Jeremiah 3:13

Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have rebelled against the LORD your God. You have scattered your favors to foreign gods under every green tree and have not obeyed My voice,’” declares the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — Yahweh addresses the northern tribes of Israel immediately after calling them to return in 3:12 and before promising to gather them to Zion in 3:14.

The words — The text centers on דְּעִי (de.'I, "recognize") and עֲוֹנֵךְ ('a.vo.Ne/kh, "your iniquity") to command acknowledgment of guilt, while פָּשַׁעַתָּ (pa.Sha.'at, "you have rebelled") and וַתְּפַזְּרִי (va.te.fa.ze.Ri, "you have scattered") define the specific acts of defiance and idolatry.

The thread — This demand to confess rebellion and abandon foreign worship aligns with Deuteronomy 12:2’s directive to destroy pagan shrines and Deuteronomy 30:1’s instruction to recall the covenant blessings and curses.

Why it lands — The passage requires a precise confession of rebellion against Yahweh and the scattering of favors to foreign gods before any promise of restoration applies.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

King James Version

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the Lord.

Cross-references

Deuteronomy 12:2 Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree.
Deuteronomy 30:1 “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you,
Jeremiah 2:25 You should have kept your feet from going bare and your throat from being thirsty. But you said, ‘It is hopeless! For I love foreign gods, and I must go after them.’
Jeremiah 3:6 Now in the days of King Josiah, the LORD said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.
Jeremiah 3:25 Let us lie down in our shame; let our disgrace cover us. We have sinned against the LORD our God, both we and our fathers; from our youth even to this day we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”
Jeremiah 2:20 “For long ago you broke your yoke and tore off your chains, saying, ‘I will not serve!’ Indeed, on every high hill and under every green tree you lay down as a prostitute.
Jeremiah 3:2 “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
Jeremiah 14:20 We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD, the guilt of our fathers; indeed, we have sinned against You.
Luke 15:18 I will get up and go back to my father and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
1 John 1:8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.