a voice or sound · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
whoredom
זְנוּתָ֔הּze.nu.Tah
H2184
adultery · noun, common feminine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person feminine singular
defiled
וַתֶּחֱנַ֖ףva.te.che.Naf
H2610
to soil · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
land
הָאָ֑רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
adultery
וַתִּנְאַ֥ףva.tin.'Af
H5003
to commit adultery · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular
stones
הָאֶ֖בֶןha.'E.ven
H68
a stone · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
stocks
הָעֵֽץha.'Etz
H6086
a tree (from its firmness) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
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
Jeremiah 2:27 Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their fa…
Isaiah 57:6 Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offe…
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 t…
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 10:8 But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Habakkuk 2:19 Woe unto him that saith to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold and silver, and ther…
Ezekiel 16:17 Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst com…
Ezekiel 23:10 These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 3:6-11
The date of this sermon must be observed, in order to the right understanding of it; it was in the days of Josiah, who set on foot a blessed work of reformation, in which he was hearty, but the people were not sincere in their compliance with it; to reprove them for that, and warn them of the consequences of their hypocrisy, is the scope of that which God here said to the prophet, and which he delivered to them. The case of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah is here compared, the ten tribes that revolted from the throne of David and the temple of Jerusalem and the two tribes that adhered to both. The distinct history of those two kingdoms we have in the two books of the Kings, and here we…
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."
John Gill on Jeremiah 3:9
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,…
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.
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.
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."
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
Adultery — Conjugal infidelity. An adulterer was a man who had illicit intercourse with a married or a betrothed woman, and such a woman was an adulteress. Intercourse between a married man and an unmarried…
Fornication — In every form of it was sternly condemned by the Mosaic law (Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23-29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16). (See ADULTERY.) But this word is more frequently used in a symbolical than in…
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.…
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Idolatry · Objects of described as: Stocks — Objects of described as: Stocks
Impenitence · 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).
John Calvin on Jeremiah 3:9
Jeremiah 3:9
9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
9. Et factum est a velocitate (vertunt tam Hieronymus quam alii interpretes, facilitatem; nomen deductum est a qll, quod significat interdum esse velocem; hic levitas notatur, vel petulantia, factum est, igitur, a levitate, aut petulantia) scortationum ejus, ut pollueret terram (vel, contaminaret; alii vertunt, peccare faceret; sed Hieronymus ubique fere reddit hoc verbum per contaminare, neque male quadrat,) et scortata est cum lapide et cum ligno.
Here the Prophet completes his charge, -- that so far was it that the punishment which Go…
And I said, sc. to myself, i.e., I thought. A speaking by the prophets (Rashi) is not to be thought of; for it is no summons, turn again to me, but only the thought, they will return. It is true that God caused backsliding Israel to be ever called again to repentance by the prophets, yet without effect. Meantime, however, no reference is made to what God did in this connection, only Israel's behaviour towards the Lord being here kept in view. The Chet. ותּראה is the later usage; the Keri substitutes the regular contracted form ותּרא. The object, it (the whoredom of Israel), may be gathered from what precedes.
Jer 3:8
Many commentators have taken objection to the וארא, because the sentence, "…
land has been polluted: As a result of Israel’s apostasy, fertile fields no longer produced crops and sheep did not graze on green grass (Isa 57:6).
Rashi on Jeremiah 3:9
and she committed adultery with the stones Jonathan paraphrases: And she strayed with the worshippers of stones and wood. And Jonathan renders מִקֹל as an expression of lightness, since her idols were light in her eyes.
