Jeremiah 3:6

Yahweh previously had a conversation with Jeremiah along the same lines that took place during the reign of King Josiah (between 627 and 609 B.C.). This section may have been a shorter oracle that the writer used to compose the final written sermon. The Lord asked the prophet if he had observed that the Northern Kingdom of Israel had been guilty of flagrant spiritual prostitution. He described the Northern Kingdom as "faithless Israel," literally "Apostasy (Heb. meshuba) Israel" (cf. Jeremiah 3:8; Jeremiah 3:11-12). Israel was Apostasy personified. She was faithless in respect to the Mosaic Covenant and in respect to her relationship to Yahweh as His "wife." She had deserted her covenant with the Lord and made a covenant with Baal, and she had failed to maintain her responsibilities as Yahweh’s "wife."

When Jeremiah began his ministry, in 627 B.C., the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom had been in exile for 95 years, since 722 B.C. All hope for the restoration of these banished people seemed to have vanished.