Jer 15:19 | NETfull | STEP | Because of this, the Lord said, “You must repent of such words and thoughts! If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me. If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless, I will again allow you to be my spokesman. They must become as you have been. You must not become like them.

Jeremiah 15:19

19 Because of this, the Lord said, ^{▼▼ Heb “So the Lord said thus.”}

“You must repent of such words and thoughts!
If you do, I will restore you to the privilege of serving me. ^{▼▼ Heb “If you return [ = repent], I will restore [more literally, ‘cause you to return’] that you may stand before me.” For the idiom of “standing before” in the sense of serving see BDB 764 s.v. עָמַד Qal.1.e and compare the usage in 1 Kgs 10:8; 12:8; 17:1; Deut 10:8.}
If you say what is worthwhile instead of what is worthless,
I will again allow you to be my spokesman. ^{▼▼ Heb “you shall be as my mouth.”} ^{▼▼ For the classic statement of the prophet as God’s “mouth/mouthpiece,” = “spokesman,” see Exod 4:15–16; 7:1–2.}
They must become as you have been.
You must not become like them. ^{▼▼ Heb “They must turn/return to you and you must not turn/return to them.”} ^{▼▼ Once again the root “return” (שׁוּב, shuv) is being played on as in 3:1–4:4. See the threefold call to repentance in 3:12, 14, 22. The verb is used here four times “repent,” “restore,” and “become” twice. He is to serve as a model of repentance, not an imitator of their apostasy. In accusing God of being unreliable he was coming dangerously close to their kind of behavior.}