Jeremiah Chapter 2

From The Open Bible Project

2:1 The word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

2:2 "Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says Yahweh, "I remember for you the kindness of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

  • (a) According to that grace and favour which I showed you from the beginning, when I first chose you to be my people, and married you to myself, (Ezekiel 16:8).
  • (b) When I had delivered you out of Egypt.

2:3 Israel [was] holiness to Yahweh, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,"' says Yahweh."

  • (c) Chosen above all others to serve the Lord only and the first offered to the Lord of all other nations.
  • (d) Whoever challenged this people, or else annoyed them, was punished.

2:4 Hear the word of Yahweh, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!

2:5 Thus says Yahweh, "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

  • (e) That is, fallen to vile idolatry.
  • (f) Altogether given to vanity, and are become blind and insensible as the idols that they serve.

2:6 Neither did they say, 'Where is Yahweh who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived?'

  • (g) Where for lack of all things needed for life, you could look for nothing every hour but present death.

2:7 I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

2:8 The priests didn't say, 'Where is Yahweh?' and those who handle the law didn't know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

  • (i) They did not teach the people to seek after God.
  • (k) As the scribes, who would have expounded the law to the people.
  • (l) Meaning, the princes and ministers: signifying, that all estates were corrupt.
  • (m) That is, spoke vain things, and brought the people from the true worship of God to serve idols: for by Baal, which was the chief idol of the Moabites, are meant all idols.

2:9 "Therefore I will yet contend with you," says Yahweh, "and I will contend with your children's children.

  • (n) Signifying that he would not as he might, straightway condemn them, but shows them by evident examples their great ingratitude that they might be ashamed and repent.

2:10 For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.

  • (o) Meaning, the Grecians and Italians.
  • (p) To Arabia.

2:11 Has a nation changed [its] gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

  • (q) That is, God who is their glory, and who makes them glorious above all other people, reproving the Jews that they were less diligent to serve the true God, than were the idolaters to honour their vanities.
  • (r) Meaning the idols who were their destruction, (Psalms 106:36).

2:12 "Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate," says Yahweh.

  • (s) He shows that the insensible creatures abhor this vile ingratitude, and as it were tremble for fear of God’s great judgments against the same.

2:13 "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

  • (t) Signifying that when men forsake God’s word, which is the fountain of life, they reject God himself, and so fall to their own inventions, and vain confidence, and procure to themselves destruction, (Jonah 2:8; Zechariah 10:2).

2:14 Is Israel a servant? Is he a native-born [slave]? Why has he become a prey?

  • (u) Have I ordered them like servants and not like dearly beloved children? (Exodus 4:22) therefore it is their fault only, if the enemy spoil them.

2:15 The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

  • (x) The Babylonians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians.
  • (y) Not one will be left to dwell there.

2:16 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.

  • (z) That is, the Egyptians, for these were two great cities in Egypt.
  • (a) Have grievously vexed you at various times.

2:17 "Haven't you procured this to yourself, in that you have forsaken Yahweh your [3] God [See Jeremiah Footnotes 3], when he led you by the way?

  • (b) Showing that God would have still led them correctly, if they would have followed him.

2:18 Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

  • (c) To seek help from man, as though God was not able enough to defend you, which is to drink from the puddles and to leave the fountain, (Isaiah 31:1).
  • (d) That is, Euphrates.

2:19 "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that you have forsaken Yahweh your God, and that my fear is not in you," says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies.

  • (e) Meaning, that the wicked are insensible, till the punishment for their sin waken them as in (Jeremiah 2:26; Isaiah 3:9).

2:20 "For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve;' for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.

2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

2:22 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me," says the Lord Yahweh.

  • (g) Though you use all the purifications and ceremonies of the law, you cannot escape punishment.

2:23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. [You are] a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

  • (h) Meaning that hypocrites deny that they worship the idols, but that they honour God in them, and therefore they call their doings God’s service.
  • (i) He compares the idolaters to these beasts, because they never cease running to and fro: for both valleys and hills are full of their idolatry.

2:24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

  • (k) He compares the idolaters to a wild ass: for she can never be tamed nor yet wearied: for as she runs she can take her wind at every opportunity.
  • (l) That is, when she is with foal, and therefore the hunters wait their time: so though you cannot be turned back now from your idolatry, yet when your iniquity will be at the fall, God will meet with you.

2:25 "Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.'

  • (m) By this he warns them that they should not go into strange countries to seek help: for they should but spend their labour, and hurt themselves, which is here meant by the bare foot and thirst, (Isaiah 57:10).

2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;

  • (n) As a thief will not acknowledge his fault, till he is taken with the deed, and ready to be punished, so they will not confess their idolatry, till the plagues due to the same light on them.

2:27 who tell wood, 'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

  • (o) Meaning, that idolaters rob God of his honour: and where as he has taught to call him the father of all flesh, they attribute this title to their idols.

2:28 "But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

  • (p) You thought that your gods of blocks and stones could have helped you, because they were many in number and present in every place: but now let us see whether either the multitude or their presence can deliver you from my plague, (Jeremiah 11:13).

2:29 "Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me," says Yahweh.

  • (q) As though I did you injury in punishing you, seeing that your faults are so evident.

2:30 "I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

  • (r) That is, you have killed your prophets, that exhorted you to repentance, as Zechariah, Isaiah, etc.

2:31 Generation, consider the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?'

  • (s) Have I not given them abundance of all things?
  • (t) But will trust in our own power and policy.

2:32 "Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

2:33 How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways.

  • (u) With strangers.

2:34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.

  • (x) The prophets and the faithful are slain in every corner of your country.

2:35 "Yet you said, 'I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.' "Behold, I will judge you, because you say, 'I have not sinned.'

2:36 Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

  • (y) For the Assyrians had taken away the ten tribes out of Israel and destroyed Judah even to Jerusalem: and the Egyptians slew Josiah, and vexed the Jews in various ways.

2:37 From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head; for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

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