Jeremiah 3:5

Will he reserve his anger for ever...? — The questions were such as might well be asked in the first burst of sorrowing though superficial repentance. The implied answer was in the negative, “No, He will not keep His anger to the end.” Yet, so far, facts were against that yearning hope. It will be noted that the word “anger” is not in the Hebrew. It is, however, rightly inserted, after the precedent of Nahum 1:2; Psalms 103:9. The words seem, indeed, almost a quotation from the latter, and Jeremiah 3:4 may probably be looked on as cited from the penitential litanies in which the people had joined, and which were too soon followed by a return to the old evils (Jeremiah 2:1).

Thou hast spoken and done evil things as thou couldest. — i.e., resolutely and obstinately. That pathetic appeal to the mercy and love of Jehovah was followed by no amendment, but by a return to evil. Here the first prophecy, as reproduced from memory, ends, and the next verse begins a separate discourse.