Bible Strands
Jeremiah 4:1
“If you will return, O Israel, return to Me,” declares the LORD. “If you will remove your detestable idols from My sight and no longer waver,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel through the prophet Jeremiah, issuing a conditional command that precedes a promise of national restoration. The declaration establishes a covenantal framework where Israel’s spiritual posture determines the coming blessing.
The words — תָּשׁוּב (ta.Shuv) = you will return, paired with אִם (‘im) = if, framing the entire verse as a conditional proposition rather than a guarantee.
The thread — The imperative to return appears in Joel 2:12 and Jeremiah 3:22, while the command to remove detestable idols aligns with the household purge recorded in Genesis 35:2.
Why it lands — It requires the reader to recognize that spiritual stability demands the active removal of competing loyalties, making obedience the non-negotiable condition for experiencing God’s presence.
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
If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.
Cross-references
- Joel 2:12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
- Jeremiah 3:22 “Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the LORD our God.
- Genesis 35:2 So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments.
- Jeremiah 3:1 “If a man divorces his wife and she leaves him to marry another, can he ever return to her? Would not such a land be completely defiled? But you have played the harlot with many lovers—and you would return to Me?” declares the LORD.
- Jeremiah 3:12 Go, proclaim this message toward the north: ‘Return, O faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will no longer look on you with anger, for I am merciful,’ declares the LORD. ‘I will not be angry forever.
- Jeremiah 25:5 The prophets told you, ‘Turn now, each of you, from your evil ways and deeds, and you can dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.
- Ezekiel 43:9 Now let them remove far from Me their prostitution and the funeral offerings for their kings, and I will dwell among them forever.
- Judges 10:16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the LORD, and He could no longer bear the misery of Israel.
- 1 Samuel 7:3 Then Samuel said to all the house of Israel, “If you are returning to the LORD with all your hearts, then put away the foreign gods and Ashtoreths among you, prepare your hearts for the LORD, and serve Him only. And He will deliver you from the hand of the Philistines.”
- 2 Kings 23:13 The king also desecrated the high places east of Jerusalem, to the south of the Mount of Corruption, which King Solomon of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abomination of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.