Jeremiah 3:13
“Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Restoration requires acknowledgment: Israel must confess her transgression and her scattering of devotion to false gods.
Context
This verse sets the condition for the promised restoration. It echoes the covenant condition: obedience brings blessing, disobedience brings curse. But here, repentance reopens the door to blessing. The 'strangers under every green tree' refers to false gods and their worship in sacred groves.
What Does Jeremiah 3:13 Mean?
The condition for restoration is simple but absolute: acknowledge. Not perform, not promise, not explain away—acknowledge the reality of what has happened. 'Thine iniquity'—take ownership of it. 'Thou hast transgressed against the LORD'—name it as transgression against God, not merely as a political miscalculation or a cultural mistake. And 'hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree'—confess the specific form of the unfaithfulness, the divided loyalties, the worship offered in forbidden places to false gods.
'I have not obeyed my voice'—in three words, the core of sin. This is not complicated theology. It is the ancient pattern: God speaks, we do not listen. Restoration begins when we stop making excuses and simply say yes to what is true. The path back is always opened by honesty. Mercy meets us there, at the place where we finally stop pretending.
In the Original Language
nota (נתע), 'acknowledge' -- literally, 'to know,' but in the imperative form, to own knowledge, to take responsibility for knowing what one has done.
Application
The path of restoration always begins with honest acknowledgment. Not defensiveness, not explanation, not partial confession—but full ownership of what we have done and why it matters. God does not ask for self-hatred, but He does ask for truth. When we face ourselves with the same honesty with which God sees us, we open ourselves to His mercy.