What Judah and Israel needed, according to Jeremiah 4:3, 4 and Hosea 10:12, 13, was a change in their way of life, preparing, softening, and cleansing their hearts (compare Lu 8:5-15) as by plowing and removing thorns, so that, instead of wasting their efforts and labor in wrong practices that bring only a bad harvest, they might instead reap divine blessings.