Therefore the showers were withholden, and there was no lateward rain: thou hadst a harlot’s forehead, thou wouldst not blush.

“Accusation is censure of wrongdoers.… Of this help the divine Instructor made use by Jeremiah, saying, "You have a prostitute's forehead. You were shameless toward all. You did not call me to the house, I who am your father, and Lord of your virginity." "And a fair and graceful harlot skilled in enchanted potions." With consummate art, after applying to the virgin the disgraceful name of whoredom, he at once calls her back to an honorable life by filling her with shame.”

“And this again is the peculiarity of harlots that they are his who gives the gold. Even if he is a slave or a gladiator, or any person whatever, yet if he offers their hire they receive him. But the free, even should they be nobler than all, they do not accept without the money.… For that shamelessness makes harlots, hear the prophet saying, "You were shameless toward all. You had a harlot's countenance." This may be said to the covetous also, "You were shameless toward all," not toward these or those, but "toward all."”

“For their own misery has taught them, which happiness had made negligent, alas, what an evil thing it is to fornicate against the Lord by presuming upon themselves; oh how good it is to cling to the Lord, always thinking humbly. For withdrawing from that simple and singular good into the multitudes of pleasures, and into the love of the world and corruptions of the earth, this is to fornicate against the Lord. To this one it is called out: "A harlot's face has been made for you, and you have become shameless in your entirety."”

“Here he calls them back to penance; and first he sets down the calling-back; second, the obstinacy of those called back, chapter 8: and you shall say to them, etc. The first into two. In the first he sets down the warnings of the calling-back; in the second, the arguments for the calling-back, chapter 4: if you return, Israel, says the Lord, be converted to me. The first into two. In the first he calls back the people; in the second he sets down the fruit of the response, there, but how if a woman should despise her lover. The first into two. In the first he calls back from fault; in the second from punishment, there, go, and cry these words against the North. The first into two. In the first he calls back by warnings; in the second by examples, there, and the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king. Concerning the first he does two things. First he calls them back from the clemency of God, to prove which he sets forth the common proverb: if a man should put away his wife; which has its rise in Deuteronomy 23: if a man should put away his wife. And he speaks according to the permission given concerning the bill of divorce, on account of the hardness of their heart, Matthew 19, and the return was forbidden, either so that they would not be prone to divorce, or lest, receiving her back afterward by deceit, they should kill her. And from this proverb he takes an argument for the divine clemency: but you have played the harlot with lovers, idols. Isaiah 55: let him return to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he is abundant in forgiving. Second he calls them back from their own fault, first setting forth the fault, determining the place: lift up your eyes straight ahead — by right consideration, or in every direction — where not, as it were everywhere, prostrate, like a harlot, of idolatry. Ezekiel 16: you have made a brothel in every street. And the desire of sinning: in the ways you sat, like a harlot awaiting her lovers, and like a robber, awaiting whom he may despoil. Proverbs 7: and behold, a woman comes to meet, in harlot's attire, prepared to deceive souls. Hosea 6: Gilead is a city of workers of idols, tripped up with blood, and like the jaws of robber men. And determining the effect of the sin: and you have polluted the land. Above, 2: you have defiled my land, and made my inheritance an abomination. And then in place of the fault he sets down the punishment: wherefore the drops of the rains have been withheld, by whose power the rain or shower is produced. Isaiah 5: I will command the clouds that they rain no shower upon my vineyard. And he shows the shamelessness of sinners, brow. Below, 6: nay rather, you have not been put to shame with confusion. Second he threatens penance: and first he exhorts them to acknowledge the benefits, therefore — as if to say: let the past time suffice, etc. Father, through creation; you are the guide of my virginity: as if to say: when you led me through the desert, yet I was a virgin. Proverbs 2: she has forsaken the guide of her youth. Isaiah 63: the spirit of the Lord was his guide. Second he exhorts them to ask for mercy, and to say these things: will you be angry forever, or will you continue to the end? Psalm 84: will you be angry with us forever, or will you extend your wrath from generation to generation? Here he shows their contempt as regards the sin of the mouth: behold, you have spoken; which is explained as words of pride, etc.: as regards the sin of deed, and you have done; to which corresponds that, you have filled up evils: as regards the sin of the heart, and you were able, to which that, and you have shown; as though you boasted your power in sin. But this is not in the Hebrew, nor is "for words," etc., in the ancient books; but it seems to be Jerome's exposition. Job 24: God gave him a place of repentance, and he abuses it unto pride. Isa. 5: woe to you who are mighty to drink wine, and men strong to mingle drunkenness.”

“Therefore the showers have been withholden, and there hath been no latter rain,.... There were two seasons of the year when rain in common fell upon the land of Israel, called the former and the latter rain, and both are designed here. The former by "showers", so called from the multitude of drops in them: these showers, or the former rain, used to fall in the month Marchesvan, which answers to part of our October; it was in autumn, at the fall of the year, at seedtime, when great quantity of rain usually fell, to prepare the earth for sowing, and watering the seed sown; whence that month was sometimes called Bul, as Kimchi observes, from "mabbul", a flood. The latter rain fell in Nisan, which answers to our March; it was in the spring, a little before harvest, which swelled the grain, made the skin the thinner, and the flower the finer. This is called now, because of the idolatry of these people, those rains were withheld from them, as they were in the times of Ahab, Kg1 17:1, which brought a famine upon them; and was a manifest token of the divine displeasure, and what was threatened them in case they sinned against the Lord, Deu 28:23, and thou hadst a whore's forehead; was impudent and unconcerned, repented not of sin, or blushed for it, though such judgments were upon them; hence the Rabbins (x) say rains are not withheld but for impudence, according, to this Scripture: thou refusedst to be ashamed; to be made ashamed by the admonitions of the prophets, or by the judgments of God; see Jer 5:3. (x) T. Bab. Taanith, fol. 7. 2.”

“But the idolatrous race was not to be brought to reflection or turned from its evil ways, even when judgment fell upon it. God chastised it by withholding the rain, by drought; cf. Jer 14:1., Amo 4:7. רביבים, rain-showers (Deu 32:2), does not stand for the early rain (יורה), but denotes any fall of rain; and the late rain (shortly before harvest) is mentioned along with it, as in Hos 6:3; Zac 10:1. But affliction made no impression. The people persisted in its sinful courses with unabashed effrontery; cf. Jer 5:3; Eze 3:7.”