Part 6 of 12 · Marriage, Covenant, and Faithfulness
Betrayal Before the Paperwork
Distinguish covenant violation from formal dissolution.
“Which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:”
Jeremiah 31:32 KJV excerpt
Read the full passages in the KJV
Read Scripture in context
Open each passage to read the complete assigned verses here. The links above also let you read the surrounding chapters.
Jeremiah 3:6–14 KJV
6 The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
7 And I said after she had done all these things, Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed adultery with stones and with stocks.
10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the LORD.
11 And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.
12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
13 Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.
14 Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:
Read in your Bible or open the passage ↗Jeremiah 31:31–34 KJV
31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:
32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
Read in your Bible or open the passage ↗Isaiah 50:1–3 KJV
1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.
2 Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? when I called, was there none to answer? Is my hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? or have I no power to deliver? behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness: their fish stinketh, because there is no water, and dieth for thirst.
3 I clothe the heavens with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering.
Read in your Bible or open the passage ↗Read both judgment and the invitation to return
Jeremiah 3:6–10 describes Israel and Judah through the picture of unfaithful sisters. Verse 8 uses the language of dismissal and a bill of divorce for God’s judgment against Israel’s unfaithfulness. Verses 11–14 then call for acknowledgment of iniquity and a return to God. Judgment and the invitation to return belong to the same prophetic address.
Jeremiah 31:31–34 announces a new covenant and recalls the covenant the people broke when God brought them out of Egypt. The KJV uses husband language in verse 32. The broken covenant in that passage is the covenant with God’s people. Reading it alongside Jeremiah 3 supports distinguishing covenant betrayal from the response to betrayal, but the two chapters do not constitute a detailed legal chronology of a human divorce.
An analogy has a purpose and limits
Isaiah 50:1 asks where the mother’s bill of divorcement is and identifies the people’s sins as the reason for their situation. Its rhetorical question and the following emphasis on God’s power to redeem mean we should not simply restate it as identical to Jeremiah’s declaration of a divorce certificate. Both passages address God’s relationship with his people through family imagery.
Hosea also uses a damaged marriage to speak about covenant unfaithfulness and restoration. Prophetic images can show God’s grief, judgment, mercy, and faithfulness without supplying a rule that every injured spouse must copy every feature of the image. The conclusion we can carry carefully is that a formal action does not necessarily create the betrayal that preceded it. Whether a particular person is free to remarry remains a further question.
Who committed the betrayal
Jeremiah uses marriage and adultery to describe God’s relationship with his people and their unfaithfulness. In Jeremiah 3:8, God describes giving Israel a bill of divorce. In Jeremiah 31:32, he identifies his people as having broken his covenant. Their conduct is the betrayal; the divorce language describes a response to it.
These passages challenge the assumption that initiating a divorce necessarily makes someone the original covenant betrayer. We need to examine what happened before the formal ending. A person may be responding to profound harm that someone else has caused. The order of the paperwork cannot tell us the whole moral story.
Respect the limits of the comparison
These are prophetic descriptions of God’s covenant dealings with Israel. Jeremiah also contains calls to return and promises of restoration. We shouldn’t extract one image and treat it as a complete set of rules for human marriage.
There’s another important distinction. Breaking a covenant obligation and dissolving a marriage are related but different questions. A spouse can violate a promise while the marriage still exists. Whether that violation permits divorce, and whether remarriage is permitted afterward, needs further examination.
I believe we should stop automatically blaming the person who files. I also believe we should explain our conclusions instead of using ‘the covenant was already broken’ as a shortcut around the difficult passages. Both commitments help us speak more carefully.
Reflect
Sit with the question
- Who is identified as breaking the covenant in Jeremiah 31:32?
- What does prophetic marriage imagery illuminate, and what does it leave unanswered?
- Have I confused identifying wrongdoing with proving every consequence that may follow from it?
Practice
Take one faithful step
Write separate definitions for betrayal, separation, divorce, and remarriage. Notice where you’ve been treating them as interchangeable.
Pray
Bring it before God
God, help me see the whole story with truth and mercy. Keep me from assigning blame carelessly or claiming answers a passage doesn’t give. Amen.
Truth to carryThe order of the paperwork cannot tell us the whole moral story.