Jeremiah 3:6-10
Expanded Bible
Judah and Israel Are like Sisters
6 ·When [L In the days when] Josiah [C Jeremiah began his work in Josiah’s thirteenth year (626 bc) and continued until Josiah’s death (609 bc) and beyond; 1:1–3] was ·ruling Judah [L king], the Lord said to me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She was like a prostitute with her idols on every hill and under every green tree [2:20]. 7 I said to myself, ‘Israel will come back to me after she does this evil,’ but she didn’t come back. And Israel’s ·wicked [traitorous; treacherous] sister Judah saw what she did [Ezek. 13; 26]. 8 Judah saw that I ·divorced [L sent away with a certificate of divorce] unfaithful Israel because of her adultery [C in the Assyrian exile of 722 bc], but that didn’t make Israel’s ·wicked [traitorous; treacherous] sister Judah afraid. She also went out and acted like a prostitute! 9 And she didn’t care that she was acting like a prostitute. So she made her country ·unclean [defiled; polluted; C in a ritual sense] and was guilty of adultery with stone and wood [C by worshiping idols made of these materials]. 10 Israel’s ·wicked [traitorous; treacherous] sister, Judah, didn’t even come back to me with her whole heart, but only pretended,” says the Lord.
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Jeremiah 3:6-10
Amplified Bible
Faithless Israel
6 Moreover, the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king [of Judah], “Have you seen what that faithless Israel has done—how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there she was a prostitute? 7 I thought, ‘After she has done all these things she will return to Me’; but she did not return, and her treacherous (faithless) sister Judah saw it. 8 And I saw [that even though Judah knew] that for all the acts of adultery (idolatry) of faithless Israel, I [the Lord] had [a]sent her away and given her a certificate of divorce, yet her treacherous sister [b]Judah was not afraid; but she went and was a prostitute also [following after idols]. 9 Because of the thoughtlessness of Israel’s prostitution [her immorality mattered little to her], she desecrated the land and committed adultery with [idols of] stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with her whole heart, but rather in [blatant] deception [she merely pretended obedience to King Josiah’s reforms],” declares the Lord.(A)
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- Jeremiah 3:8 Israel (the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom) was destroyed by Assyria in 722 b.c.
- Jeremiah 3:8 Judah (the Southern Kingdom, the tribes of Judah and Benjamin) was destroyed by the Babylonian Empire in 586 b.c.
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