Jeremiah 3:9

it--Some take this verse of Judah, to whom the end of Jer 3:8 refers. But Jer 3:10 puts Judah in contrast to Israel in this verse. "Yet for all this," referring to the sad example of Israel; if Jer 3:9 referred to Judah, "she" would have been written in Jer 3:10, not "Judah." Translate, "It (the putting away of Israel) had come to pass through . . . whoredom; and (that is, for) she (Israel) had defiled the land" &c. [MAURER]. English Version, however, may be explained to refer to Israel.

lightness--"infamy." [EWALD]. MAURER not so well takes it from the Hebrew root, "voice," "fame."

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

Ver. 9. And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom.] Or, better, Through the vocalness of it; the loudness of her lewdness. Heb., the voice or noise of her whoredom, the fame and bruit of it, for it is spoken of far and near.

And committed adultery with stones and with stocks.] Haec fere omnia in caecum, erroneum, meretriciumque Papatum apte hodie torqueri possunt. Do not idolatrous Papists even the same?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jer 3:9-10. And through the lightness of her whoredom — “By this phrase,” says Blaney, “I take to be meant, that she was not nice in the choice of the objects, but was ready to prostitute herself to all that came in her way; that is, she eagerly fell in with all kinds of idolatrous worship indiscriminately, descending so low as to images of wood and stone.” That she defiled the land — Brought the whole land under the guilt of idolatry. Yet for all this — Though God saw what she did, and though she saw the shameful idolatry of Israel, and what she had suffered; yet Judah hath not turned unto me, &c. — When they had a good king that would have reformed the nation, they did not heartily concur with him in that good work. In the reigns of Manasseh and Amon, who were disposed to idolatry, the people were so too, and all the country was corrupted by it, none fearing the ruin which Israel, by this sin, had brought on themselves. God therefore tried whether they would manifest a different spirit and conduct under a good king, but the evil disposition was still the same, and they returned not to the Lord with all their hearts, but feignedly — They were forced indeed to an external compliance with Josiah, who went further in destroying idolatry than the best of his predecessors had done, joined with him in keeping a very solemn passover, and in professing to renew their covenants with God, 2Ch 34:32; 2Ch 35:17; but they were not sincere in all this, nor were their hearts right with God. For which reason God, at that very time, said, I will remove Judah out of my sight, as I have removed Israel, (2Ki 23:27,) because Judah was not removed from their sin by the sight of Israel’s removal from their land.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:9 land has been polluted: As a result of Israel’s apostasy, fertile fields no longer produced crops and sheep did not graze on green grass (Isa 57:6).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Hebrew word may either signify lightness, and wantonness, or noise and brute.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 9. The lightness of her whoredom] The grossness of her idolatry: worshipping objects the most degrading, with rites the most impure.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Here the Prophet completes his charge, — that so far was it that the punishment which God had inflicted on the Israelites, had any effect on the tribe of Judah, that she surpassed by her levity and lustfulness the whoredomes of her sister. She has polluted, he says, the land, or made the land to sin, that is, rendered the land guilty. It is indeed what greatly exaggerates the crime, when it is said that the land became guilty or contaminated. The land, we know, was in itself pure, and could contract no pollution from the vices of men; but that the impiety of men might be exhibited the more detestable, the land is said to have been contaminated by them:

Or, it may be said that the land was made guilty. How so? The reason why they are said to have contaminated the land or to have made it guilty or to have implicated it in their own vices, he gives in these words, she has played the harlot with stone and with wood Of this metaphor of playing the harlot it is not necessary now to speak; for we have said already, that this similitude is often repeated, because God had united that people to himself and bound them to him, as it were, by the sacred bond of marriage. Hence whenever the people departed from the pure worship of God, they were justly said to have played the harlot, for they violated their pledged faith: as simplicity of faith is spiritual chastity, so apostasy is that shamelessness and perfidy, when a wife becomes unfaithful to her husband by following adulterers. It afterwards follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(9) The lightness of her whoredom.—Lightness in the ethical sense of “levity.” Apostasy was treated once more as if it had been a light thing (1Ki_16:31). The word is, however, very variously interpreted, and the meaning of “voice,” or “cry,” in the sense in which the “cry” of Sodom and Gomorrah was great (Gen_18:20), seems more satisfactory. On “stones” and “stocks,” see Note on Jer_2:27.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

9. lightness] frivolity. The Hebrew word occurs here only in this sense.

with stones and with stocks] See on Jer_2:27.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And it came to pass, through the lightness of her whoredom,.... Or the "swiftness" (b) of it; when it was once set on foot, it ran through the land presently one taking it from and following the example of another; or it became a light thing with her to commit idolatry; it was looked upon as a small thing, a trivial offence at most: so the Targum,

"it came to pass that her idols were light in her eyes;''

not lightly esteemed of, but it was a light thing to commit idolatry with them; interpreting the word as the Masora, which it follows: and to the same sense the Septuagint version, "her fornication was for nothing"; it stood for nothing, it was not reckoned as a sin: the Arabic version is, "her fornication was with nothing"; with an idol, which is nothing in the world, Co1 8:4, some choose to render it, "because of the voice or fame of her whoredom" (c), or idolatry; it sounded forth, and the fame, or rather infamy of it, went out through the whole land: wherefore it follows,

that she defiled the land; polluted it with sin, involved it in guilt, and exposed it to punishment:

and committed adultery with stones and with stocks; that is, with images made of stone and wood, which they served and worshipped as gods; and is the adultery or idolatry they are charged with, and by which the land was defiled. The Targum is,

"she erred or committed idolatry with the worshippers of stone and wood.''

This, by what follows, seems to be understood not of Judah, but of Israel.

(b) "a levitate", a "velocem esse", Calvin. (c) Heb. "propter vocem scortationis ejus, vel famosam scortationem", Piscator; "a voce scortationis ejus", Schmidt; "propter famam scortationis ejus", Cocceius; "prae famosa scortatione", Junius & Tremellius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Lightness - Others render as in the margin.

Defiled - Rather, profaned. The land especially consecrated to Yahweh’s service was treated by Judah as a common land.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

The lightness of her whoredom; whether of Judah’s or of Israel’s is not agreed upon, but the right applying of it doth depend much upon the right acceptation of the word lightness, which comes from a Hebrew word that signifies voice; and so it may refer either to the noise or fame of it, that would fly abroad, and thus it is applied to Israel, i.e. though Israel’s whoredoms were never so much blazed abroad, yet Judah regarded it not. Or it may be taken for the heinousness of it, a crying voice, as Gen 4:10, and so by an hypallage, her whoredoms of fame, or notorious whoredoms; and is not ill expressed here by

lightness of her whoredom, noting her impudence in it, as we use to term a common harlot a light woman; and thus it is applied to Judah, both the foregoing and following words seeming to be an aggravation of Judah’s refractoriness.

Defiled the land; brought the whole land under the imputation of filthiness.

With stones and with stocks, i.e. with idols made of stone and wood, a metonymy of the matter, to note the baseness of the fact.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. Lightness — This rendering of the Hebrew is made under the influence of the ancient Versions, but cannot be vindicated. There is in the Old Testament no clear and sufficient support of this sense. And even were it better supported it does not easily suit the passage. The marginal “fame” is nearer, but incorrect. The word for this would be shem, (שׁם,) while the meaning of kol (קול) is noise, or voice. Hence the rendering should be, the noise of her whoredoms, etc., reference being had to the riotous orgies of idolatry.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Through the lightness of her whoredom; i.e. through the slight importance which she attached to her whoredom. So apparently the ancient versions. The only sense, however, which the word kol ever has in Hebrew is not "lightness," but "sound," "voice," and perhaps "rumor". (Gen_45:16) Hence it is more strictly accurate to render "through the cry." etc., (comp. Gen_4:10 Gen_19:13) or "through the fame," etc. (as Authorized Version, margin). But neither of these seems quite suitable to the context, and if, as King James"s translators seem to have felt it necessary to do, we desert the faithful translation, and enter on the path of conjecture, why not emend kol into klon (there is no vav, and such fragments of true readings are not altogether uncommon in the Hebrew text), which at once yields a good meaning the disgrace of her whoredom?" Ewald thinks that kol may be taken in the sense of k"lon; but this is really more arbitrary than emending the text. With stones, etc. (see Jer_2:27)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

and she committed adultery with the stones Jonathan paraphrases: And she strayed with the worshippers of stones and wood. And Jonathan renders מִקֹל as an expression of lightness, since her idols were light in her eyes.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.