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Jeremiah 3:6-10

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

6. The LORD said also 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. 7. And I said after she had done all these [things], Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw [it]. 8. And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also. 9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10. And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.

Jeremiah 3:6-10 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Jeremiah 3:6

Theological / Devotional

The Lord said. The prophet compares the attitudes of Judah toward idolatry with those of Israel. Judah was inclined to regard with contemptuous scorn the northern tribes, who had been carried captive by Assyria. Jeremiah points out that her guilt is, in fact, greater.

Days of Josiah. This would place the address in the early years of Jeremiah’s ministry (see p. 19). It may have been delivered soon after Josiah’s attempt to purge the land of idolatry and to restore the pure worship of the true God.

Hast thou seen? Israel had been carried captive about 100 years previously. “Seen” is here used in the sense of “considered.”

Backsliding. Heb. meshubah, “backturning.” Israel was Judah’s renegade sister.

She is gone. The Hebrew verb form denotes habitual practice (see ch. 2:20).

By SdaBc