Jeremiah 3:8

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. […]

"And she played the harlot there. And I said, after she had committed all this fornication: Turn back to me; and she did not turn back, and the faithless Judah saw her faithlessness." We too have been reproached — I mean those of us who sin and do not keep the covenants of God, nor look to the fact that those others destroyed the covenant though they were nobly born, being of Abraham, having received the promise. We ought, then, to reckon that, since those others fell out of the blessings and the promises and it profited them nothing to be from the fathers, how much more shall we, when we sin, be forsaken. "If you were children of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham," the Savior says to them. And again John: "Do not begin to say among yourselves, We have Abraham as father; for I tell you that God is able out of these stones to raise up children to Abraham" — hinting by "stones" at us who have the stony heart and are hardened against the truth. And truly the powerful God has raised up children to Abraham from the stones, if we remain in the childbearing and keep the spirit of adoption. So the "faithless Judah" saw "her faithlessness," the faithlessness of the house of Israel — she who did not keep the covenants toward God — and she saw "that for all the things in which that one had been caught" (for we, who are Judah, behold all these things, if we read the Scripture): that concerning the things in which the house of Israel had been caught, in which she committed adultery, God sent her away and gave her a bill of divorce. […]

(Verse 6 and following) And the Lord said to me in the days of King Josiah: Have you seen what the adulteress Israel has done? She went upon every high hill and under every leafy tree and committed adultery there. And I said, after she had done all these things: Return to me, but she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw that I had dismissed the adulteress Israel and had given her a bill of divorce. But her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she also went and committed adultery.

"Go," therefore, "and read these words toward the north." If the wording has been understood, let us see what it means to make plain in these things. The calling of the Gentiles took its beginning from the transgression of Israel, and the apostles, when they preached to the synagogues of the Jews, say: "To you the word of salvation was sent; but since you judge yourselves unworthy, behold, we turn to the Gentiles." And the apostle, knowing what he knows about these matters, says: "By their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy." So then the many sins of that people brought about that they were forsaken and that we came to the hope of life — we who were strangers to the covenants, aliens to the promises. For how does it come to me, who wherever I chanced to be born was a stranger to what is called the holy land, now to discourse about the promises of God, and to believe in the God of the patriarchs Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and by the grace of God to receive Jesus Christ who was proclaimed beforehand by the prophets? If you understand these two peoples, the one from Israel and the one from the Gentiles, consider for me the deportation of Israel with regard to that people of Israel, and understand it written concerning that people: "I have sent her away and given her a bill of divorce"; for God sent away that people and gave it a bill of divorce. This is something of the following sort in the case of those who have married: if the wife is displeasing to the husband, the law of Moses says, a "bill of divorce" was made out from the husband and the wife was sent away, and it was permitted to the one who had sent away his former wife, because she seemed to have behaved unseemly, to marry another woman. Thus in the spiritual sense behold those people receiving a bill of divorce. […]

And I saw, when for all the causes, whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery,....