Rather, “And I saw” that because apostate “Israel” had “committed adultery, I had put her away, and given her” the writing of her divorcement, “yet” false “Judah her sister feared not.”...The expression, “For all the causes whereby,” is probably the actual formula with which writings of divorcement commenced. read more
Lightness - Others render as in the margin.Defiled - Rather, profaned. The land especially consecrated to Yahweh’s service was treated by Judah as a common land. read more
Jeremiah 3:8. And I saw As if he had said, That which others discerned not, I saw perfectly; namely, both her hypocrisy and her incorrigibleness, notwithstanding what had befallen Israel, whose correction should have instructed and reformed her. When for all the causes The various idolatries and other sins, for which I had given her That is, Israel; a bill of divorce Delivered her up into the hands of the Assyrians, and thereby taken from her the title of being my church; yet her... read more
Jeremiah 3:9-10. And through the lightness of her whoredom “By this phrase,” says Blaney, “I take to be meant, that she was not nice in the choice of the objects, but was ready to prostitute herself to all that came in her way; that is, she eagerly fell in with all kinds of idolatrous worship indiscriminately, descending so low as to images of wood and stone.” That she defiled the land Brought the whole land under the guilt of idolatry. Yet for all this Though God saw what she did, and... read more
Need for true repentance (3:6-18)King Josiah had tried to reform Judah, but because people had not changed inwardly, the reformation affected only the external forms of religion. Looking from God’s viewpoint, Jeremiah calls the people’s so-called repentance a pretence (see v. 10). Judah had seen her sister nation Israel divorced from God and sent into captivity because of her spiritual adultery, but Israel’s experience taught her nothing. She is now doing what Israel did. In accepting Josiah’s... read more
And I saw. In transcribing from the ancient characters, Aleph (= a) was perhaps taken for Tau (= t), the two letters differing only in one minute stroke (=) and (=). This shows that the primitive reading was = "Though she saw". The Vulg, has preserved the ancient reading, which the Revised Version has put in the margin. given her a bill, &c. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 24:1 ). Compare Isaiah 50:1 .Mark 10:4 . read more
stones . . . stocks. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Cause), App-6 , for the idols made from them. read more
Jeremiah 3:8. And I saw, &c.— And I saw when on account of the adultery which backsliding Israel had committed, &c. Houbigant renders the words, I saw, in the third person; Nay, though she saw, that l had put away backsliding Israel, for all the adulteries, &c. read more
8. I saw that, though (whereas) it was for this very reason (namely), because backsliding (apostate) Israel had committed adultery I had put her away (2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 17:18), and given her a bill of divorce, yet Judah, c. (2 Kings 17:18- :, &c.). bill of divorce—literally, "a writing of cuttings off." The plural implies the completeness of the severance. The use of this metaphor here, as in the former discourse (2 Kings 17:18- :), implies a close connection between the discourses. The... read more
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The Pulpit Commentary - Jeremiah 3:9
Through the lightness of her whoredom ; i . e . through the slight importance which she attached to her whoredom. So apparently the ancient versions. The only sense, however, which the word kol ever has in Hebrew is not "lightness," but "sound," "voice," and perhaps "rumor" ( Genesis 45:16 ). Hence it is more strictly accurate to render "through the cry." etc. (comp. Genesis 4:10 ; Genesis 19:13 ), or "through the fame," etc.. But neither of these seems quite suitable to the... read more