3:21
Chasing after the false gods did Israel know good, the barren heights being the place where much idol worship took place. Instead it led only to disaster. They had perverted their ways and had forgotten the Lord their God. When we abandon God we pervert our ways. This clearly applies in sexual matters, but in other areas of life as well. We become something we were not meant to be, and it leads only to weeping.
3:22
God calls on His faithless people to return to Him, then they would cured of their backsliding. In Hebrew, “return”, “faithless” and “backsliding” all derive from the same Hebrew root, so in Hebrew there is a series of puns here. Unfortunately we miss this aspect! Many of the English translation do seek to get some of it with the last two, eg “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” (KJV). NIV seems to have not bothered to capture this aspect of the Hebrew. The people then make a declaration that they will indeed return to the Lord.
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