Jeremiah 3:7

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 sister Judah saw what she did.

Jeremiah 3:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 3:7

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: 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.

Jeremiah 3:7 In-Context

5 Will you always be angry at me? Will your anger last forever?' Judah, you said this, but you did as much evil as you could!"
6 When King Josiah was ruling Judah, 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.
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 sister Judah saw what she did.
8 Judah saw that I divorced unfaithful Israel because of her adultery, but that didn't make Israel's wicked 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 and was guilty of adultery, because she worshiped idols made of stone and wood.
Scripture taken from the New Century Version. Copyright © 1987, 1988, 1991 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.