Return, Backsliding Israel
1 “They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh. 2 “Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat waiting for them by the road, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. 3 Therefore the showers have been withheld and there has been no latter rain; yet you have had a prostitute’s forehead and you refused to be ashamed. 4 Will you not from this time cry to me, ‘My Father, you are the guide of my youth!’? 5 “‘Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way.” 6 Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, “Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and has played the prostitute there. 7 I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear, but she also went and played the prostitute. 9 Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood. 10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh. 11 Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, ‘Return, you backsliding Israel,’ says Yahweh; ‘I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful,’ says Yahweh. ‘I will not keep anger forever. 13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,’” says Yahweh.
A law that forbids a divorced wife's return is quoted and then overruled by the God who gave it, and the northern kingdom already carried off is called home before Judah is.
The chapter opens by citing case law. If a man divorces his wife and she marries another, he may not take her back; the land would be polluted Deuteronomy 24:1–4. The application is obvious and the argument appears to be closing. Judah has not gone to one other man but to many, so the legal position is beyond hope. Then the sentence turns on a single word — yet return again to me — and the God who wrote the statute sets it aside in his own case.
This is the hinge of the chapter and it must not be softened into sentiment. The law is not declared unjust or repealed. It stands, and the chapter goes on to admit that Israel was genuinely divorced under it. What happens is that Yahweh declines to stand on his rights. Nothing in the passage explains how that is legally possible, and the book does not pretend to. It states the invitation and leaves the ground of it unstated. The gap stays open until a covenant is announced that deals with sin by forgiving it and remembering it no more Jeremiah 31:34.
The evidence against the invitation is then laid out honestly. Every bare height has been used. The land has been polluted. The rains have been withheld and produced no change of mind: You have had a prostitute's forehead and you refused to be ashamed. And the religion continues throughout. The address My Father, you are the guide of my youth is still on their lips while the conduct is unaltered. Verse 5 catches the tone precisely. They ask whether he will keep his anger forever, in the voice of people who expect the answer no and have no intention of changing either way.
At this point the chapter introduces two sisters, and the comparison is the sharpest thing in it. Backsliding Israel went after other gods and was sent away with a certificate of divorce. The northern kingdom's fall is read as a formal act with a legal document. Treacherous Judah watched the whole proceeding and did the same. The verdict is stated plainly: Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. The nation with the temple, the Davidic king and the reforming monarch is ranked below the nation whose sins are a matter of history. Judah sinned with the evidence in front of it.
One clause explains how a reform can leave a country unchanged. Judah returned, but only in pretense. That was written during the days of Josiah, when the high places were being pulled down and the book of the law had been found 2 Kings 23:24–25. A genuine reformation was in progress at the level of policy, and the diagnosis underneath it was that nothing had moved.
So the call goes north, toward territory whose population had been deported a century earlier and whose case was closed. Return, you backsliding Israel... I will not look in anger on you, for I am merciful. And the terms are almost nothing. Only acknowledge your iniquity. Not restitution, not a probation, not a demonstration, but an admission of what is already true. The chapter has spent twelve verses proving that this is the one thing Judah will not do.
settled What this mark means