Another of those rapid transitions so common in emotional writing like Jeremiah's. The prophet cannot bear to dwell upon the backsliding of his people. He knows the elements of good which still survive, and by faith sees them developed, through the teaching of God's good providence, into a fruitful repentance.
How graphic is the description! On the very high places (or rather, bare, treeless heights or downs, as verse 2) where a licentious idolatry used to be practiced, a sound is heard (render so, not was heard)—the sound of the loud and audible weeping of an impulsive Eastern people (comp.
Jeremiah 7:29). For they have; this evidently gives the reason of the bitter lamentation; render, because they have.