Jeremiah 3:2

2 Look to the well-traveled paths and see! Where haven't you committed adultery? On the roadsides you sit in wait for lovers, like a nomad in the wilderness. You have corrupted the land with your cheap and reckless behavior.

Jeremiah 3:2 Meaning and Commentary

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 2 Kings 17:10 2 Kings 17:11 ) ( 21:3 ) ( 23:5 ) ( Jeremiah 2:20 ) , Jarchi interprets the word (Mypv) 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 joined thyself to worship idols:''

in the ways hast thou sat for them; for the idolaters, waiting for them, to join with them in their idolatries; as harlots used to sit by the wayside to meet with their lovers, to be picked up by them, or to offer themselves to them as prostitutes, ( Genesis 38:14 Genesis 38:15 ) which shows that these people were not drawn into idolatry by the temptations and solicitations of others: but they put themselves in the way of it, and solicited it, and others to join with them in it: as the Arabian in the wilderness;
who dwelt in tents in the wilderness, and sat by the wayside to trade with those that passed by; or else lay in wait in desert and by places to rob all that passed by them; and so the Vulgate Latin version renders it, in the ways thou didst sit, expecting them as a thief in the
wilderness;
the Arabians being noted for thieves and robbers. The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it, as a crow, or raven, of the desert;
the same word signifying a "raven" and an "Arabian": see ( 1 Kings 17:4 ) : and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy
wickedness;
the land of Judea, where idolatry was so openly and frequently committed, which brought a load of guilt upon it, and exposed it to the wrath and judgments of God; so the Targum,

``thou hast made the land guilty with thine idols and with thy wickedness.''

Jeremiah 3:2 In-Context

1 If a man divorces his wife, and after she leaves him marries another, can he return to her again? Wouldn't such an act completely corrupt the land? Yet you have prostituted yourself with many lovers. Would you return to me? declares the LORD.

2 Look to the well-traveled paths and see! Where haven't you committed adultery? On the roadsides you sit in wait for lovers, like a nomad in the wilderness. You have corrupted the land with your cheap and reckless behavior.

3 That's why the showers have failed and the spring rains have ceased. Still you act like a brazen prostitute who refuses to blush.

4 At the same time you say to me, "My father, my friend since youth,

5 will you stay angry forever? Will you continue to be furious?" This is what you say while you do as much evil as you possibly can.

Footnotes

• [a]. Or bare heights