Jeremiah 3:8

3:8 She also saw 1  that I gave wayward Israel her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other gods. 2  Even after her unfaithful sister Judah had seen this, 3  she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other gods. 4 

Jeremiah 3:14

3:14 “Come back to me, my wayward sons,” says the Lord, “for I am your true master. 5  If you do, 6  I will take one of you from each town and two of you from each family group, and I will bring you back to Zion.

1 tc Heb “she [‘her sister, unfaithful Judah’ from the preceding verse] saw” with one Hebrew ms, some Greek mss, and the Syriac version. The MT reads “I saw” which may be a case of attraction to the verb at the beginning of the previous verse.

2 tn Heb “because she committed adultery.” The translation is intended to spell out the significance of the metaphor.

3 tn The words “Even after her unfaithful sister, Judah, had seen this” are not in the Hebrew text but are implicit in the connection and are supplied for clarification.

4 tn Heb “she played the prostitute there.” This is a metaphor for Israel’s worship; she gave herself to the worship of other gods like a prostitute gives herself to her lovers. There seems no clear way to completely spell out the metaphor in the translation.

5 tn Or “I am your true husband.”

sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the Lord as Israel’s true master/husband versus Baal as Israel’s illegitimate lover/master. See 2:23-25.

6 tn The words, “If you do” are not in the text but are implicit in the connection of the Hebrew verb with the preceding.