What Does Jeremiah 3:1 Mean in the King James?
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Hebrew root first frames return as a question, then makes it the LORD’s direct call.
THE MEANING
You hear a real boundary named: return after another bond would pollute the land. Then the LORD speaks to you within that tension: “yet return again to me.” The invitation leaves the breach visible without making it the final word.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie that crossing a relational boundary makes return permanently impossible. The verse names the pollution and still calls you back.
THE ROOT
יָשׁוּב
yāshuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
sh-w-b
Turn back; return.
The verse uses this root twice: first in the question of whether return is possible, then in the direct call to return to the LORD. The question becomes an invitation through the same word.
ALSO GROWS
shuv: Return; turn back.
שׁוּב
The verb in the opening question shares the root of the later call to return.
teshuvah: Return; turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun preserves the same idea of turning back that the verse places in the LORD’s call.
יְשַׁלַּח
yeshallach
GROWS FROM
שׁלח
sh-l-ḥ
Send forth; release; let go.
“Put away” carries the sense of sending or releasing. The verse begins with that act of sending away, then ends with shuv, “return”: departure and return are distinct actions, both held in the same sentence.
ALSO GROWS
shaliach: Messenger; one who is sent.
שָׁלִיחַ
It shows the root’s sense of sending someone forth, while the verse uses it for sending a wife away.
shilluach: Sending away; dismissal.
שִׁלּוּחַ
This form names the same act of dismissal that frames the verse’s question about return.
THE PATTERN
Betrayal is named plainly while the way back remains open.
O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
Her former husband, which sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD: and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.Jeremiah’s opening question echoes this legal sentence: the husband sends her away, and after another marriage he may not take her back because the land would be defiled. Jeremiah keeps that boundary in view, then places “Return to me” in the LORD’s mouth, making the tension of the invitation impossible to miss.
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