Jeremiah 3:5

Will he reserve his anger for ever? will he keep it to the end? Behold, thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest.

He - `thou,' the second person had preceded,"My Father, thou," etc. (). The changes to the third person implies a putting away of God to a greater distance from them. A new speaker is here introduced, representing the Jews: instead of repenting and forsaking their idols, they merely deprecate the continuance of their punishment. and answer their question in the event of their penitence.

Spoken and done - rather (God's reply to them), 'Thou hast spoken (thus: i:e., now that judgments are imminent, thou triest to cajole me with soft deprecatory words), and yet (all the while) thou hast done evil,' etc.

As thou couldest - with all thy might; with incorrigible persistency (Calvin).