B. Yahweh’s Passionate Appeal for Israel’s Repentance (3:1-4:4)
This section includes a mixture of prose and poetry and continues the earlier theme of Israel’s apostasy. The portrait of Yahweh here is that of a loving and merciful husband and father. However, repentance is the necessary condition for the restoration of sinners.
Yahweh does not behave like a man who, by the mandate of the Deuteronomic law, cuts himself loose of any emotional ties to his unfaithful wife (3:1; see Dt 24:1-4). Though he established the law because of his own demand for righteousness, Yahweh does not restrict himself by the law. His grace (v.12) supersedes his laws, which makes it possible for Israel to return to Yahweh. Return (šûb̠) is not a casual matter, rather an action to be taken with genuine contriteness and sincere desire to restore the broken relationship.
Sincere worship involves the practice of what one says about God (3:2-5) and genuine repentance (vv.6-11). Repentance is the central theme of 3:12-4:4. The call to repentance (“Return”) is found in 3:12, 14, 22; and 4:1. The essential conditions of repentance are confession of guilt and acknowledgment of Yahweh as the Lord (v.13; see also vv.21-25). “I am merciful” is the word of grace Yahweh the Healer offers to the repentant sinner (vv.12, 22).
Repentance is also the condition for the future salvation of Israel (3:14-18). An important aspect of Jeremiah’s eschatology here is the promise that no longer will they follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts, a promise given to both Israel and the nations (v.17). The gift of the will to obey God is the gift promised to the repentant sinner.
Israel’s election is treated in 3:19 as God’s favor and an unmerited gift (the daughter was given the inheritance that according to social custom belonged to the sons). Such a display of love (grace) must evoke gratitude, love, and faithfulness. Israel’s response was to the contrary; her actions were like that of a woman unfaithful to her husband (v.20).
Yahweh gives an opportunity to Israel once again to become a source of blessing (salvation) to the nations (4:1-2). The requirements are a radical turn around from all evil to God (šûb̠), a life of God’s holiness (“Put your detestable idols out of my sight”), and acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty (“As the Lord lives”) in all spheres of life. Yahweh requires from his covenant people truthfulness ('emet̠), justice (mišpāṭ), and righteousness (sed̠āqâ[h]).
An essential prerequisite to the experience of the full blessings of the covenant relationship is a radical change from the way of life set in evil (4:3-4). Jeremiah calls those who have been “uncultivated in righteousness” to “break up” their “fruitless and hardened hearts” in repentance and to allow the “seed of the word of life” to be sown in them (Clarke, 266). The true sign of a covenant relationship with Yahweh is obedience that comes from within. Clarke comments that the call to “circumcise” is a call to “put away every thing that has a tendency to grieve the Spirit of God” (p. 266). The metaphors (break up and circumcise) imply that a decision to obey God and to acknowledge his sovereignty is a critical and painful decision.