Jeremiah 3:1-5

Subsection 1. YHWH’s Complaint Against His People (Jeremiah 2:4 to Jeremiah 3:5 ).

YHWH commences by presenting His complaint against Israel/Judah. This was because, having responded avidly to the love and faithfulness that He had demonstrated to them in the arid wilderness, where they had earnestly sought Him, they had afterwards, once He had brought them into a fruitful land, turned against Him (Jeremiah 2:4-8). He then continues by expressing bafflement and horror at the way that they have rejected Him as the well-spring of living water, preferring broken waterless cisterns which can hold no water, and have become a degenerate vine, incapable of being cleansed. This was in consequence of their having followed the pathway of idolatry, rejecting His prophets and cosying up to foreign nations, something which He points out could only result in their own destruction (Jeremiah 2:9-37). And He finishes by pointing out that that is why they have had no rain and calls on them to repent and look to Him, with the assurance that if they do He will receive them (Jeremiah 3:1-5).

This is not necessarily to be seen as one address, but as covering the main elements of Jeremiah’s teaching during the reigns of Josiah and Jehoiakim. That the latter’s reign is included is suggested by the apparent references to Josiah’s death and Judah’s subjection to Egypt.