Jeremiah 3:4

Wilt thou not from this time cry unto me, My father, thou art the guide of my youth?

Wilt thou not from this time - not referring, as Michaelis thinks, to the reformation begun the year before,

i.e., the twelfth of Josiah: it means-Wilt thou not, now at once, now at last?

Me - contrasted with the "stock" whom they had heretofore called on as "father" ().

Thou art - rather, 'thou wast.'

Guide of my youth - i:e., husband (; , "Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God;" ; ). Husband and father are the two most endearing of ties.