer whereon to subsist, are compelled to migrate; the most fruitful places are become a dark and dreary desert, and every city is a ruinous heap. To complete the whole, the dolorous shrieks of Jerusalem, as of a woman in peculiar agony, break through the frightful gloom; and the appalled prophet pauses, leaving the reader to reflect on the dreadful effects of apostasy and idolatry, 23-31. NOTES ON CHAP. IV Verse 1. Shalt thou not remove.] This was spoken before the Babylonish captivity; and here is a promise that if they will return from their idolatry, they shall not be led into captivity. So, even that positively threatened judgment would have been averted had they returned to the Lord.

Jeremiah 4:1-4. If Israel will sincerely repent and mend her ways, her prosperity will be the ideal for all nations. Let Judah dedicate herself in heart to Jehovah, otherwise heavy judgement shall be her portion. In Jeremiah 4:1-4 a severer mode of address is used towards Judah (3, 4) than towards Israel (1, 2).

Return - The repentance of Israel described in Jeremiah 3:21-25 was a hope, and not a reality. The return, literally, would be their restoration to their land; spiritually, their abandoning their sins.

1, 2. Return unto me — This second “return” is a mere repetition of the former, and falls into the same relation.