GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (39) A History of Stepping Out

 


JER. 2.4 – 4.2: ISRAEL/JUDAH: WHO IS THE WAYWARD WIFE?

 

“God’s message came to me.  It went like this: ‘Get out in the streets and call to Jerusalem[1]: God’s Message!” (Jer. 2.1, The Message).

     Beginning in Jer. 2.4, the prophecies are directed to the house of “Israel”; starting in 4.3, the prophet addresses “Judah and Jerusalem” (this series of oracles ends at 6.30).  There are a few different ways to interpret the fact that Jeremiah seems to be addressing first the Northern Kingdom in chapters 2—3 and then the Kingdom of Judah in chapters 4—6:

     1 - Though the Northern Kingdom of Israel fell about a century earlier (722 B.C.), in 2.4—4.2, Jeremiah is evoking the entire history of the people of God since the Exodus.  Indeed, when Jeremiah addresses “Jerusalem”, he is actually addressing the totality of the people of God, situated at the time in the Southern Kingdom of Judah.[2]  Seen in this light, this whole section (chapters 2—6) concerns the entire people of God, whether they be exiled in Assyria or remain in the Land (Jerusalem).

     2 – Alternately, it may be said that Jer. 2.4—4.2 consists of messages directed to (what was left of) the Northern Kingdom during the reign of King Josiah of Judah (cf. 3.6).[3]  As part of his reform campaign, Josiah had destroyed a pagan shrine at Bethel in an attempt to bring the territory of the (defunct) Kingdom of Israel into the orbit of his reign at a time when the Assyrian empire was declining.[4]  Interesting in this connection are the similarities between Jer. 2.4-37 and the book of the prophet Hosea, who had prophesied to the Northern Kingdom during the 8th century B.C.  Both Hosea and Jeremiah use the image of an unfaithful wife to describe Israel, and they both spend considerable time denouncing Baal worship.[5]

     In 2.7, Israel is accused of making the Promised Land “unclean” and “detestable”, as pagan nations are elsewhere accused of doing (e.g., Ez. 36.5; Joel 1.6, 4.2).[6]  In Jer. 2.20-28, animal metaphors are used to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness.  The first image (v. 20) is that of an ox who refuses to do the work its owner directed it to do (“breaks the yoke”).  In vv. 23-25, images of a camel and a wild ass are used.  A young camel is prone to wander off and is hard to control, while a wild ass is presented as being both in heat and sexually promiscuous.  Next, Israel is compared to a vineyard and finally, to a thief caught in the act (vv. 21-22, 26).[7]


·         Can Israel “return” to Yahweh?

 

Deuteronomy 24.1-4 (NRSV)

 

Jeremiah 3.1-2 (NRSV)

Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house 2 and goes off to become another man’s wife. 3 Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); 4 her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled;

 

 

 

 

 

for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession.

 

 

 

 

 

“If a man divorces his wife
    and she goes from him
and becomes another man’s wife, will he return to her?


Would not such a land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers; 

and would you return to me?

says the Lord.
2 Look up to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with?
By the waysides you have sat waiting for lovers, like a nomad in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
    with your whoring and wickedness.

 

     In Jer. 3.1, there is ambiguity about the meaning of the final phrase.  Should it be rendered “Would you return to me?” (NRSV; NIV), or “…yet you turn to me” (NASB)?  It would even be possible to translate this phrase in the imperative form: “Return to me!” (KJV).  At issue is the metaphor of the covenant lawcourt where Israel is accused of adultery by her spouse, Yahweh.  This scene is based on the law of remarriage in Dt. 24.1-4, where the question is asked whether a divorced/widowed woman can return to her first husband.  In Jer. 3.1-5, things are reversed, and Yahweh, the husband, considers returning to his unfaithful wife.  If the final phrase of v. 1 is translated as being anything other than a rhetorical question (on the part of Yahweh) expecting a negative answer (e.g., an imperative or an ambiguous suggestion of the possibility of Israel returning into marital relationship with God), then Yahweh would be violating his own law as per Deuteronomy.  The affection of the LORD for his people is so great that God is willing to break God’s own law, willing to risk pollution and defilement, if the people will turn in loyalty once more to the Lord of Israel.[8]  Jer. 3.6-10 implies that despite the heroic efforts of King Josiah to reform the people of God, the people – for the most part – only paid lip service to the “return to Yahweh” that Josiah initiated.[9]

 


[1] Cf. Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, p. 607, where it is pointed out that though much of chapters 2-3 is addressed to the inhabitants of the (territory of the defunct) Northern kingdom, all of the book of Jeremiah – following the exile to Babylon – is addressed to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

[3] Cf. Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah”, p. 598; cf. also Clements, R.E. Jeremiah, Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988, p. 23.

[5] Ibid. pp. 29-31.

[6] Cf. Brown, Michael L. “Jeremiah”, p. 87; cf. Lev. 18.29-30; 19.31; 20.3 for laws concerning ritual defilement and how sexual sin renders one “unclean”.

[7] Cf. Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, pp. 601-02.

[9] Cf. Ibid, p. 604.

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