John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 3:6-8

"Moreover Jehovah said 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. And I said after she had done all these things, She will return unto me; but she returned not: and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. And I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorcement, yet treacherous Judah her sister feared not; but she also went and played the harlot." — Jeremiah 3:6-8 (ASV)

Here the Prophet begins a new discourse: he relates what God had entrusted to him, and mentions the time, specifically in the reign of Josiah. It is indeed well known that the land was then cleansed from superstitions, for that pious king labored to restore the true worship of God and to remove all the filth and defilements by which the temple and all of religion had been corrupted. He vigorously exerted himself, and no doubt there was an improved appearance of religion throughout the land; but we will see that a great portion of the people were under the influence of hypocrisy and deceit, as is usually the case when rulers seek to support the pure worship of God and to free it from all corruptions. For there are many hypocrites who for a time conceal their true feelings, while the same hostility to God still remains. Such was then the condition of the people.

And this should be carefully observed, for Jeremiah might have appeared to have dealt rather too harshly and rigorously with his own nation, as reform was on everyone's lips. This is similar to what we find with many now who, having left the superstitions of the Papacy, seemed at first to embrace the doctrines of the Gospel, but now all wish to be satisfied with any kind of reformation. At the same time, they shake off the yoke of Christ and can bear submission to no discipline. In short, their object is to subvert all order; and yet they boldly claim to be the advocates of reformation whenever their impiety is reproved.

This was no doubt the contest which Jeremiah had to carry on, the same as that by which the Lord tests His servants today. He therefore says that he received this commission in the days of Josiah, that is, when that king was laboring to establish the pure worship of God, and no one dared to oppose. For we find that God was then worshipped by the whole people without any external corruptions.

But what is contained in this commission? Have you seen, he says, what apostate Israel has done? God here compares the ten tribes with the tribe of Judah, with whom was united, as is well known, the half tribe of Benjamin. He then compares Israel with the tribe of Judah: “Do you not see what rebellious Israel has done?” But he introduces the kingdom of Israel, as well as the kingdom of Judah, under the character of women, for God, as has already been shown, represents Himself as the husband of His people.

He then says that He had two wives, Israel and Judah. God had indeed betrothed to Himself the whole seed of Abraham by one contract, but Jeremiah speaks here in a popular manner. Though the Israelites had departed from God, yet He had not wholly rejected them. The kingdom of Israel had then become adulterous, but God for a time bore with that sin, so that the covenant, in part, remained.

For this reason He acknowledges both Israel and Judah as His wives. Hence He says, Have you not seen what estranged Israel has done? The word משבה, meshibe, is derived from שוב, shub, which signifies both to return and to depart; and Jerome everywhere renders it aversatrix, one who turns aside, or is estranged.

But some render it “rebellious;” we might say more correctly in French, debauchee. She went, he says, on every high hill, and under every shady tree, and there played the harlot. In short, God complains that the ten tribes had violated the sacred bond of marriage when they prostituted themselves to idols, even on all high hills and under all shady trees; for as I have said before, they chose those places as if there were some holiness both on mountains and under shades of trees.

He afterwards adds, Yet I said. God here states that He had long suspended His judgment before He punished the people of Israel. He then extols His patience here, that He had not immediately punished the Israelites as they deserved, but bore with them and for a long time waited to see whether they could be reformed. I said, then, after she had done all these things, Return to Me. If we read in the third person, the sense will be the same: “I hoped indeed that they would return to the right way, though they had thus fallen away, yes, even though they had denied Me by an impious defection and had become alienated from faith and piety.”

But I am more inclined to another view—that God here records the fact that He had recalled the ten tribes to Himself by His servants the Prophets, though they had by their many crimes provoked His wrath. Here then God shows how perverse the Israelites had been, for He had tried to restore them, if possible, to Himself, but had spent all His labor in vain. I thus explain I said as referring to the prophetic instruction: “Though then the Israelites had plunged themselves into impieties, I yet did not cease to try whether they could be restored to Me.” He intimates, in short, that He had been unlike those husbands who, burning with jealousy because they see they have been exposed to so much disgrace, will not be reconciled to their wives. God then shows that though the Israelites had departed from Him, He yet sent His prophets and of His own free will sought reconciliation with them, but they had refused to return.

He then adds, And Judah saw—that is, the whole kingdom of Judah—that, for all this, because rebellious Israel had played the harlot, etc. We will later find the design of this comparison, for he amplifies the sin of the kingdom of Judah, since she had time enough to observe what he now relates and was able to see it at a distance, as it were, from a watchtower; yet she saw it without any advantage. God then intended to show how great was the hardness of the Jews, who had seen the defection of the ten tribes and had seen how severely they had been reproved by the prophets.

He then says, And I saw. As he had said that the kingdom of Judah had seen what happened to Israel, so he now says that He had seen both. So I saw. Now, what does He declare that He had seen? Even that Judah had played the harlot, for he now speaks of Judah as a woman.

Then God says that it was not a thing hidden from Him that Judah had surpassed the crimes of her sister, not through ignorance or deception, but through deliberate wickedness. He says, I did indeed see that notwithstanding all these things, she played the harlot. He thus explains more fully what he had briefly touched upon before. He had said that Judah had seen, but this on account of its brevity might have appeared ambiguous; he therefore explains it at greater length: Judah saw that I gave a bill of divorcement to her sister because she had played the harlot, and yet she did not fear. That is, she did not think of repenting when she had such a striking example of vengeance set before her eyes.

But it may be asked here, how could it be said that a bill of divorce had been given to the Israelites, when He denies by the Prophet Isaiah that He had given it? (Isaiah 50:1). But the Prophet here takes another view of the subject, for he is not speaking here of the bills of divorce such as were usually given when a husband repudiated a wife who had been chaste and faithful. Instead, he speaks of that lawful divorce when a woman, convicted of adultery, is liable to capital punishment.

God then by His prophet Isaiah denies that He had given a bill of divorcement, but He says here that He had given it because He had repudiated an adulterous woman. It was not indeed customary at that time among the Jews to divorce an adulteress, for she was led to execution.

But we have seen at the beginning of the chapter that there is a difference between God and husbands. Since God did not deal with the Israelites as He might have justly done, and did not execute capital punishment—as He might rightly have done, and as was usually done—He says that He had given a bill of divorce, that is, that He had repudiated that people.

But by the bill of divorce he means exile, for when the ten tribes were banished, it was the same as though God openly showed that He had no connection with that people. As long as they continued in the holy land and in the promised inheritance, some kind of union remained; but when they were dispersed here and there, and every sort of worship had ceased among them, and also when the very kingdom of Israel no longer existed, God had then divorced them.

Then her sister Judah saw, and she did not fear. It was indeed an instance of great insensibility not to learn wisdom at the expense of others. And it is a complaint found everywhere in the prophets that the Jews were not stimulated to repentance while God spared them and at the same time set before them examples that should reasonably have terrified them.

For what should they have considered, but that God would punish those many transgressions by which they provoked His wrath, since He had not spared their brethren? They saw that the kingdom of Israel had been abolished, and yet all of them derived their origin from the same father, Abraham. How was it then that they so carelessly despised God’s judgment, which had been before their eyes for a long time? Hence he complains that they did not fear.