Jeremiah 3:2 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 3:2
Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.
to lift · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
eyes
עֵינַ֨יִךְ'ei.Na.yikh
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
places
שְׁפָיִ֜םshe.fa.Yim
H8205
bareness · noun, common masculine plural absolute
see
וּרְאִ֗יu.re.'I
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal imperative, 2nd person feminine singular
where
אֵיפֹה֙'ei.Foh
H375
what place? · interrogative particle
lien
שָׁגַלshâgal
H7693
to copulate with
ways
דְּרָכִים֙de.ra.Khim
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders plural absolute
sat
יָשַׁ֣בְתְּya.Shavt
H3427
properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person feminine singular
Arabian
כַּעֲרָבִ֖יka.'a.ra.Vi
H6163
an Arabian or inhabitant of Arab (i.e. Arabia) · preposition + noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
wilderness
בַּמִּדְבָּ֑רba.mid.Bar
H4057
a pasture (i.e. open field · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
polluted
וַתַּחֲנִ֣יפִיva.ta.cha.Ni.fi
H2610
to soil · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
land
אֶ֔רֶץ'E.retz
H776
the earth (at large · noun, common feminine singular absolute
whoredoms
בִּזְנוּתַ֖יִךְbiz.nu.Ta.yikh
H2184
adultery · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
wickedness
וּבְרָעָתֵֽךְu.ve.ra.'a.Tekh
H7451
bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral) · conjunction + preposition + noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
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
Genesis 38:14 And she put her widow’s garments off from her, and covered her with a vail, and wrapped herself, and sat in an open place, which is by the w…
Jeremiah 2:7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and…
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…
Ezekiel 8:4-6 And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision that I saw in the plain.
Ezekiel 16:24-25 That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.
Deuteronomy 12:2 Ye shall utterly destroy all the places, wherein the nations which ye shall possess served their gods, upon the high mountains, and upon the…
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…
1 Kings 11:3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines: and his wives turned away his heart.
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…
high places--the scene of idolatries which were spiritual adulteries.
In . . . ways . . . sat for them--watching for lovers like a prostitute (Gen 38:14, Gen 38:21; Pro 7:12; Pro 23:28; Eze 16:24-25), and like an Arab who lies in wait for travellers. The Arabs of the desert, east and south of Palestine, are still notorious as robbers.
John Gill on Jeremiah 3:2
Lift up thine eyes unto the high places,.... Where idols were set and worshipped; either places naturally high, as hills and mountains, which were chosen for this service; or high places, artificially made and thrown up for this purpose; see 2 Kings 17:9, Jarchi interprets the word of "rivulets of water"; and so the Targum, where also idolatry was committed:
and see where thou hast not been lien with; see if there is a hill or mountain, or any high place, where thou hast not committed idolatry; the thing was so notorious, and the facts and instances so many, there was no denying it; every hill and mountain witnessed to their idolatry; to which agrees the Targum,
"see where thou hast not jo…
Jeremiah 3:2
2. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms, and with thy wickedness.
2. Tolle oculos tuos ad loca excelssa (hoc est, ad colles,) et vide ubi non scortata fueris; super vias (vel, juxta vias) sedisti illis (hoc est, ad illos captandos,) quemadmodum Arabs in deserto; et polluisti terraim scortationibus tuis et malitia tua.
As the Prophet had charged the Jews with being wanton in a loose and promiscuous manner, as it is the case with abandoned women, after having cast away all shame, that they might not evade the ch…
The Church Fathers
(Version 2.) Lift up your eyes and see where you have not fallen. On the roads you were sitting, waiting for them like a robber in the wilderness (or like a deserted raven). For it is written in Hebrew, Arabic, and can also mean Arabs, that this people, devoted to robbery, still raids the borders of Palestine today, and they besiege the roads for those descending from Jerusalem to Jericho: of which the Lord also mentions in the Gospel (Luke 10). So lift up your eyes, O Jerusalem, and look around, and see where you are not laid low by fornication. For just as thieves are accustomed to lay traps for travelers in the evening and in deserted places, so you, sitting by the brothel of Proverbs, were sitting in the streets in the evening, in order to destroy the souls of those who commit fornication. Therefore, the whole land is polluted with your fornications. And significantly, next to these who promise to abandon heretical errors, it is commanded that they lift their eyes straight ahead. For unless they begin to see straight, they cannot condemn their former wickedness.
(Verse 2, 3.) And you have polluted (or killed) the land with your fornications, and in your evils (Alternative: in malice): therefore the drops of rain have been withheld, and the late rain has not come (or you have had many shepherds to stumble). The land has been killed (or polluted), because of the killing of those who perished in idolatrous fornication. Hence the blessing of all things has been taken away, so that they would suffer the drought of the word of God. Whether they had shepherds through whom they offended God, so that those who should have been teachers, to prevent others from error, became authors of impiety. The forehead of a prostitute has become yours, and you were not ashamed. LXX: The appearance of a prostitute has become yours: you have become without shame towards everyone. Because above (To chapter II, 35) he had said: I have not sinned, and yet he had sinned more by denying his own crimes: therefore now he accuses [you] as if [you were] a shameless and excessively impudent woman: so that [you] do not carry [yourself] with a shameless expression only towards one or two, but [you] are not ashamed before anyone. Let us use this language against the assembly of heretics, who boast in their errors.
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.…
Adultery · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Deserts · Infested with robbers — Infested with robbers
Ishmaelites, The · Waylaid and plundered travellers — Waylaid and plundered travellers
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…
As the Lord’s bride (see 2:2), Israel was not supposed to commit adultery with other gods.
Rashi on Jeremiah 3:2
rivulets rivulets of water.
you were not lain with Heb. שלגת, an expression of a פילגש a concubine.
you sat for them to be prepared to greet them.
like an Arab A tent dweller, who is always found outside in the deserts, and because of this, he is called ערבי since he dwells in the ערבה, the plain.
