3:6 Yahweh previously had a conversation with Jeremiah along the same lines that took place during the reign of King Josiah (between 627 and 609 B.C.).98The Lord asked the prophet if he had observed that the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been guilty of flagrant spiritual prostitution. He described the Northern Kingdom as "faithless Israel,"literally "apostasy (Heb. meshuba) Israel"(cf. vv. 8, 11, 12). Israel was apostasy personified. She was faithless in respect to the Mosaic Covenant and in respect to her relationship to Yahweh as His "wife."She had deserted her covenant with the Lord and made a covenant with Baal, and she had failed to maintain her responsibilities as Yahweh's "wife."
3:7 The Lord had expected that eventually Israel would have returned to Him, but she had not.99Furthermore, the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Israel's treacherous sister, observed Israel's unrepentant harlotry. As Israel was apostasy personified, so Judah was treachery personified (cf. vv. 10, 11, 20).
3:8 Yahweh decided to put away His unfaithful "wife"Israel, to divorce her. So He sent her off to Assyria in captivity. But observing the consequences of Israel's conduct did not discourage Judah from following in her sister's footsteps. She too became a spiritual harlot and betrayed the trust of her "husband."100
3:9 Israel took her prostitution very lightly and committed spiritual fornication with the pagan idols of Canaan, which stone pillars and tree groves and poles represented (cf. 2:27).101
3:10 Still Judah did not return to the Lord with heartfelt repentance but only superficially. Jeremiah began ministering (in 627 B.C.) one year after King Josiah began his spiritual reforms (in 628 B.C.). This oracle may have come early in Jeremiah's ministry before the reforms had taken hold. But the rapidity with which Judah declined following Josiah's death seems to indicate that the reforms produced only a superficial return to the Lord. King Manasseh's long godless reign (697-642 B.C.) was more than Josiah's comparatively brief reforms (628-609 B.C.) could counteract.
