Jeremiah 3:6-10

B. The Need for Repentance Jeremiah 3:6-10

TRANSLATION

(6) And the LORD said unto me in the days of Josiah the king: Have You seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She continuously goes upon every high mountain and under every green tree and you commit harlotry there. (7) And I said, After she has done all these things, she will return unto Me; but she did not return. And the faithless one, her sister Judah, saw it. (8) And I saw, when, because of the fact that Backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I put her away and gave a writing of divorcement unto her, yet the Treacherous One, Judah her sister, did not fear but she went and committed harlotry. (9) And it came to pass that because of the lightness of her harlotry she polluted the land and she committed adultery with stones and stocks. (10) And even in all of this her treacherous sister Judah did not return unto Me with all her heart, but deceitfully (oracle of the LORD).

COMMENTS

The need for repentance in Judah was made manifest by what had happened in the northern kingdom of Israel. Israel was Backsliding personified. Throughout her history Israel had recklessly pursued the false gods upon every prominent noll where they would feel closer to the deities and under every green tree which would furnish welcome shade for the practice of their lustful desires. The last clause of verse six is actually in the second person though this has been obscured in the standard English translations: and you commit harlotry there. This is either a parenthetical direct address to the northern tribes which are presently in exile or else the prophet points to his hearers and declares you too have engaged in such licentious acts.

Through the two hundred years of the history of the northern kingdom God waited patiently for His foolhardy people to tire of roving from Him. God is not willing that any should perish. He was hopeful, even anxious, that wayward Israel would return to Him. But if God knows the future did He not know Israel would refuse to repent? Jeremiah does not bother to deal with this question. He has no interest in working out a systematic theology. He is not concerned with questions of omniscience and foreknowledge in this passage. Jeremiah is not attempting to be a logician but an artist. He is painting a picture of a loving and gracious God on the one hand and a stubborn and rebellious people on the other. Judah saw what transpired in the north and yet refused to profit from that experience (Jeremiah 3:7). Even when God divorced His adulterous wife Israel by sending her into Assyrian captivity Judah did not fear but continued in her own harlotry (Jeremiah 3:8). Apostasy in Judah was regarded rather lightly and consequently the land was polluted. Judah forsook her Bridegroom and committed adultery with gods of wood and stone (Jeremiah 3:9). The wickedness of idolatry is only exceeded by the folly of it. Like an adulterous wife who promises to be faithful to her husband while at the same time perpetuating liaison with her lover, so Judah deceitfully pledged herself to the Lord. The Treacherous One had not returned to the Lord with her whole heart. Some scholars think that in Jeremiah 3:10 Jeremiah is giving his assessment of the reformation of Josiah, that it was not sincere but hypocritical. It is not certain, of course, that this paragraph should be dated after the reform.