The anticipation of Israel's repentance 3:21-25

3:21 The Lord could hear, in the future, the Israelites weeping and praying in repentance on the hilltops, where they had formerly committed spiritual adultery (v. 2). They would finally realize that they had perverted their way and had forgotten Yahweh.

3:22 This anticipation drew from Him an invitation to His faithless people to return to Him immediately. He promised to heal their faithless addiction to wandering from Him. He also anticipated Israel's response of acceptance. Israel would return and acknowledge again Yahweh as her God.

"This simple statement was crucial, for the root of past errors lay in their failure to recognize the Lord as their one and true God, and their consequent resort to the false gods of the fertility cults. Having declared their recognition of God, they would immediately pass on to a denunciation of the false gods to whom they had resorted."¹¹⁴

3:23 The Israelites confessed that the hills and mountains on which they had worshipped idols had been sites of deception for them and places of unrest. The idols had not provided what they promised, and instead of finding rest by worshipping them the Israelites had experienced turmoil. They finally acknowledged that only in Yahweh their God could they find true salvation (cf. Exod. 20:2-6; Deut. 5:6-10; 6:4).

3:24 Idolatry had consumed the Israelites in all that they had done throughout their history. It had been a blight on their existence, a shame to them as a people. But another nuance may also have been intended.

". . . Baal is referred to under the substitute name bosheth, shame' [cf. 11:13; 2 Sam. 2:8: Ish-bosheth, lit. man of shame]. . . . Shame' (Baal) had devoured all that the labors of their fathers had produced since the people were children."¹¹⁵

3:25 They now did not try to run from their shame (cf. Gen. 3:7, 10). Rather they willingly let it cover them and confessed their sin against Yahweh their God, sin that had existed throughout their history as a nation. They had disobeyed the Lord's voice; they had broken His covenant (cf. v. 13).