Jeremiah 5:7 - Exposition

How … for this? rather, Why should I pardon thee? Thy children ; i . e . (since "the daughter of Zion" is equivalent to Zion regarded as an ideal entity) the members of the Jewish people (comp. Le 19:18, "the children of thy people"). When I had fed them to the full. So Ewald, following the versions and many manuscripts. This gives a good sense, and may be supported by Jeremiah 5:28 ; Deuteronomy 32:15 ; Hosea 13:6 . But the reading of the received Hebrew text, though somewhat more difficult, is yet perfectly capable of explanation; and, slight as the difference is in the reading adopted by Ewald (it involves a mere shade of pronunciation), it is not to be preferred to the received reading. Read, therefore, though -r made them to swear ( allegiance ), yet they committed adultery . The oath may be that of Sinai ( Exodus 24:1-18 .), or such au oath as had been recently taken by Josiah and the people (1 Kings 23:3; 2 Chronicles 34:31 , 2 Chronicles 34:32 ). The "adultery" may be taken both in a literal and in a figurative sense, and so also the "harlots' houses" in the next clause. It is also well worthy of consideration whether the prophet may not be referring to certain matrimonial customs handed down from remote antiquity and arising from the ancient system of kinship through women (comp. Ezekiel 22:11 ).