Jeremiah 3 · The Lantern

The Wages of the Harlot

saying: If a man sends away his wife and she goes from him and becomes the wife of another man, will he return to her again? Would not that land be utterly polluted? And you have whored with many companions — and would you return to me? — the utterance of the LORD.

since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a har…

(Chapter III - Verse 1) It is commonly said (for which the Seventy have translated 'only said'). If a man divorces his wife and she goes and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be considered defiled and polluted?

Hence again under the figure of Judea it is said to every sinful soul: "If a man puts away his wife, and she departs and marries another man, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be polluted and contaminated? But you have fornicated with many lovers; nevertheless return to me, says the Lord." Behold, he gave the example of a shameful woman.

Lift your eyes to the bare heights and see: where have you not been lain with? By the ways you sat for them, like an Arab in the wilderness; and you polluted the land with your whorings and with your evil.

And the showers were withheld and the latter rain did not come; and you had the forehead of a whoring woman, you refused to be humiliated.

Accusation is censure of wrongdoers.… Of this help the divine Instructor made use by Jeremiah, saying, "You have a prostitute's forehead. You were shameless toward all.

No, a widow must take every precaution not to overstep by an inch the bounds of chastity. For if she once oversteps them and breaks through the modesty that becomes a matron, she will soon riot in every kind of excess. So much so that the prophet's words shall be true of her, "You have a whore's forehead, you refuse to be ashamed."

For their own misery has taught them, which happiness had made negligent, alas, what an evil thing it is to fornicate against the Lord by presuming upon themselves; oh how good it is to cling to the Lord, always thinking humbly.

Have you not just now called to me: My father, you are the friend of my youth?

Will he keep anger forever? Will he guard it to the end? See, you have spoken, and you have done the evils, and you have prevailed.

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

And the LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king: Have you seen what turning Israel has done? She goes on every high mountain and under every green tree, and she whored there.

And I said: After she has done all these she will return to me. But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw.

For this is a new kind of his goodness, that even after adultery he receives the soul, provided she returns and repents from the heart; as he himself also says through the prophet: "if a woman go out from her husband and sleep with another man, shall she return again to her husband? Shall she not be defiled with defilement?

Then He directs His speech unto the city, in this way too being minded to correct His hearers, and saith, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" What meaneth the repetition? this is the manner of one pitying her, and bemoaning her, and greatly loving her.

Those who place themselves far from your care and choose to serve idols will reap the destructive fruit of defection. He calls idolatry infidelity here. God likewise says also through Jeremiah, "She went up every high hill and under every green tree and was unfaithful there.

And I saw that for all the causes by which turning Israel had committed adultery I had sent her away and given her the document of her divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and whored, she too.

And it happened, from the lightness of her whoring, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with the stone and with the wood.

Let us now proceed to consider the mode of his loving discipline, with the aid of the prophetic testimony. Admonition, then, is loving care's censure and produces understanding.

It is not only bodily sin that is called fornication and adultery, but any sin you have committed, and especially transgression against that which is divine. Perhaps you ask how we can prove this. "They prostituted themselves," it says "with things they made." Don't you see an impudent act of fornication?

And even in all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with all her heart, but in falsehood — the utterance of the LORD.

A Call to Repentance

And the LORD said to me: Turning Israel has shown her soul more righteous than treacherous Judah.

Go and call these words toward the north, and say: Return, turning Israel — the utterance of the LORD — I will not make my face fall upon you, for I am loyal — the utterance of the LORD — I will not keep anger forever.

Only know your iniquity, that against the LORD your God you transgressed, and scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and my voice you did not obey — the utterance of the LORD.

Turn back, turning sons — the utterance of the LORD — for I am master over you; and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will shepherd you with knowledge and insight.

And it will be, when you multiply and are fruitful in the land in those days — the utterance of the LORD — they will no longer say, The ark of the covenant of the LORD; it will not come up on the heart, and they will not remember it, and they will not miss it, and it will not be made again.

At that time they will call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem; and they will no longer walk after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

In those days the house of Judah will walk with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I gave your fathers as an inheritance.

And I — I said: How I would set you among the sons and give you a desirable land, an inheritance of the splendor of the hosts of the nations! And I said: You will call me My father, and from after me you will not turn back.

Surely as a wife is treacherous to her companion, so you have been treacherous to me, house of Israel — the utterance of the LORD.

A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping of the pleas of the sons of Israel, for they have twisted their way, they have forgotten the LORD their God.

Turn back, turning sons; I will heal your turnings. Here we are, we come to you, for you are the LORD our God.

It is clearly written in the Acts of the apostles that the apostles first went into the synagogue of the Jews, proclaiming to them, as to kinsmen through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, the things written concerning the coming of Jesus Christ.

Let us return to the Lord our God, and whenever we pray, he, who daily urges us to pause and get to know him, will hear us. And in another place he says, "Return to me, and I will return to you." And again, "Return to me, my backsliding children, and I will rule over you." Ezekiel likewise calls on us, saying, "Why will you die, O house of Israel?

Through the prophet the Lord speaks and declares with his own gracious words how much mercy and goodness he wishes to bestow on humankind. He says, "But if the wicked do penance for all his sins, which he has committed, and keeps all my commandments and does justice and mercy, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he has done.

Surely the hills are falsehood, the tumult on the mountains. Surely in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.

And the shame has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth — their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

Let us lie down in our shame, and let our humiliation cover us, for against the LORD our God we have sinned, we and our fathers, from our youth and until this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.

Jeremiah3

The Wages of the Harlot

Judah Follows Israel’s Example

A Call to Repentance