Jeremiah 3:14

Changing the figure, the Lord invited the prodigal Israelites to return to their Father (Jeremiah 3:4). He would take them back and be their master (Heb. Ba’al) again. [Note: Perhaps this promise is the reason the prodigal son in Jesus’ parable asked to come back home as a servant rather than as a son (cf. Luke 15:11-32).] He, the sovereign Lord of the covenant, was their master, not Baal (lit. "master").

". . . ’I am your ba’al (husband)’ implies that no longer would Judah be bound to the Baals of the fertility faith to which she had so easily fallen away from the true covenant faith." [Note: Craigie, p. 60. Ba’al sometimes has the connotation of "husband."]

The Israelites did not have to come en mass. The Lord would receive any individual Israelites who really repented, even though they were part of a larger group that did not repent. The Lord would even bring them back to Himself in Zion, the place where He had promised to meet with His people. Thus the way was open for a remnant of spiritually sensitive Israelites to respond.