Jeremiah 3:6

"Moreover Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly."

We have already noted the nature of the harlotry and whoredom of God's people, and there is no need to elaborate it here. Notice the fourfold reiteration of the appellation `treacherous' as applied to Judah in Jeremiah 3:7,8,10,11.

The aggravated nature of Judah's sin is seen in this: "Israel had openly broken the political and religious connection with Jehovah; but Judah nominally retained both; but her heart was toward the false gods."[13] The idea here is that, "Judah did not profit by the experience of the Northern Kingdom and is therefore more guilty."[14]

"The lightness of her whoredom ..." (Jeremiah 3:9). This is a reference to the casual, carefree attitude of Judah with regard to their shameful conduct.

"But feignedly ..." (Jeremiah 3:10). It seems to us that this could not apply to anything else besides the reforms sponsored and executed by the good king Josiah. The reason why those reforms had little or no effect upon the ultimate fate of Judah is found in these two words right here. They publicly went along with all the reforms; but, at heart, they still adored and worshipped their beloved fertility gods of the Baalim.

Jeremiah 3:6 has the words, "Hast thou seen ... backsliding Israel?" Cook tells us that in the Hebrew here, "The original is very strong: Hast thou seen Apostasy?"[15] It is the same as if the Holy Spirit said that, "Israel is the very personification of the denial of God and rebellion against him."