Jeremiah 3:1 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 3:1
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
to say (used with great latitude) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
man
אִ֣ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
away
יְשַׁלַּ֣חye.sha.Lach
H7971
to send away · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
wife
אִשְׁתּוֹ֩'ish.To
H802
a woman · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
go
וְהָלְכָ֨הve.ha.le.Khah
H1980
to walk (in a great variety of applications · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 3rd person feminine singular
another
אַחֵ֗ר'a.Cher
H312
properly · adjective, masculine singular absolute
man’s
לְאִישׁle.'ish-
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · preposition + noun, common masculine singular absolute
again
הֲיָשׁ֤וּבha.ya.Shuv
H7725
to turn back (hence · interrogative particle + verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
land
הָאָ֣רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
greatly
חָנ֥וֹףcha.Nof
H2610
to soil · verb, qal infinitive absolute
polluted
תֶּחֱנַ֖ףte.che.Naf
H2610
to soil · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
harlot
זָנִית֙za.Nit
H2181
to commit adultery (usually of the female · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
many
רַבִּ֔יםra.Bim
H7227
abundant (in quantity · adjective, masculine plural absolute
lovers
רֵעִ֣יםre.'Im
H7453
an associate (more or less close) · noun, common masculine plural absolute
again
וְשׁ֥וֹבve.Shov
H7725
to turn back (hence · conjunction + verb, qal infinitive absolute
saith
נְאֻםne.'um-
H5002
an oracle · noun, common masculine singular construct
LORD
יְהֹוָֽהYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 24:1-4 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanne…
Ezekiel 16:26 Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to a…
Deuteronomy 4:29-31 But if from thence thou shalt seek the LORD thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.
Jeremiah 2:20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under eve…
Jeremiah 4:1 If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou…
Ezekiel 16:28-29 Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet coulde…
Ezekiel 23:4-49 And the names of them were Aholah the elder, and Aholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bare sons and daughters. Thus were their…
Hosea 2:5-7 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 3:1-5
These verses some make to belong to the sermon in the foregoing chapter, and they open a door of hope to those who receive the conviction of the reproofs we had there; God wounds that he may heal. Now observe here,
I. How basely this people had forsaken God and gone a whoring from him. The charge runs very high here. 1. They had multiplied their idols and their idolatries. To have admitted one strange God among them would have been bad enough, but they were insatiable in their lustings after false worships: Thou hast played the harlot with many lovers, Jer 3:1. She had become a common prostitute to idols; not a foolish deity was set up in all the neighbourhood but the Jews would have it quic…
They say, if a man put away his wife,.... Or, "saying" (w); wherefore some connect those words with the last verse of the preceding chapter, as if they were a continuation of what the Lord had been there saying, that he would reject their confidences; so Kimchi; but they seem rather to begin a new section, or a paragraph, with what were commonly said among men, or in the law, and as the sense of that; that if a man divorced his wife upon any occasion,
and she go from him; departs from his house, and is separated from bed and board with him:
and become another man's, be married to another, as she might according to the law:
shall he return unto her again? take her to be his wife again; her…
Jeremiah 3:1
1. They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
l. Dicendo, si dimiserit vir uxorem suam, et profecta ab eo, fuepit viri alterius, (id est, transierit ad alium virum) an revertetur ad eam adhuc? Annon pollutione polluta est terra in hoc? et tu scortata es cum sociis multis; revertere tamen ad me, dicit Jehova.
Many regard this verse as connected with the last, and thus read them connectedly, "God hates false confidences, because he says, "etc. But this seems not to me to be s…
The Church Fathers
since indeed Scripture designates the sons of adulterers as imperfect. For such a soul, which, having deserted the conjunction of the spirit, prostrates itself wholly to the sense of the flesh and to bodily desires, as though turned away from God will impudently hear that "you have made yourself the face of a harlot, you have become without shame toward all." Therefore as a harlot she will be punished, and her sons are commanded to be prepared for slaughter.
For this end he hath mentioned Ruth also and Rahab, the one an alien, the other an harlot, that thou mayest learn that He came to do away with all our ills. For He hath come as a Physician, not as a Judge. Therefore in like manner as those of old took harlots for wives, even so God too espoused unto Himself the nature which had played the harlot: and this also prophets from the beginning declare to have taken place with respect to the Synagogue. But that spouse was ungrateful towards Him who had been an husband to her, whereas, the Church, when once delivered from the evils received from our fathers, continued to embrace the Bridegroom.
Hence again under the figure of Judea it is said to every sinful soul: "If a man puts away his wife, and she departs and marries another man, will he return to her again? Will not that woman be polluted and contaminated? But you have fornicated with many lovers; nevertheless return to me, says the Lord." Behold, he gave the example of a shameful woman. He showed that after such shame she cannot be received back. But he overcomes by mercy this very example that he set forth, when he says that a fornicating woman can by no means be received back, and yet he himself waits to receive the fornicating soul. Consider, brothers, the weight of such great tenderness. He says what cannot be done, and demonstrates that he himself can do this even against custom. Behold, he calls, and those whom he declares to be defiled, he also seeks to embrace, those by whom he complains he has been abandoned.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Harlot — (1.) Heb. zonah (Gen. 34:31; 38:15). In verses 21, 22 the Hebrew word used in kedeshah, i.e., a woman consecrated or devoted to prostitution in connection with the abominable worship of Asherah or…
Marriage — Was instituted in Paradise when man was in innocence (Gen. 2:18-24). Here we have its original charter, which was confirmed by our Lord, as the basis on which all regulations are to be framed (Matt.…
Solomon, Song of — Called also, after the Vulgate, the “Canticles.” It is the “song of songs” (1:1), as being the finest and most precious of its kind; the noblest song, “das Hohelied,” as Luther calls it. The…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Divorce · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
As a divorced woman who has become another man's wife cannot return to her first husband, so Judah, after it has turned away to other gods, will not be received again by Jahveh; especially since, in spite of all chastisement, it adheres to its evil ways. Jer 3:1. "He saith, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, can he return to her again? would not such a land be polluted? and thou hast whored with many partners; and wouldst thou return to me? saith Jahveh. Jer 3:2. Lift up thine eyes unto the bare-topped hills and look, where hast thou not been lien with; on the ways thou sattest for them, like an Arab in the desert, and pollutedst the land by thy whored…
Adultery was solid grounds for divorce (Deut 24:1-2; Hos 2:1-5; 9:1). Judah committed spiritual adultery, smugly assuming that God would have no objections (Ezek 16:26; Zech 1:3).
3:1 The law prohibited a man from marrying a woman he had previously divorced who had then married another man (Deut 24:1-4). A woman who had many lovers was even less likely to be received back.
Rashi on Jeremiah 3:1
to say I have to say that you are no longer fit for me, for so is the way of one who sends away his wife and she goes away, etc.
But you have played the harlot [with] many lovers With many lovers. Nevertheless, return to Me.
yet return to me Heb. ושוב, lit. and to return to me, like עשות, to do, and to return to Me, I long for you.
