Jeremiah 4:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
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.
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Israel
יִשְׂרָאֵ֧לYis.ra.'El
H3478
Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהוָ֛הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
return
תָּשׁ֑וּבta.Shuv
H7725
to turn back (hence · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
away
תָּסִ֧ירta.Sir
H5493
to turn off (literal or figurative) · verb, hiphil imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
abominations
שִׁקּוּצֶ֛יךָshi.ku.Tzei.cha
H8251
disgusting · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
sight
מִפָּנַ֖יmi.pa.Nai
H6440
the face (as the part that turns) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
remove
תָנֽוּדta.Nud
H5110
to nod · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joel 2:12 Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Jeremiah 3:22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
Genesis 35:2 Then Jacob said unto his household, and to all that were with him, Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change yo…
Jeremiah 3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be…
Jeremiah 3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to f…
Jeremiah 25:5 They said, Turn ye again now every one from his evil way, and from the evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD hath given u…
Ezekiel 43:9 Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
Judges 10:16 And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 4:1-2
When God called to backsliding Israel to return (Jer 3:22) they immediately answered, Lord, we return; now God here takes notice of their answer, and, by way of reply to it,
I. He directs them how to pursue their good resolutions: "Dost thou say, I will return?" 1. "Then thou must return unto me; make a thorough work of it. Do not only turn from thy idolatries, but return to the instituted worship of the God of Israel." Or, "Thou must return speedily and not delay (as Isa 21:12, If you will enquire, enquire you); if you will return unto me, return you: do not talk of it, but do it." 2. "Thou must utterly abandon all sin, and not retain any of the relics of idolatry: Put away thy abominations…
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 not feignedly and hypocritically, as Judah did, Jeremiah 3:10. Some render the words (and the accents require they should be rendered so) "if thou wilt return to me, O Israel, saith the Lord, thou shalt return" (l); that is, to thine own land, being now in captivity; or, "thou shalt rest" (m); or "have rest"; so Kimchi interprets the last word; see Jeremiah 30:10, and these words may very well be considered as the words of Christ, and as spoken by him, when he entered upon his ministry, who bega…
Jeremiah 4:1
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.
1. Si reverteris Israel, dicit Jehova, ad me revertere (vel, apud me quiesce;) et si abstuleris abominationes tuas a facie mea, et non fueris vagus (alii, et non migrabis.)
The Prophet no doubt requires here from the people a sincere return to God, inasmuch as they had often pretended to confess their sins, and had given many signs of repentance, while they were acting deceitfully with him. As then they had often dealt falsely with God and with his prophets, Jeremiah bids them to return to God without any disguise and in…
The Church Fathers
(Chapter IV, Verse 1) If you return, O Israel, says the Lord, return to me. The Septuagint translates it as: If Israel turns back, says the Lord, it will return to me. And the meaning is, if it returns to me, it will be delivered from captivity. Alternatively: when it offers what it has: For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. (Matthew 25:29). Furthermore, according to the Hebrew text, the meaning here is: If you return to me, O Israel, and once desiring salvation, you confess to having sinned and not heeded the voice of the Lord your God, fully convert and believe in the one you denied, and then there will be complete conversion. If you remove your offenses from my face, you will not be disturbed. When we are moved and say, 'But my feet were almost ready to stumble' (Ps. 73:2), we do not suffer this because of the weakness of our nature, but because we place stumbling blocks and idols against the Lord.
Upon these things God says concerning Israel: "If Israel turns back to me, says the Lord, then he shall be turned back"; that is, if he turns completely, then he shall be turned back with a turning — not if he as it were begins to turn. Then he says: "and if he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness, then the nations shall be blessed in him." If they do these things, "the nations shall be blessed in him." But what are these things they are to do, so that the nations may be blessed in him? "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth." And what is it to remove the abominations out of the mouth? Whatever we speak badly are abominations in our mouth. Let us therefore remove the abominations out of our mouth, taking away slanders, vain words, idle words that are going to cause us to be accused "in the day of judgment; for by your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned." If, then, we wish that the words "and the nations shall be blessed in him, and in him they shall praise God in Jerusalem" should meet us, let us do the things said from the beginning. And which first? To remove "the abominations out of our mouth." Next is also the "you shall stand in awe before my face." As the second thing let us do this, not simply that we may stand in awe; for perhaps there is an awe that comes about, but not from the face of God. Those, at any rate, who fear without knowledge, but set themselves to fear, do not stand in awe from the face of God; but as many as stand in awe with knowledge, by ever beholding and picturing to themselves "the face of God that comes upon those who do evil things, to cut off from the earth the memory of them," these are the ones who stand in awe from the face of God. "If he removes his abominations out of his mouth, and stands in awe before my face, and swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness." Let us look at ourselves who swear, in what manner we swear not in judgment but without judgment, so that our oaths come about by custom rather than by judgment. We are carried away, at any rate, and, reproving this, the word says: "and if he swears, 'The Lord lives,' in truth and in judgment and in righteousness." We know that it was said in the Gospel by the Lord to the…
Dictionary and topics
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
The Lord saw that despite their lovely prayer, the people did not intend to throw away their idols or change their lifestyle (15:19; Joel 2:12).
Rashi on Jeremiah 4:1
If you return, O Israel with this repentance, to Me, you will return to your original glory and greatness.
and if you remove your detestable things from My Presence Then you shall not wander to go out in exile.
