TRV
Translation
King James Version
¶ Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
KJV (with Strong's)
Surely H403 as a wife H802 treacherously H898 departeth from her husband H7453, so have ye dealt treacherously H898 with me, O house H1004 of Israel H3478, saith H5002 the LORD H3068.
Complete Jewish Bible
But like a faithless woman who betrays her husband, you, house of Isra'el, have betrayed me," says ADONAI.'"
Berean Standard Bible
But as a woman may betray her husband, so you have betrayed Me, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
American Standard Version
Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith Jehovah.
World English Bible Messianic
“Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel,” says the LORD.
Geneva Bible (1599)
But as a woman rebelleth against her husband: so haue yee rebelled against me, O house of Israel, sayeth the Lord.
Young's Literal Translation
But--a woman hath deceived her friend, So ye have dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel, an affirmation of Jehovah.
In the KJVVerse 19,023 of 31,102
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Commentary on Jeremiah 3 verses 20–25
20 ¶ Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.
21 A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel: for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.
23 Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains: truly in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel.
24 For shame hath devoured the labour of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.
25 We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us: for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.
Here is, I. The charge God exhibits against Israel for their treacherous departures from him, Jer 3:20. As an adulterous wife elopes from her husband, so have they gone a whoring from God. They were joined to God by a marriage-covenant, but they broke that covenant, they dealt treacherously with God, who had always dealt kindly and faithfully with them. Treacherous dealing with men like ourselves is bad enough, but to deal treacherously with God is to deal treasonably.
II. Their conviction and confession of the truth of this charge, Jer 3:21. When God reproved them for their apostasy, there were some among them, even such as God would take and bring to Zion, whose voice was heard upon the high places weeping and praying, humbling themselves before the God of their fathers, lamenting their calamities, and their sins, the procuring cause of them; for this is that which they lament, for this they bemoan themselves, that they have perverted their way and forgotten the Lord their God. Note, 1. Sin is the perverting of our way, it is turning aside to crooked ways and perverting that which is right. 2. Forgetting the Lord our God is at the bottom of all sin. If men would remember God, his eye upon them and their obligation to him, they would not transgress as they do. 3. By sin we embarrass ourselves, and bring ourselves into trouble, for that also is the perverting of our way, Lam 3:9. 4. Prayers and tears well become those whose consciences tell them that they have perverted their way and forgotten their God. When the foolishness of man perverts his way his heart is apt to fret against the Lord (Pro 19:3), whereas it should be melted and poured out before him.
III. The invitation God gives them to return to him (Jer 3:22): Return, you backsliding children. He calls them children in tenderness and compassion to them, foolish and froward as children, yet his sons, whom though he corrects he will not disinherit; for, though they are refractory children (so some render it), yet they are children. God bears with such children, and so much parents. When they are convinced of sin (Jer 3:21), and humbled for that, then they are prepared and then they are invited to return, as Christ invites those to him that are weary and heavy-laden. The promise to those that return is, "I will heal your backslidings; I will comfort you under the grief you are in for your backslidings, deliver you out of the troubles you have brought yourselves into by your backslidings, and cure you of your refractoriness and tendency to backslide." God will heal our backslidings by his pardoning mercy, his quieting peace, and his renewing grace.
IV. The ready consent they give to this invitation, and their cheerful compliance with it: Behold, we come unto thee. This is an echo to God's call; as a voice returned from broken walls, so this from broken hearts. God says, Return; they answer, Behold, we come. It is an immediate speedy answer, without delay, not, "We will come hereafter," but, "We do come now; we need not take time to consider of it;" not, "We come towards thee," but, "We come to thee, we will make a thorough turn of it." Observe how unanimous they are: We come, one and all. 1. They come devoting themselves to God as theirs: "Thou art the Lord our God; we take thee to be ours, we give up ourselves to thee to be thine; whither shall we go but to thee? It is our sin and folly that we have gone from thee." It is very comfortable, in our returns to God after our backslidings, to look up to him as ours in covenant. 2. They come disclaiming all expectations of relief and succour but from God only: "In vain is salvation hoped for from the hills and from the multitude of the mountains; we now see our folly in relying upon creature-confidences, and will never so deceive ourselves any more." They worshipped their idols upon hills and mountains (Jer 3:6), and they had a multitude of idols upon their mountains, which they had sought unto and put a confidence in; but now they will have no more to do with them. In vain do we look for any thing that is good from them, while from God we may look for every thing that is good, even salvation itself. Therefore, 3. They come depending upon God only as their God: In the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. He is the Lord, and he only can save; he can save when all other succours and saviours fail; and he is our God, and will in his own way and time work salvation for us. It is very applicable to the great salvation from sin, which Jesus Christ wrought out for us; that is the salvation of the Lord, his great salvation. 4. They come justifying God in their troubles and judging themselves for their sins, Jer 3:24, Jer 3:25. (1.) They impute all the calamities they had been under to their idols, which had not only done them no good, but had done them abundance of mischief, all the mischief that had been done them: Shame (the idol, that shameful thing) has devoured the labour of our fathers. Note, [1.] True penitents have learned to call sin shame; even the beloved sin which has been as an idol to them, which they have been most pleased with and proud of, even that they shall call a scandalous thing, shall put contempt upon it and be ashamed of it. [2.] True penitents have learned to call sin death and ruin, and to charge upon it all the mischiefs they suffer: "It has devoured all those good things which our fathers laboured for and left to us; we have found from our youth that our idolatry has been the destruction of our prosperity." Children often throw away upon their lusts that which their fathers took a great deal of pains for; and it is well if at length they are brought (as these here) to see the folly of it, and to call those vices their shame which have wasted their estates and devoured the labour of their fathers. Of the labour of their fathers, which their idols had devoured, they mention particularly their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. First, their idolatries had provoked God to bring these desolating judgments upon them, which had ruined their country and families, and made their estates a prey and their children captives to the conquering enemy. They had procured these things to themselves. Or, rather, Secondly, These had been sacrificed to their idols, had been separated unto that shame (Hos 9:10), and they had devoured them without mercy; they did eat the fat of their sacrifices (Deu 32:38), even their human sacrifices. (2.) They take to themselves the shame of their sin and folly (Jer 3:25): "We lie down in our shame, being unable to bear up under it; our confusion covers us, that is, both our penal and our penitential shame. Sin has laid us under such rebukes of God's providence, and such reproaches of our own consciences, as surround us and fill us with shame. For we have sinned, and shame came in with sin and still attends upon it. We are sinners by descent; guilt and corruption are entailed upon us: We and our fathers have sinned. We were sinners betimes; we began early in a course of sin: We have sinned from our youth; we have continued in sin, have sinned even unto this day, though often called to repent and forsake our sins. That which is the malignity of sin, the worst thing in it, is the affront we have put upon God by it: We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, forbidding us to sin and commanding us, when we have sinned, to repent." Now all this seems to be the language of the penitents of the house of Israel (Jer 3:20), of the ten tribes, either of those that were in captivity or those of them that remained in their own land. And the prophet takes notice of their repentance to provoke the men of Judah to a holy emulation. David used it as an argument with the elders of Judah that it would be a shame for those that were his bone and his flesh to be the last in bringing the king back, when the men of Israel appeared forward in it, Sa2 19:11, Sa2 19:12. So the prophet excites Judah to repent because Israel did: and well it were if the zeal of others less likely would provoke us to strive to get before them and go beyond them in that which is good.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 20–25. Public domain.
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HorsiesiosAD 387
THE TESTAMENT OF HORSIESI 33
Let us return to the Lord our God, and whenever we pray, he, who daily urges us to pause and get to know him, will hear us. And in another place he says, “Return to me, and I will return to you.” And again, “Return to me, my backsliding children, and I will rule over you.” Ezekiel likewise calls on us, saying, “Why will you die, O house of Israel? I want not the death of the sinner, only that he turn from his evil ways and live.” The most merciful Lord and source of all goodness cries out to us in the Gospel and declares, “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Carry my yoke on you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Let us consider that the goodness of God calls us to repentance, and holy people encourage us to salvation. Let us not harden our hearts and collect against ourselves a store of divine anger for the day of wrath. Then, on that day, shall be revealed the just judgment of God, who will repay each one according to his deeds. But let us return to the Lord with our whole heart. According to the words of Moses, who reminds us, “If you return to the Lord with your whole heart, he will purify your heart and the heart of your descendants.”
JeromeAD 420
Commentary on Jeremiah
(Verse 20) But as a woman may despise her lover, so the house of Israel has despised Me, says the Lord. The voice of Christ is near the people of Judah, to whom He said: I will make you as sons, and I will give you a desirable land. And you shall call Me Father, and you shall not cease to go after Me. Just as a woman, he says, despises not her husband, but her lover, if she has once been united with him, seeing him serving her lust, and the law of nature changed in her, by which she was once subject to her husband, with the Lord saying: And her conversion shall be to you. So the house of Israel, that is, the people of Judah, has despised the Lord the Savior to their own destruction.
John CassianAD 435
CONFERENCE 2:13.8
Our obstinacy and scorn, reflecting our spirit of rebellious disdain for him when he urges us to return and be saved, is described in the following comparison. He says, “And I said you shall call me Father and shall not cease to walk after me. But as a woman that despises her lover, so has the house of Israel despised me, says the Lord.” It is only appropriate that as he has compared Jerusalem with an adulteress forsaking her husband, he compares his own love and persevering goodness with a man’s undying love for a woman. For the goodness and love of God that he has always shown to the human race could not be more appropriately described by any comparison than the case of a man inflamed with most ardent love for a woman. God’s love is overcome by no injuries that might make him stop caring for our salvation or that might drive him from his first intention as if he were defeated by our sins. Instead, he is consumed by a more burning passion for her, the more he sees that he is slighted and despised by her.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 3:20 encapsulates the Lord's profound lament over the persistent spiritual unfaithfulness of the house of Israel, likening their betrayal to the treacherous departure of a wife from her husband. This verse serves as a poignant summary of God's indictment against His covenant people, highlighting the depth of their disloyalty and the personal pain it inflicted upon their divine Husband, who had faithfully upheld His end of the sacred covenant.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 3:20 is rich in literary devices that amplify its message of divine lament and human betrayal. The most prominent is Simile, which explicitly compares Israel's unfaithfulness to "a wife treacherously departeth from her husband." This comparison leverages the profound emotional and social implications of marital infidelity to convey the depth of Israel's spiritual apostasy. Closely related is Personification, where God is personified as a betrayed husband, experiencing the pain and grief of His bride's desertion, and Israel is personified as an unfaithful wife. This anthropomorphic portrayal makes God's relationship with His people relatable and His hurt palpable. The device of Repetition is powerfully employed with the word "treacherously" (Hebrew bâgad), appearing twice in quick succession. This repetition serves to underscore the deliberate, willful, and pervasive nature of Israel's unfaithfulness, emphasizing that their actions were not accidental but a conscious breach of trust and covenant. Finally, the verse functions as a Lament, expressing God's deep sorrow and disappointment over His people's actions, conveying a sense of heartbreak rather than mere legalistic accusation.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Jeremiah 3:20 profoundly articulates the covenantal nature of God's relationship with Israel, portraying it as a sacred marriage. This imagery reveals God's character as a faithful, loving, and deeply invested Husband who is grieved by the infidelity of His chosen bride. Israel's "treachery" highlights the gravity of sin against a personal God, demonstrating that disobedience is not just breaking a rule but betraying a relationship. The verse underscores the theme of divine pathos – God's capacity for deep emotion, including sorrow and disappointment, in response to human actions. It also implicitly sets the stage for the necessity of divine intervention and a new covenant, as the old one was repeatedly broken by human unfaithfulness.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 3:20 serves as a stark mirror for believers today, prompting us to examine the nature of our own relationship with God. Just as ancient Israel was prone to spiritual infidelity by pursuing idols, we too can allow other loyalties, desires, or pursuits to subtly displace our primary devotion to the Lord. Whether it's the pursuit of wealth, status, comfort, or even self-righteousness, anything that takes precedence over an exclusive and loving relationship with God can become a form of spiritual treachery. This verse challenges us to consider where our true allegiance lies and to repent of any areas where we have "dealt treacherously" with God. It reminds us that God desires not just outward obedience, but a heart wholly devoted to Him, reflecting the faithfulness He has consistently shown us. Understanding God's grief over our unfaithfulness should motivate us to deeper repentance and a renewed commitment to living lives of integrity and singular devotion to Him.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
Why does God use such a strong metaphor as an unfaithful wife for Israel?
Answer: The marriage metaphor is used throughout the Old Testament (e.g., Hosea 1-3, Ezekiel 16) because it powerfully conveys the intimate, covenantal, and exclusive nature of God's relationship with Israel. Just as a marriage requires exclusive fidelity and deep trust, God expected Israel's singular devotion. Therefore, their turning to other gods was not just a legal infraction but a profound act of betrayal and infidelity, causing immense pain to the divine "Husband." It emphasizes the personal and emotional dimension of their sin against God.
Does this verse apply to individual believers today, or only to the nation of Israel?
Answer: While Jeremiah 3:20 was originally addressed to the corporate "house of Israel," its underlying principles of covenant faithfulness and the gravity of spiritual infidelity are profoundly applicable to individual believers today. Christians are part of the new covenant, where the Church is often depicted as the Bride of Christ. Therefore, any act or attitude that compromises our singular devotion to Christ—whether it's idolatry of possessions, self, or worldly approval—can be seen as a form of spiritual unfaithfulness. The verse calls us to examine our hearts and ensure our primary loyalty remains with God.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 3:20, with its lament over Israel's treachery, finds its ultimate resolution and fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Israel, as God's unfaithful bride, repeatedly broke the old covenant, demonstrating humanity's inherent inability to maintain perfect fidelity. However, Jesus, as the true and faithful Israelite, perfectly embodied covenant faithfulness, living a life of complete obedience to the Father. He is the faithful Bridegroom who does not abandon His unfaithful people but, instead, comes to redeem them. Through His atoning sacrifice on the cross, Christ bore the consequences of humanity's "treachery" and established a new covenant, not based on human performance, but on His perfect faithfulness and grace (Hebrews 8:6-13). In Christ, a new "house of Israel" – the Church – is formed, purified and made holy, awaiting the ultimate consummation of the divine marriage at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Thus, what was a lament of betrayal in Jeremiah becomes a testament to God's unwavering love and redemptive power, fully realized in the person and work of Jesus, who makes it possible for His people to be truly faithful through His Spirit, transforming unfaithful brides into a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle.