Isaiah 1:21
21. faithful—as a wife (Isa 54:5; 62:5; Ho 2:19, 20).
harlot— (Eze 16:28-35). righteousness lodged— (2Pe 3:13). murderers—murderous oppressors, as the antithesis requires (see on Isa 1:15; 1Jo 3:15).Isaiah 57:8
8. "Remembrance," that is, memorials of thy idolatry: the objects which thou holdest in remembrance. They hung up household tutelary gods "behind the doors"; the very place where God has directed them to write His laws "on the posts and gates" (De 6:9; 11:20); a curse, too, was pronounced on putting up an image "in a secret place" (De 27:15).
discovered thyself—image from an adulteress. enlarged . . . bed—so as to receive the more paramours. made . . . covenant—with idols: in open violation of thy "covenant" with God (Ex 19:5; 23:32). Or, "hast made assignations with them for thyself" [HORSLEY]. thy bed . . . their bed—The Jews' sin was twofold; they resorted to places of idolatry ("their bed"), and they received idols into the temple of God ("thy bed"). where—rather, "ever since that" [HORSLEY]. The Hebrew for "where" means "room" (Margin), a place; therefore, translate, "thou hast provided a place for it" (for "their bed"), namely, by admitting idolatrous altars in thy land [BARNES]; or "thou choosest a (convenient) place for thyself" in their bed [MAURER] (Isa 56:5).Jeremiah 3:2
2. high places—the scene of idolatries which were spiritual adulteries.
In . . . ways . . . sat for them—watching for lovers like a prostitute (Ge 38:14, 21; Pr 7:12; 23:28; Eze 16:24, 25), and like an Arab who lies in wait for travellers. The Arabs of the desert, east and south of Palestine, are still notorious as robbers.Jeremiah 3:6
6. 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).