Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 3:14

"Return, O backsliding children, saith Jehovah; for I am a husband unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:" — Jeremiah 3:14 (ASV)

Turn, O backsliding children. — In his desire to individualize his call to repentance, the prophet drops his parable, or rather combines the sign and the thing signified, with the same assonance as before— turn back, you children who have turned away.

I am married unto you. — The tender pity of Jehovah leads Him to offer pardon even to the adulterous wife. Jeremiah had learned, in all their fullness, the lessons of Hosea 1-3.

One of a city, and two of a family. — The latter word is the wider in its range of the two—a clan, or tribe, that might embrace many cities. The limitation to the “one” and the “two” is after the manner of Isaiah’s reference (Isaiah 1:9) to the “remnant” that should be saved, and reminds us of the “ten righteous men” who might have saved the cities of the plain (Genesis 18:32).