1 sn For the legal background for the illustration that is used here see Deut 24:1-4. 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 sn Open theists suggest that passages such as this indicate God has limited foreknowledge; however, more traditional theologians view this passage as an extended metaphor in which God presents himself as a deserted husband, hoping against hope that his adulterous wife might return to him. The point of the metaphor is not to make an assertion about God’s foreknowledge, but to develop the theme of God’s heartbreak due to Israel’s unrepentance. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 sn A comparison is drawn here between the greater culpability of Judah, who has had the advantage of seeing how God disciplined her sister nation for having sinned and yet ignored the warning and committed the same sin, and the culpability of Israel who had no such advantage. 26 27 28 29 30 tn Heb “scattered your ways with foreign [gods]” or “spread out your breasts to strangers.” 31 sn There is a wordplay between the term “true master” and the name of the pagan god Baal. The pronoun “I” is emphatic, creating a contrast between the 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 sn The imagery here appears to be that of treating the wife as an equal heir with the sons and of giving her the best piece of property. 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62