John Calvin 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)

Jeremiah repeats the same thing in other words; but God, by so many words, shows more clearly how ready he would be to grant pardon, provided the Israelites really repented. It would have been enough for God to testify once that he would be reconcilable, but seeing that they were slow and hard to believe, he proceeds in the same vein.

It is a wonderful forbearance and kindness that God, finding his favor neglected and, as it were, rejected through human sloth, should yet persevere and invite them again and again. What person would thus patiently bear the loathing of his favor and kindness? But we see that God does not immediately reject the tardy and the slothful, but adds new encouragements that he might at length move them, though this may seem more than necessary.

How great is our torpidity! If God were not to urge us daily, how little attention would any of us give to his admonitions? It is, therefore, no wonder that he, pardoning our tardiness, should again and again invite us to repentance, which we find is done continually in the Church.

This, then, is the reason why the Prophet now repeats the same thing: Return, now, you rebellious children; for he had said before, Return, you rebellious Israel. He then adds, For I am a husband to you. Some regard בעל bol, in the sense of being wearied, when found as here, בעלתי בכם bolti bekem, “I have been wearied by you;” but this meaning does not fit this passage.

More correctly, then, have others rendered the words, “I am lord to you;” but this “lord” is not to be taken indefinitely, as in Latin, for it properly means a husband, who is a lord to his wife. God, then, no doubt, continues the same comparison, that of a marriage, which has already been often mentioned, for he charges the Israelites with adultery because they had departed from him.

Hence it is that he says, I am your husband. He had previously said, Though a person, when he repudiates his wife, and she is married to another, will never again be reconciled to her; yet I am ready to forgive your perfidy and wantonness: only observe chastity hereafter, and I will deal kindly with you. Similar is this passage, I am your husband, though I have repudiated you.

He had, indeed, said that he had given them a bill of divorce, and thus testified, as by a public document, that there was no longer any connection between him and that people, for exile was a kind of divorce. But he says now, I am your husband; for though I have been grievously offended with you, because you have broken your pledged faith, I yet remain in the same mind, so as to be ready to be your husband.

We now, then, perceive the real meaning of the Prophet: despair might have taken hold of the Israelites, causing them to dread that access to which the Prophet had invited them. But so that no terror might hinder them from repenting, God here declares that he would become their husband and that he had not forgotten that relationship with which he had once favored them. The sum of what he says is, I have once embraced you with the love of a husband; you have, indeed, become alienated from me, but return, and I am ready to forgive and to receive you, as though you had always been faithful to me.

Again will I take you, he says; and then he adds, one from a city, two from a family. This passage deserves special notice, for God shows that they were not to wait for one another, and also, that though the whole body of the people rotted in their sins, yet a few would return to him, and that he would be reconciled to them.

This was a most necessary point to be taught, for God’s covenant was common to the whole seed of Abraham. They might then have concluded that the covenant was extinct unless he gathered together the whole people, for he had not chosen one or two or a hundred or a thousand, but all the seed of Abraham.

Since then the promise, without exception, was common to all, anyone might thus reason, “What connection have I with God, except as one born of the race of Abraham? But I am not alone, for we are all the children of Abraham. Yet I see that none turn to God, so I must perish with the rest of the people.” Now, so that this thought should not hinder the godly, he says, I will take one from a city, two from a family; that is, “If only one comes to me from a city, he shall find an open door; if only two from a tribe come to me, I shall receive them.” We now understand the Prophet’s design.

Interpreters, indeed, explain “one from a city” as meaning that though the multitude should perish, yet God would not deny forgiveness to three or four. But they do not teach what is especially worthy of notice: that two or three are mentioned because this thought, as has been said, might have perplexed them—namely, that they had all been chosen in common as a holy people.

What is taught here may be useful to us in the present day. For we see many foolishly excluding themselves from the hope of salvation and seeking no access to God, because they have regard for one another, and the great mass holds them entangled. How is it under the Papacy that so many pertinaciously resist God? It is because they think themselves safely hidden in the multitude. We also find among us that some are a hindrance to others. Let this truth be ever remembered: that when God stretches forth his arms, he is ready to receive not only all, if they were to come to him with one consent, but also two or three, even from one city, or from a whole people.

He adds, I will cause you to come to Zion. This had been said once before: God intimates that their exile would be temporary and that the Israelites would again be made partakers of his inheritance if they returned to God in sincerity and truth.