I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Parallel Translations
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I said after she had done all these things, ‘She will return to me;’ but she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
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And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
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And I said: After she hath done all these things, she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
Cross-references (7)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 3:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Ezekiel 16:46 Your elder sister is Samaria, who dwells at your left hand, she and her daughters; and your younger sister, who dwells at your right hand, is Sodom with her daughters.
- 2 Kings 17:13-14 Yet Yahweh testified to Israel, and to Judah, by every prophet, and every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.” Notwithstanding, they would not listen, but hardened their neck, like the neck of their fathers, who didn’t believe in Yahweh their God.
- 2 Chronicles 30:6-12 So the couriers went with the letters from the king and his princes throughout all Israel and Judah, and according to the commandment of the king, saying, “You children of Israel, turn again to Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, that he may return to the remnant of you that have escaped out of the hand of the kings of Assyria. Don’t be like your fathers and like your brothers, who trespassed against Yahweh, the God of their fathers, so that he gave them up to desolation, as you see. Now don’t be stiff-necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves to Yahweh, and enter into his sanctuary, which he has sanctified forever, and serve Yahweh your God, that his fierce anger may turn away from you. For if you turn again to Yahweh, your brothers and your children will find compassion before those who led them captive, and will come again into this land, because Yahweh your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” So the couriers passed from city to city through the country of Ephraim and Manasseh, even to Zebulun, but people ridiculed them and mocked them. Nevertheless some men of Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves, and came to Jerusalem. Also the hand of God came on Judah to give them one heart, to do the commandment of the king and of the princes by Yahweh’s word.
- Jeremiah 3:8-11 I saw when, for this very cause, that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, had no fear; but she also went and played the prostitute. Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood. Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense,” says Yahweh. Yahweh said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.
- Ezekiel 23:2-4 “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. They played the prostitute in Egypt. They played the prostitute in their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their youthful nipples were caressed there. Their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister. They became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.
- Hosea 6:1-4 “Come! Let’s return to Yahweh; for he has torn us to pieces, and he will heal us; he has injured us, and he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we will live before him. Let’s acknowledge Yahweh. Let’s press on to know Yahweh. As surely as the sun rises, Yahweh will appear. He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain that waters the earth.” “Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew that disappears early.
- Hosea 14:1 Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (13 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain He afterwards adds, Yet I said; God here states,…
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 here his patience, that he had not immediately visited the Israelites as they deserved, but bore with them and for a long time waited to see whether they could be reclaimed: 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, yea though they had denied me by an impious defection, and had become alienated from the faith and from piety.” But I am more inclined to another view, — that God here records the fact, that he had recalled to himself the ten tribes by his servants the Prophets, though they had by their many crimes provoked his wrath. Here then God shews 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, of the prophetic instruction: “Though then the Israelites had plunged themselves into impieties, I yet ceased not to try whether they could be restored to me.” He intimates, in short, that he had been unlike those husbands, who will not be reconciled to their wives, burning with jealousy, because they see that they had been exposed to so much disgrace. God then shews that though the Israelites had departed from him, he yet sent his prophets, and of his own free will sought reconciliation with them, but that they had refused to return.
He then adds, See did she, that is, the whole kingdom of Judah, that, for al1 this, because the rebellious Israel had played the harlot, etc. We shall hereafter find the design of this comparison; for he amplifies the sin of the kingdom of Judah, inasmuch 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 shew 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.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 3:7 And I said after she had done…
Jer 3:7 And I said after she had done all these [things], Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw [it].
Ver. 7. And I said after she had done.] Or, Yet I said; but I lost my sweet words upon her.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Turn thou unto me, viz. by repentance, Act 3:19.…
Turn thou unto me, viz. by repentance, Act 3:19. Although she had been so vile and abominable, yet the Lord waited in expectation of her return.
Her treacherous sister Judah: Benjamin is also here comprised, but Judah being the chief is only named, these two abiding together after the other ten revolted to Jeroboam; called Israel’s
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sister, because they were all descended from the patriarch Jacob, Eze 16:46; compare Eze 23:2,4; and treacherous, or the treacherous one, because of her frequent revolts, 2Ch 21:6, &c.; 2Ch 24:17,18, and many other times, and after as frequent renewed covenants and promises, both in conjunction with the rest of the tribes, Deu 5:2,3,23, &c.; Deu 29:10-12, &c., and afterwards, 2Ch 13:9,10, &c.; 2Ch 15:12, &c.; 2Ch 23:16; 29:10. Saw it, i.e. they were not strangers to it, but knew it, as the word is, Psa 40:3. They could not but know how I had dealt with Israel.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And I said, after she had done these things,....…
And I said, after she had done these things,.... All these idolatries, in the several places mentioned, after she had repeated them over and over; the Lord sent to them by the Prophets Hosea, Amos, Micah, and others, who prophesied before the captivity of the ten tribes, and entreated them, saying,
turn unto me: to my worship, as the Targum; from their idols, to him the living God; they were not without admonitions, exhortations, and declarations of grace, and so were without excuse:
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but she returned not; to fear and serve the Lord, but remained in idolatry, obstinate and inflexible:
and her treacherous sister Judah saw it; her treachery and breach of covenant, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions add, for explanation sake; Judah, or the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and who were allied to the ten tribes by birth and by religion, and equally treacherous to God, the husband of them both, saw all the idolatry of Israel, and the aggravations of it, and what followed upon it, namely, their captivity in Babylon, yet did not learn and take warning hereby.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. And I said] By the prophets Elijah,…
Verse 7. And I said] By the prophets Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Amos, c. for all these prophesied to that rebellious people, and exhorted them to return to the Lord.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Jer 3:7. After she had done all these things…
Jer 3:7. After she had done all these things — For which she might justly have been abandoned; I said, Turn thou unto me — Namely, and I will receive thee. Though they had forsaken both the house of David and the house of Aaron, who both had their authority from God without dispute, yet God sent his prophets among them to call them to return to him, that is, to the worship of him only, not insisting so much upon their return to the house of David as to that of Aaron. We do not read that Elijah, that great prophet, ever mentioned their returning to the former, but only to the faithful service of the true God. It is serious and genuine piety that God regards more than any ritual observances, whether with respect to matters civil or religious. But she returned not — Which God observed, and with which he was much displeased; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it — A sister, because descended from the same common stock, Abraham and Jacob; and as Israel had the character of a back-slider, so Judah is called treacherous, because, though she professed to keep close to God when Israel had backslidden, and adhered to the kings and priests that were of God’s own appointing, yet she proved treacherous, false, and unfaithful to her profession and promises, as is stated in the following verses.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Or, “And I said (i. e., within myself), After…
Or, “And I said (i. e., within myself), After she has done all these things, she will return to me.” But she did not return.
Treacherous - literally, “Falsehood,” i. e., false, faithless. The character of the two sisters is plainly marked. Samaria is apostate; she abandons Yahweh’s worship altogether. Judah maintains the form only; her secret desires are set upon the orgies of pagan worship.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain I said-- (Kg2 17:13).
I said-- (Kg2 17:13).
sister-- (Eze 16:46; Eze 23:2, Eze 23:4).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 7. And I said, etc. — The object of…
7. And I said, etc. — The object of the verb “said” begins with after, and the verb turn is thought by most expositors to be in the third person. The reading then would be, And I said (namely, to myself = thought,) after she had done all… Turn thou unto me. But she returned not.
Treacherous — Better, faithless. See Ezekiel’s allegory in chapter xxiii for the character of these two sisters — apostate Israel and hypocritical Judah.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. I said] to myself; I thought.
7. I said] to myself; I thought.
after she had done, etc.] mg. better, After she hath done all these things, she, etc.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) And I said . . .—The call to…
(7) And I said . . .—The call to Israel to return had been slighted, and Judah, the traitress or faithless, “one with falsehood,” had not taken warning from the sin or its punishment.
Turn thou unto me.—The verb may be either the second or third person, I said, thou shalt return; or, I said, she will return, as expressing a hope rather than a direct return. The latter seems, on the whole, the preferable rendering.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain And I said after she had done, etc.; rather,…
And I said after she had done, etc.; rather, and I said, After she hath done all these things, she will return unto me. And her treacherous sister. Observe the distinction between the two sisters. Israel had openly broken the political and religious connection with Jehovah; (Hos_8:4) Judah nominally retained both, but her heart was towards the false gods. (comp. the allegory in Eze 23, which is evidently founded upon our passage)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:7-8 King Josiah’s reforms failed to reach many of…
3:7-8 King Josiah’s reforms failed to reach many of the common people. The love of idol worship common in northern Israel also continued among the farmers and shepherds of Judah. They failed to learn from the fate of the northern tribes, and even surpassed their practice of adultery (see Ezek 16:47-48).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.