So you are to tell them this is what the LORD says: “Do men fall and not get up again? Does one turn away and not return?
Parallel translations
- WEB “Moreover you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh says: “‘Shall men fall, and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
- KJV Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
- NKJV “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Will they fall and not rise? Will one turn away and not return?
- NASB “You shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Do people fall and not get up? Does one turn away and not repent?
- NLT “Jeremiah, say to the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: “‘When people fall down, don’t they get up again? When they discover they’re on the wrong road, don’t they turn back?
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God asks why Judah, unlike a person who naturally gets up after falling, refuses to turn back after sinning. It exposes the unnaturalness of persistent rebellion.
Overview
Through a rhetorical question Yahweh appeals to common sense: people who fall normally rise, and those who wander normally come home. Judah's refusal to return to God is therefore against the grain of reason and nature itself. The verse frames sin not as an inevitable trap but as a stubborn choice, setting up the call to repentance that the gospel ultimately answers in Christ, who alone restores the fallen.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 15
- Prov 24:16For though a righteous man may fall seven times, he still gets up; but the wicked stumble in bad times.
- Mic 7:8Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.
- Hos 6:1Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- Isa 55:7Let the wicked man forsake his own way and the unrighteous man his own thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that He may have compassion, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.
- Jer 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.
- Hos 14:1Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
- Ezek 18:23Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?
- Hos 7:10Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.
- Amos 5:2“Fallen is Virgin Israel, never to rise again. She lies abandoned on her land, with no one to raise her up.”
- Jer 23:14And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”
- Isa 44:22I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud, and your sins like a mist. Return to Me, for I have redeemed you.
- 1 Kgs 8:38then may whatever prayer or petition Your people Israel make—each knowing his own afflictions and spreading out his hands toward this temple—
- Jer 36:3Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
- Jer 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.
- Jer 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,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 8:4 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.