The divorced wife (Jer 3:1-3:1)

“‘If a man divorces his wife,

She goes from him.

If she becomes another man’s wife,

Will he return to her?

Would not such a land

Be greatly polluted?

You have played the whore

With many lovers.

Would you return to me?’

Says Yahweh.”

Jeremiah has Yahweh speak about a divorced wife. If she leaves him and becomes the wife of another, would he return to her? The answer is obviously not, because he has already divorced her. According to Deuteronomy, chapter 24, the first husband cannot remarry anyway. She has become another man’s wife. Also this would pollute the land in trying to figure out who is the father of her children. Yahweh explains that the Israelites have been prostitutes with many lovers. Would they return to him? This presupposes that he has divorced himself from them.