| Barnes' Notes on the Bible Backsliding Israel - The original is very strong: Hast thou seen Apostasy? i. e., Israel: as though Israel were the very personificatiom of the denial of God. She is gone up - Rather, she goes; it is her habitual practice.
Clarke's Commentary on the BibleThe Lord said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king - This is a new discourse, and is supposed to have been delivered after the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah. Here the prophet shows the people of Judah the transgressions, idolatry, obstinacy, and punishment of their brethren, the ten tribes, whom he calls to return to the Lord, with the most gracious promises of restoration to their own country, their reunion with their brethren of Judah, and every degree of prosperity in consequence. He takes occasion also to show the Jews how much more culpable they were than the Israelites, because they practiced the same iniquities while they had the punishment and ruin of the others before their eyes. He therefore exhorts them to return to God with all their hearts, that they might not fall into the same condemnation. See the following verses.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleThe Lord said also unto me, in the days of Josiah the king,.... For in his time Jeremiah began to prophesy, even in the thirteenth year of his reign, Jeremiah 1:2, hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? the ten tribes; that is, hast thou not heard? or dost thou not know the idolatry of the ten tribes, which was the cause of their captivity? as Kimchi explains it; for the facts, or the idolatrous actions of the ten tribes, were not done in Josiah's and Jeremiah's time; for they were carried captive in the sixth year of Hezekiah, ninety years or more before Jeremiah began to prophesy, and their idolatry was before their captivity, and therefore could not be properly seen by him; only it had been heard of by him, it was known by him, it was notorious enough, being well attested: she is gone upon every high mountain, and under every green tree; that is, she did so, when in her own land, before she was carried captive, as Jarchi observes; for this respects not what she did in Josiah's and Jeremiah's time, or when in captivity, but before, which was the reason of it: and there hath played the harlot: or committed idolatry, which was usually done in such places; so the Targum, "and worshipped idols of wood.''
Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old TestamentIsrael's backsliding and rejection a warning for Judah. - Jeremiah 3:6. "And Jahveh spake to me in the days of King Josiah, Hast thou seen what the backsliding one, Israel, hath done? she went up on every high mountain, and under every green tree, and played the harlot there. Jeremiah 3:7. And I:thought: After she hath done all this, she will return to me; but she returned not. And the faithless one, her sister Judah, saw it. Jeremiah 3:8. And I saw that, because the backsliding one, Israel, had committed adultery, and I had put her away, and had given her a bill of divorce, yet the faithless one, Judah, her sister, feared not even on this account, and went and played the harlot also. Jeremiah 3:9. And it befell that for the noise of her whoredom the land was defiled, and she committed adultery with stone and wood. Jeremiah 3:10. And yet with all this, the faithless one, her sister Judah, turned not to me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jahveh." The thought of these verses is this: notwithstanding that Judah has before its eyes the lot which Israel (of the ten tribes) has brought on itself by its obdurate apostasy from the covenant God, it will not be moved to true fear of God and real repentance. Viewing idolatry as spiritual whoredom, the prophet developes that train of thought by representing the two kingdoms as two adulterous sisters, calling the inhabitants of the ten tribes משׁבה, the backsliding, those of Judah בּגודה, the faithless. On these names Venema well remarks: "Sorores propter unam eandemque stirpem, unde uterque populus fuit, et arctam ad se invicem relationem appellantur. Utraque fuit adultera propter idololatriam et faederis violationem; sed Israel vocatur uxor aversa; Juda vero perfida, quia Israel non tantum religionis sed et regni et civitatis respectu, adeoque palam erat a Deo alienata, Juda vero Deo et sedi regni ac religionis adfixa, sed nihilominus a Deo et cultu ejus defecerat, et sub externa specie populi Dei faedus ejus fregerat, quo ipso gravius peccaverat." This representation Ezekiel has in Jeremiah 23 expanded into an elaborate allegory. The epithets משׁבה and בּגודה or בּגדה (Jeremiah 3:11) are coined into proper names. This is shown by their being set without articles before the names; as mere epithets they would stand after the substantives and have the article, since Israel and Judah as being nomm. propr. are definite ideas. משׁוּבה is elsewhere an abstract substantive: apostasy, defection (Jeremiah 8:5; Hosea 11:7, etc.), here concrete, the apostate, so-called for her many משׁבות, Jeremiah 3:22 and Jeremiah 2:19. בּגודה, the faithless, used of perfidious forsaking of a husband; cf. Jeremiah 3:20, Malachi 2:14. הלכה היא, going was she, expressing continuance. Cf. the same statement in Jeremiah 2:20. ותּזני, 3rd pers. fem., is an Aramaizing form for ותּזנה or ותּזן; cf. Isaiah 53:10.
Geneva Study BibleThe LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding {i} Israel hath done? she hath gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot. (i) Meaning the ten tribes.
Wesley's Notes 3:6 Israel - The ten tribes who fell off from Judah.
Scofield Reference Notes[1] The Lord said The general character of the second message to Judah is: (1) of reproach that the example of Jehovah's chastening of the northern kingdom 2Ki 17:1-18 had produced no effect upon Judah, e.g. Jer 3:6-10. (2) of warning of a like chastisement impending over Judah, e.g. Jer 3:15-17. (3) of touching appeals to return to Jehovah, e.g. Jer 3:12-14. (4) of promises of final national restoration and blessing, e.g. Jer 3:16-18. [2] Israel "Israel" and "Ephraim": names by which the northern kingdom (the ten tribes) is usually called in the prophets. When by "Israel" the whole nation is meant, it will appear from the context.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary6. Jer 3:6-6:30, is a new discourse, delivered in Josiah's reign. It consists of two parts, the former extending to Jer 4:3, in which he warns Judah from the example of Israel's doom, and yet promises Israel final restoration; the latter a threat of Babylonian invasion; as Nabopolassar founded the Babylonian empire, 625 B.C., the seventeenth of Josiah, this prophecy is perhaps not earlier than that date (Jer 4:5, &c.; Jer 5:14, &c.; Jer 6:1, &c.; Jer 22:1-30); and probably not later than the second thorough reformation in the eighteenth year of the same reign. backsliding-literally, "apostasy"; not merely apostate, but apostasy itself, the essence of it (Jer 3:14, 22).
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary3:6-11 If we mark the crimes of those who break off from a religious profession, and the consequences, we see abundant reason to shun evil ways. It is dreadful to be proved more criminal than those who have actually perished in their sins; yet it will be small comfort in everlasting punishment, for them to know that others were viler than they. | 
