6 And Jehovah said unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen what backsliding Israel hath done? She hath gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath committed fornication. 7 And I said, After she hath done all these [things], she will return unto me; but she returned not. And her sister Judah, the treacherous, saw [it]. 8 And I saw that when for all the causes wherein backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce, yet the treacherous Judah, her sister, feared not, but went and committed fornication also. 9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her fornication that she polluted the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10 And even for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not returned unto me with her whole heart, but with falsehood, saith Jehovah. 11 And Jehovah said unto me, Backsliding Israel hath shewn herself more just than treacherous Judah.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 3:6-11
Commentary on Jeremiah 3:6-11
(Read Jeremiah 3:6-11)
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.