Jeremia 3:9 Kommentar

The foregoing chapter was wholly taken up with reproofs and threatenings against the people of God, for their apostasies from him; but in this chapter gracious invitations and encouragements are given them to return and repent, notwithstanding the multitude and greatness of their provocations, which are here specified, to magnify the mercy of God, and to show that as sin abounded grace did much more abound. Here, I. It is further shown how bad they had been and how well they deserved to be quite abandoned, and yet how ready God was to receive them into his favour upon their repentance (Jer 3:1-5) II. The impenitence of Judah, and their persisting in sin, are aggravated from the judgments of God upon Israel, which they should have taken warning by (Jer 3:6-11). III. Great encouragements are given to these backsliders to return and repent, and promises made of great mercy which God had in store for them, and which he would prepare them for by bringing them home to himself (Jer 3:12-19). IV. The charge renewed against them for their apostasy from God, and the invitation repeated to return and repent, to which are here added the words that are put in their mouth, which they should make use of in their return to God (Jer 3:20-25).

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 3 In this chapter the sins of the people of Israel and Judah are exposed; particularly their idolatry, signified by playing the harlot; which is aggravated by the number of lovers or idols they had worshipped; by the many places where they had committed it; by their impudence in doing it; and by the bad consequence of it, showers of rain being withheld from them on that account, Jer 3:1 and the grace of God towards them is abundantly declared by frequent calls unto them to repent and turn to him, and this after putting them away, which is not usual, Jer 3:1, the Lord expostulates with them, and puts words into their mouths, what they should say to him, even after they had spoken and done as evil things as they could, Jer 3:4 the sin of Judah is particularly aggravated, by having seen what Israel, or the ten tribes, had done; their impenitence, notwithstanding the divine call; their going into captivity for their sin; and yet all this had no effect on Judah, to restrain them from the like sins, and to engage them to repentance; so that, of the two, the men of Judah were most to blame, Jer 3:6, wherefore the prophet is bid to go towards the north, where Babylon lay, and Israel were carried captive, and call upon them to return to the Lord, and proclaim his grace and mercy to them, only insisting upon an acknowledgment of their sins, their idolatry and disobedience, Jer 3:12 and next the call to them to return is repeated; to which they are encouraged by observing the relations, they stood in to him, which continued, by promising to bring a remnant of them to Zion, and give them pastors approved of by him, and profitable to them, Jer 3:14 which respect Gospel times, and the latter day, when the ceremonial law would be abrogated, Jer 3:16, the Gentiles called, Jer 3:17 and an entire agreement between Judah and Israel, Jer 3:18 and yet the Lord expresses a concern how he should reckon them as his children, and treat them as such, who had behaved so ill towards him; but his grace gets over the difficulties; finds out a way, by putting it into their mouths to call him their Father, and not turn away from him, Jer 3:19 and this, notwithstanding their great treachery to him, perversion of their ways, and forgetfulness of the Lord, Jer 3:20, and they are again exhorted to repent and turn, with a promise of healing their backslidings, which has such an effect upon them, as to engage them to come to him, Jer 3:22 acknowledging their salvation is only in him, and not in their idols; and that sin was the cause of all their calamities; and that shame and confusion of face belonged unto them on that account, Jer 3:23.

And it came to pass, through the lightness of her whoredom,.... Or the "swiftness" (b) of it; when it was once set on foot, it ran through the land presently one taking it from and following the example of another; or it became a light thing with her to commit idolatry; it was looked upon as a small thing, a trivial offence at most: so the Targum, "it came to pass that her idols were light in her eyes;'' not lightly esteemed of, but it was a light thing to commit idolatry with them; interpreting the word as the Masora, which it follows: and to the same sense the Septuagint version, "her fornication was for nothing"; it stood for nothing, it was not reckoned as a sin: the Arabic version is, "her fornication was with nothing"; with an idol, which is nothing in the world, Co1 8:4, some choose to render it, "because of the voice or fame of her whoredom" (c), or idolatry; it sounded forth, and the fame, or rather infamy of it, went out through the whole land: wherefore it follows, that she defiled the land; polluted it with sin, involved it in guilt, and exposed it to punishment: and committed adultery with stones and with stocks; that is, with images made of stone and wood, which they served and worshipped as gods; and is the adultery or idolatry they are charged with, and by which the land was defiled. The Targum is, "she erred or committed idolatry with the worshippers of stone and wood.'' This, by what follows, seems to be understood not of Judah, but of Israel. (b) "a levitate", a "velocem esse", Calvin. (c) Heb. "propter vocem scortationis ejus, vel famosam scortationem", Piscator; "a voce scortationis ejus", Schmidt; "propter famam scortationis ejus", Cocceius; "prae famosa scortatione", Junius & Tremellius.

Let us now proceed to consider the mode of his loving discipline, with the aid of the prophetic testimony. Admonition, then, is loving care’s censure and produces understanding. Such is Christ the Educator in his admonitions, as when he says in the Gospel, “How often would I have gathered your children, as a bird gathers her young ones under her wings, and you did not allow it!” And again, the Scripture admonishes, saying, “And they committed adultery with wood and stone and burned incense to Baal.” For it is a very great proof of his love, that, though knowing well the shamelessness of the people who had kicked and bounded away, he notwithstanding exhorts them to repentance and says by Ezekiel, “Son of man, you live in the midst of scorpions; nevertheless, speak to them, if perhaps they will hear.”

Admonition, then, is loving care’s censure and produces understanding. Such is Christ the Educator in his admonitions, as when he says in the Gospel, “How often would I have gathered your children, as a bird gathers her young ones under her wings, and you would not!” And again, the Scripture admonishes, saying, “And they committed adultery with stock and stone and burned incense to Baal.” For it is a very great proof of God’s love that, though knowing well the shamelessness of the people who had kicked and bounded away, he nevertheless exhorts them to repentance. He says by Ezekiel, “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of scorpions. Nevertheless, speak to them, if by chance they will hear.” Further, to Moses he says, “Go and tell Pharaoh to send my people forth, but I know that he will not send them forth.”

It is not only bodily sin that is called fornication and adultery, but any sin you have committed, and especially transgression against that which is divine. Perhaps you ask how we can prove this. “They prostituted themselves,” it says “with things they made.” Don’t you see an impudent act of fornication? And again, “They committed adultery with pieces of wood.” Don’t you see a kind of adulterous religion? Do not then commit spiritual adultery, while keeping your bodies chaste.

(Verse 6 and following) And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the adulteress Israel has done? She went upon every high hill and under every leafy tree and committed adultery there. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw that I had dismissed the adulteress Israel and had given her a bill of divorce. But her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and committed adultery. She defiled the land with her adulterous acts and committed adultery with stone and wood. And in all this, her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in falsehood, says the Lord. The torments of some are the remedies of others. And when a murderer is punished, he receives indeed what he has done, but others are deterred from the crime. Therefore, when the ten tribes, which were called Israel, were captured by the Assyrians and taken to Media, the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, which should have feared similar things and turned their whole minds towards God, overcame the crimes of the ten tribes. And they followed idols to such an extent that they placed a statue of Baal in the Temple of God, which is called an idol by Ezekiel, set up for zeal and emulation of the Lord. But it speaks under the figure of two sisters, because from one are generated Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by the stock, and the former is called the adversary, the latter the rebellious one. For the former completely turned away from God, immediately worshipping golden calves in Dan and Bethel. But the latter, in whose possession was the Temple and the true religion of God, gradually departed from the Lord (3 Kings 12). And for this reason, she is called the rebellious one. According to the spiritual interpretation, prophecy about heretics is this: those who, thinking themselves wise in heretical cunning, ascend the mind of pride with knowledge of a false name; and, defiled by the pleasures of this flesh, expose their fornication under every leafy and pleasant tree. When they are delivered to the devil for the destruction of the flesh, it often happens that the house of Judah, that is, the confession and true faith, is not at all frightened by their example but commits much greater evils. And they contaminate the land of the Church with the ease of their fornication, committing adultery with stone and wood, following the teachings that are against God. But if an ecclesiastical man wishes to correct someone who has gone astray, and to cut away the rotten flesh, and to bring back to repentance those who have followed falsehood: and nonetheless they continue to adhere to the ancient error under the guise of Ecclesiastical truth, it can be said of them: In all these things, her treacherous sister Judah has not turned back to me with her whole heart, but in deceit. But this prophecy was fulfilled during the time of Josiah, a righteous king, under whom Jeremiah began to prophesy.

Those who place themselves far from your care and choose to serve idols will reap the destructive fruit of defection. He calls idolatry infidelity here. God likewise says also through Jeremiah, "She went up every high hill and under every green tree and was unfaithful there. I said, after all this infidelity of hers, 'Return unto me,' and she did not return." Again, "She committed adultery with tree and stone," meaning, "Leaving me, her spouse, she served false gods." Accordingly, here too he called the worship of idols infidelity.

GOD'S MERCY NOTWITHSTANDING JUDAH'S VILENESS. (Jer. 3:1-25) They say--rather, as Hebrew, "saying," in agreement with "the LORD"; Jer 2:37 of last chapter [MAURER]. Or, it is equivalent to, "Suppose this case." Some copyist may have omitted, "The word of the Lord came to me," saying. shall he return unto her--will he take her back? It was unlawful to do so (Deu 24:1-4). shall not--Should not the land be polluted if this were done? yet return-- (Jer 3:22; Jer 4:1; Zac 1:3; compare Eze 16:51, Eze 16:58, Eze 16:60). "Nevertheless," &c. (see on Isa 50:1).

it--Some take this verse of Judah, to whom the end of Jer 3:8 refers. But Jer 3:10 puts Judah in contrast to Israel in this verse. "Yet for all this," referring to the sad example of Israel; if Jer 3:9 referred to Judah, "she" would have been written in Jer 3:10, not "Judah." Translate, "It (the putting away of Israel) had come to pass through . . . whoredom; and (that is, for) she (Israel) had defiled the land" &c. [MAURER]. English Version, however, may be explained to refer to Israel. lightness--"infamy." [EWALD]. MAURER not so well takes it from the Hebrew root, "voice," "fame."