Jeremiah 3:9
New International Version
Because Israel’s immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood.

New Living Translation
Israel treated it all so lightly—she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been polluted.

English Standard Version
Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.

Berean Standard Bible
Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

King James Bible
And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

New King James Version
So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

New American Standard Bible
And because of the thoughtlessness of her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

NASB 1995
“Because of the lightness of her harlotry, she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

NASB 1977
“And it came about because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Legacy Standard Bible
So it was, because of the lightness of her harlotry, that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Amplified Bible
Because of the thoughtlessness of Israel’s prostitution [her immorality mattered little to her], she desecrated the land and committed adultery with [idols of] stones and trees.

Christian Standard Bible
Indifferent to her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Indifferent to her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

American Standard Version
And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

Contemporary English Version
The kingdom of Judah wasn't sorry for being a prostitute, and she didn't care that she had made both herself and the land unclean by worshiping idols of stone and wood.

English Revised Version
And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Because she wasn't concerned about acting like a prostitute, she polluted the land and committed adultery with standing stones and wood pillars.

Good News Translation
and was not at all ashamed. She defiled the land, and she committed adultery by worshiping stones and trees.

International Standard Version
She took her fornication so lightly that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Majority Standard Bible
Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

NET Bible
Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone.

New Heart English Bible
And it came to pass, through her casual prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stone and wood.

Webster's Bible Translation
And it came to pass through the lightness of her lewdness, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

World English Bible
Because she took her prostitution lightly, the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with wood.
Literal Translations
Literal Standard Version
And it has come to pass, from the vileness of her fornication, that the land is defiled, and she commits fornication with stone and with wood.

Young's Literal Translation
And it hath come to pass, from the vileness of her fornication, that the land is defiled, and she committeth fornication with stone and with wood.

Smith's Literal Translation
And it was her fornication being light, and she will defile the land, and she will commit adultery with stones and with woods.
Catholic Translations
Douay-Rheims Bible
And by the facility of her fornication she defiled the land, and played the harlot with stones and with stocks.

Catholic Public Domain Version
And by the act of her fornication, she defiled the land. For she committed adultery with that which is stone and wood.

New American Bible
With her casual prostitution, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and wood.

New Revised Standard Version
Because she took her whoredom so lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree.
Translations from Aramaic
Lamsa Bible
And her whoredom was so excessive that she defiled the land and committed adultery with idols of stone and wood,

Peshitta Holy Bible Translated
And because her fornication was debauched, she defiled the land, and she committed adultery with stone and with wood
OT Translations
JPS Tanakh 1917
and it came to pass through the lightness of her harlotry, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks;

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And her fornication was nothing accounted of; and she committed adultery with wood and stone.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Judah Follows Israel's Example
8She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well. 9Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but only in pretense,” declares the LORD.…

Cross References
Hosea 4:12-14
My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. / They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. / I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

Ezekiel 23:37
For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.

Isaiah 57:3-8
“But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes! / Whom are you mocking? At whom do you sneer and stick out your tongue? Are you not children of transgression, offspring of deceit, / who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks? ...

Ezekiel 16:15-17
But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. / You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred! / You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself.

Hosea 2:2-5
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. / Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. / I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery. ...

Revelation 17:1-5
Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the punishment of the great prostitute, who sits on many waters. / The kings of the earth were immoral with her, and those who dwell on the earth were intoxicated with the wine of her immorality.” / And the angel carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, where I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was covered with blasphemous names and had seven heads and ten horns. ...

2 Kings 17:7-18
All this happened because the people of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They had worshiped other gods / and walked in the customs of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites, as well as in the practices introduced by the kings of Israel. / The Israelites secretly did things against the LORD their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city, they built high places in all their cities. ...

Ezekiel 6:9
Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

1 Corinthians 6:15-20
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! / Or don’t you know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.” / But he who unites himself with the Lord is one with Him in spirit. ...

James 4:4
You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.

Hosea 1:2
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”

Ezekiel 23:30
have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

Revelation 2:20-22
But I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads My servants to be sexually immoral and to eat food sacrificed to idols. / Even though I have given her time to repent of her immorality, she is unwilling. / Behold, I will cast her onto a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her will suffer great tribulation unless they repent of her deeds.

Judges 2:17
Israel, however, did not listen to their judges. Instead, they prostituted themselves with other gods and bowed down to them. They quickly turned from the way of their fathers, who had walked in obedience to the LORD’s commandments; they did not do as their fathers had done.

2 Chronicles 21:11-13
Jehoram had also built high places on the hills of Judah; he had caused the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves and had led Judah astray. / Then a letter came to Jehoram from Elijah the prophet, which stated: “This is what the LORD, the God of your father David, says: ‘You have not walked in the ways of your father Jehoshaphat or of Asa king of Judah, / but you have walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and have caused Judah and the people of Jerusalem to prostitute themselves, just as the house of Ahab prostituted itself. You have also killed your brothers, your father’s family, who were better than you.


Treasury of Scripture

And it came to pass through the lightness of her prostitution, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

lightness.

Ezekiel 23:10
These discovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became famous among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

she defiled

Jeremiah 3:2
Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

Jeremiah 2:7
And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.

committed

Jeremiah 2:27
Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us.

Jeremiah 10:8
But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

Isaiah 57:6
Among the smooth stones of the stream is thy portion; they, they are thy lot: even to them hast thou poured a drink offering, thou hast offered a meat offering. Should I receive comfort in these?

Jump to Previous
Adultery Behaviour Committed Committeth Committing Defiled Fornication Harlotry Immorality Israel's Lightness Little Polluted Prostitution Stocks Stone Stones Tree Trees Unclean Untrue Whoredom Wood
Jump to Next
Adultery Behaviour Committed Committeth Committing Defiled Fornication Harlotry Immorality Israel's Lightness Little Polluted Prostitution Stocks Stone Stones Tree Trees Unclean Untrue Whoredom Wood
Jeremiah 3
1. God's great mercy to Judah the polluted land
6. Judah is worse than Israel
12. The promises of the gospel to the penitent
20. Israel reproved, and called by God, makes a solemn confession of their sins














Indifferent to her own infidelity
The Hebrew word for "indifferent" here can be understood as a lack of shame or acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Israel's spiritual infidelity is likened to a marital betrayal, where the nation has turned away from God, their covenant partner. This phrase highlights the callousness and spiritual blindness that can occur when a people become desensitized to their sin. Historically, this reflects a period when Israel was engaging in idolatry without remorse, showing a hardened heart towards God’s commandments.

Israel had defiled the land
The term "defiled" in Hebrew carries the connotation of making something unclean or impure. In the context of the Old Testament, the land of Israel was considered holy, a gift from God, and was to be kept pure. By turning to idolatry, Israel not only sinned against God but also brought impurity upon the land itself. This reflects the deep connection between the spiritual state of the people and the physical condition of the land, a theme prevalent throughout the prophetic books.

committed adultery with stones and trees
This phrase uses the metaphor of adultery to describe Israel's idolatry. The "stones and trees" refer to the idols and altars made from these materials, which were common in Canaanite religious practices. The use of such imagery underscores the gravity of Israel's sin, as they have forsaken their covenant with God for lifeless objects. This highlights the futility and absurdity of idolatry, as well as the deep betrayal it represents in the relationship between God and His people. Historically, this reflects the syncretism that occurred as Israel adopted the pagan practices of surrounding nations, leading to spiritual and moral decay.

(9) The lightness of her whoredom.--Lightness in the ethical sense of "levity." Apostasy was treated once more as if it had been a light thing (1Kings 16:31). The word is, however, very variously interpreted, and the meaning of "voice," or "cry," in the sense in which the "cry" of Sodom and Gomorrah was great (Genesis 18:20), seems more satisfactory. On "stones" and "stocks," see Note on Jeremiah 2:27.

Verse 9. - Through the lightness of her whoredom; i.e. through the slight importance which she attached to her whoredom. So apparently the ancient versions. The only sense, however, which the word kol ever has in Hebrew is not "lightness," but "sound," "voice," and perhaps "rumor" (Genesis 45:16). Hence it is more strictly accurate to render "through the cry." etc. (comp. Genesis 4:10; Genesis 19:13), or "through the fame," etc. (as Authorized Version, margin). But neither of these seems quite suitable to the context, and if, as King James's translators seem to have felt it necessary to do, we desert the faithful translation, and enter on the path of conjecture, why not emend kol into klon (there is no vav, and such fragments of true readings are not altogether uncommon in the Hebrew text), which at once yields a good meaning - "through the disgrace of her whoredom ?" Ewald thinks that kol may be taken in the sense of k'lon; but this is really more arbitrary than emending the text. With stones, etc. (see Jeremiah 2:27).

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Indifferent to
וְהָיָה֙ (wə·hā·yāh)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 1961: To fall out, come to pass, become, be

her immorality,
זְנוּתָ֔הּ (zə·nū·ṯāh)
Noun - feminine singular construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 2184: Adultery, infidelity, idolatry

[Israel had] defiled
וַתֶּחֱנַ֖ף (wat·te·ḥĕ·nap̄)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 2610: To be polluted or profane

the land
הָאָ֑רֶץ (hā·’ā·reṣ)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 776: Earth, land

and committed adultery
וַתִּנְאַ֥ף (wat·tin·’ap̄)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 5003: To commit adultery, to apostatize

with stones
הָאֶ֖בֶן (hā·’e·ḇen)
Article | Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 68: A stone

and trees.
הָעֵֽץ׃ (hā·‘êṣ)
Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 6086: Tree, trees, wood


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OT Prophets: Jeremiah 3:9 It happened through the lightness of her (Jer.)
Jeremiah 3:8
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