“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?
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?
- BSB 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?
- NKJV “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Will they fall and not rise? Will one turn away and not return?
- 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 a righteous man falls seven times, and rises up again; but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.
- Mic 7:8Don’t rejoice against me, my enemy. When I fall, I will arise. When I sit in darkness, Yahweh will be a light to me.
- Hos 6:1“Come, and let us return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds.
- Isa 55:7Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
- Jer 3:1“They say, ‘If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, should he return to her again?’ Wouldn’t that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me,” says Yahweh.
- Hos 14:1Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
- Ezek 18:23Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” says the Lord Yahweh; “and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?
- Hos 7:10The pride of Israel testifies to his face; yet they haven’t returned to Yahweh their God, nor sought him, for all this.
- Amos 5:2“The virgin of Israel has fallen; She shall rise no more. She is cast down on her land; there is no one to raise her up.”
- Jer 23:14In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one returns from his wickedness. They have all become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.”
- Isa 44:22I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.
- 1 Kgs 8:38whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread out his hands toward this house,
- Jer 36:3It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them; that they may each return from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
- Jer 3:22Return, you backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. “Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God.
- Jer 4:1“If you will return, Israel,” says Yahweh, “if you will return to me, and if you will put away your abominations out of my sight; then you shall not be removed;
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.