Jeremiah 3:1-5

Israel's Infidelity. (Some introductory formula, like that of Jeremiah 2:1, has dropped out before Jeremiah 3:1; note mg.). Israel's marital unfaithfulness to Yahweh is too gross for a facile repentance to avail. The analogy of the law of divorce (mg. reference) suggests that Israel cannot deal with her Divine Husband as lightly as she will. She has waited for her lovers as persistently as a nomad plunderer for his victims. The loss of that prosperity which depended on the latter rain (of the spring) has brought no compunction. Recent promises have not been kept.

Jeremiah 3:1. land should be woman, with LXX; mg. 3 to be read.

Jeremiah 3:4. Render Hast thou not just cried; some see a reference here and in Jeremiah 3:5 to the Reformation under Josiah, and its relative failure. guide is friend or lover (cf. mg.) ; for the idea of Yahweh as both father and husband to Israel, see Hosea 2:16; Hosea 11:1.

Jeremiah 3:5. hast... done: read mg.