Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 4:1

1 IF thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me , and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight , then shalt thou not remove .

This seems to be a continuation of the former Sermon, so that Israel having promised Repentance, they are here directed how it must be qualified, viz. it must not be hypocritical and feigned, but real and hearty, chap. 24.7. as Iosiah did, 2 Kin. 23.25. and it must be unto the Lord not to this Idol, and that Idol hither and thither, shifting their way, but unto me. See chap. 2.36. or to my Worship, and as thou hast promised chap. 3.22. and this sense agrees best with the coherence, or it may be an emphatical, short, peremptory expression, if thou wilt return, return, make no longer demur or delay about it, like that Isa. 21.12. the hebrew read the words in the future tense, if thou wilt return thou shalt return, and so they may be taken partly as a promise and that with reference, either to their returning into their own Land, and so they concern Israel thus Deut. 30.2.3, 4, 5. see chap. 3.14. but if the word be taken in the notion of resting, not returning as some do, and as it is taken Isa. 30.15. then it rather concerns Iudah, q. d. thou shalt abide quietly where thou art, and shalt not wander into Captivity, and this may agree with the last expression in that verse not remove, or else with reference to the assistance, that God would give them to return unto him, partly, and that rather, as a direction (for in the hebrew though the word return be in the future tense, yet it is often used imperatively.)

Viz. Idols a metonymy of the Adjunct which are so abominable in Gods sight Deut. 27.15. Ezek. 20.7, 8. called dung Gods, Deut. 29.17. See 2 Chron. 15.8.

Though Gods eye be every where, and hence implyeth, that Idols are no where to be admitted, either in private, or publique, yet it doth particularly relate to the place of his more immediate presence, as their Land and Temple, 1 King. 9.3. and spiritually to our hearts, hypocrites thinking it enough, if they conceal their wickedness from mans eye.

If this be read imperatively, then it is remove not, as it may be read, and so it agrees with Israel, depart not away from me to thy Idols upon the Mountains, and hills, if read in the future tense, then it agrees with Iudah, thou shalt not go out of thine own Land into exile; see the first clause of the verse.

Marginal references: Joel 2.12.