In this verse, the relationship between the Lord and the House of Israel is compared to the relationship between husband and wife and the relationship between master and servant. The Lord asks the house of Israel if He is responsible for the dissolution of the relationship. This could be proven if the Israelites had received the bill of divorcement. This document was required by the Law of Moses to prove the divorce between a man and a woman (see Deut 24:1-4 and Matt 19:7-8). The rhetorical question posed obviously implies that they had received no such document because the Lord had not rejected them but that the children of Israel had rejected Him. The same implications applies to the relationship between master and servant, ’for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves.’
“In the time of Isaiah, if a man was pressed by his creditors, he had the possibility of relieving his debt by selling his children as slaves. (”Ex. 21:7Ex. 21:7; “Neh. 1:0”Neh. 1:1“Neh. 1:2”Neh. 1:3“Neh. 1:4”Neh. 1:5Neh. 1-5; “Matt. 18:25Matt. 18:25.) And if he died, a creditor might take his children as payment. (”2 Kgs. 4:12 Kgs. 4:1.) This slavery was not permanent; the person was indentured to work for a fixed number of years. In answer to the question ’To whom has the Lord ever been in debt?’ Isaiah answers that the Lord is indebted to no one and therefore has not been forced to sell Israel; Israel’s separation and captivity is her own fault." (Victor L. Ludlow, Isaiah: Prophet, Seer, and Poet [Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Co., 1982], 420 as taken from Commentaries on Isaiah in the Book of Mormon, ed. by K. Douglas Bassett, [American Fork, UT: Covenant Publishing Co., 2003], 32)
Jeremiah repeats this imagery, explaining that the children of Israel were “divorced” from the Lord in two great phases represented by their being taken captive by their enemies. The first occurred when the northern Kingdom (Israel) was sacked by the Assyrians. The second was when the southern Kingdom (Judah) was sacked by the Babylonians. Jeremiah’s comment laments that the house of Judah should have repented when they saw what happened to their sister, Israel. Instead, they ‘played the harlot’:
’…Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? She is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree (to practice idolatry), and there hath played the harlot (by making love to other gods).
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.
And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away (sacked by the Assyrians), and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.’ (Jer 3:6-8)