41 "If you will return , O Israel ," declares the Lord , "Then you should return to Me. And if you will put away your detested things from My presence , And will not waver , 2 And you will swear , 'As the Lord lives ,' In truth , in justice and in righteousness ; Then the nations will bless themselves in Him, And in Him they will glory ."
3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem , " Break up your fallow ground , And do not sow among thorns . 4 " Circumcise yourselves to the Lord And remove the foreskins of your heart , Men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem , Or else My wrath will go forth like fire And burn with none to quench it, Because e of the evil of your deeds ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 4:1-4
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:1-2
(Read Jeremiah 4:1-2)
The first two verses should be read with the last chapter. Sin must be put away out of the heart, else it is not put away out of God's sight, for the heart is open before him.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4:3-4
(Read Jeremiah 4:3-4)
An unhumbled heart is like ground untilled. It is ground which may be improved; it is our ground let out to us; but it is fallow; it is over-grown with thorns and weeds, the natural product of the corrupt heart. Let us entreat the Lord to create in us a clean heart, and to renew a right spirit within us; for except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven.