Jeremiah 3:7

The very wording of the passage that has been read has something obscure in it, which must first be understood; and after this, if God grants it, we shall come to know his mystical intent. Now he wants us to know this: that, as is written in the books of Kingdoms, the people were divided in the times of Rehoboam into the kingdom of the ten tribes under Jeroboam and into that of the two tribes under Rehoboam; and those under Jeroboam were called Israel, but those under Rehoboam Judah. And this division of the people has remained, so far as concerns the historical record, down to the present; for we know of no historical account that has gathered Israel and Judah together into one. Now Israel sinned first and more grievously — the people under Jeroboam and his successors — and sinned so much beyond Judah that they were condemned by Providence to become captives "into Assyria," as the Scripture says, "unto this day." After this the sons of Judah also sinned and were condemned to captivity into Babylon, not "unto this day" as Israel, but for "seventy years," concerning which Jeremiah prophesied, and which Daniel also mentioned. If we understand these things as spoken with reference to that people of that time, look at the words of the prophet, whether they do not indicate something of this sort. For he accuses, as it were, the sins of Israel, and says that, when so many sins had been committed by Israel, the congregation of Judah, having heard of their transgressions and in what manner I made them come to be in captivity, was not instructed but added to its sins, so that, because of this addition of sins when compared with the sins of Israel, righteousness was found in Israel over against Judah. Then, upon these things, the prophet is commanded to prophesy, since Judah had become worse than Israel, in order that after its sins it might turn back. […]

Those who place themselves far from your care and choose to serve idols will reap the destructive fruit of defection. He calls idolatry infidelity here. God likewise says also through Jeremiah, "She went up every high hill and under every green tree and was unfaithful …

Then He directs His speech unto the city, in this way too being minded to correct His hearers, and saith, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" What meaneth the repetition? this is the manner of one pitying her, and bemoaning her, and greatly loving her. For, like as unto a woman beloved, herself indeed ever loved, but who had despised Him that loved her, and therefore on the point of being punished, He pleads, being now about to inflict the punishment. Which He doth in the prophets also, using these words, "I said, Turn thou unto me, and she returned not."

For these two indeed are chief sins, engendered of violent lust, the one of sexual desire, the other of the desire of money.… Let no man then of them that live in vice despair; let no man who lives in virtue slumber. Let neither this last be confident, for often the harlot will pass him by; nor let the other despair, for it is possible for him to pass by even the first. Hear what God saith unto Jerusalem, "I said, after she had committed all these whoredoms, Turn thou unto me, and she returned not." When we have come back unto the earnest love of God, He remembers not the former things. God is not as man, for He reproaches us not with the past, neither doth He say, Why wast thou absent so long a time? when we repent; only let us approach Him as we ought. Let us cleave to Him earnestly, and rivet our hearts to His fear.… How many other such changes wouldest thou see, both to have taken place of old, and now taking place every day? For this reason then I say, Neither let him on the stave despair, nor let him in the church be confident. For to this last it is said, "Let him that thinketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall;" and to the other, "Shall not he that falleth arise?" and, "Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees." Again, to these He saith, "Watch;" but to those, "Awake, thou that sleepest and arise from the dead." For these need to preserve what they have, and those to become what they are not; these to preserve their health, those to be delivered from their infirmity, for they are sick; but many even of the sick become healthy, and of the healthy many by remissness grow infirm.

Have we provoked Him severely, so as no other man ever did? this is just the reason why we ought specially to abstain from our present deeds and to repent for the past, and exhibit a great change. For the evils we have once perpetrated cannot provoke Him so much as our being unwilling to make any change in the future. For to sin may be a merely human failing, but to continue in the same sin ceases to be human, and becomes altogether devilish. For observe how God by the mouth of His prophet blames this more than the other. "For," we read, "I said unto her after she had done all these deeds of fornication, return unto me, and yet she returned not."… Hear at least what He says by the mouth of the prophet: "Declare thou first thy iniquities that thou mayest be justified." Now this He demands from us in order to intensify our love towards Him.