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Jeremiah 2

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God Recalls Israel's Early Love 1–3

1
Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ​
2
Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. ​
3
Israel was holiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD. ​

Israel Has Forsaken the Lord 4–8

4
Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel:
5
Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? ​
6
Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that 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 no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? ​
7
And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. ​
8
The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. ​

The Uniqueness of Israel's Sin 9–13

9
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead. ​
10
For pass over the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. ​
11
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. ​
12
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. ​
13
For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. ​

Sin Brings Its Own Punishment 14–19

14
Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? ​
15
The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant.
16
Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. ​
17
Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? ​
18
And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? ​
19
Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. ​

Shameful and Stubborn Idolatry 20–28

20
For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. ​
21
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? ​
22
For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD. ​
23
How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways; ​
24
A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. ​
25
Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. ​
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,
27
Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. ​
28
But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. ​

Denial of Guilt and Final Warning 29–37

29
Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD. ​
30
In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. ​
31
O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? ​
32
Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. ​
33
Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
34
Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these. ​
35
Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. ​
36
Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. ​
37
Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Jeremiah 2

Verse 1

the word of the LORD came to me — The same formula opens each of Jeremiah's earliest messages (1:4, 11, 13), after the first call 'in the days of Josiah… in the thirteenth year of his reign' (1:2). This message begins the long address to Jerusalem and Israel that runs through chapter 3.

Verse 2

the kindness of thy youth — Chesed, covenant faithfulness, is remembered in Israel's early following 'in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown'. 'Espousals' (kelulot) are the bridal days. The LORD uses the figure of Hos 2:15, 'as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt'.

Verse 3

holiness unto the LORD — The words engraved on the high priest's gold plate, 'HOLINESS TO THE LORD' (Ex 28:36), are said of the whole people. As the 'firstfruits of his increase', Israel belonged to him and was not for others to take; whoever 'devour him' is held guilty and 'evil shall come upon them'.

Verse 5

What iniquity have your fathers found in me — The LORD opens his case by asking for the fault. 'Vanity' (hebel, breath) and 'become vain' (habal) are one root: they became like what they followed, as 2 Kings 17:15 states, 'they followed vanity, and became vain'. 'Gone far from me' is the first of the departures in this chapter.

Verse 6

the shadow of death — One Hebrew word, tsalmaveth, deep darkness, describes the land the LORD led them through, with 'deserts', 'pits' and 'drought'. Deut 8:15 names the same road, 'that great and terrible wilderness'. Their sin is that they never asked 'Where is the LORD…?', and the priests make the same omission in v.8.

Verse 7

a plentiful country — The Hebrew is carmel, orchard-land, the fruit and 'goodness' of which he gave them. They 'defiled my land' as Num 35:34 forbade ('Defile not therefore the land… wherein I dwell'), and made his 'heritage' (nachalah) 'an abomination', the defilement that Lev 18:28 said the land would spue out.

Verse 8

The priests said not, Where is the LORD? — Four groups fail: the priests, 'they that handle the law', the 'pastors' (ro'im, shepherds, the rulers of Jer 23:1) and the prophets, who 'prophesied by Baal'. 'Knew me not' is the charge made of Eli's sons (1 Sam 2:12). 'Things that do not profit' (yaal) returns in v.11.

Verse 9

I will yet plead with you — Rib is to contend at law: the LORD brings a suit, as Mic 6:2 does, 'the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel'. It reaches 'your children's children'. The same verb opens v.29, 'Wherefore will ye plead with me?', where the people answer the suit.

Verse 10

the isles of Chittim… Kedar — Chittim (Kittim, a son of Javan, Gen 10:4) stands for the western coasts and islands, Kedar (a son of Ishmael, Gen 25:13) for the tribes of the eastern desert. Looking both ways, nowhere is there a nation that has done what Judah has done in the next verse.

Verse 11

my people have changed their glory — The nations keep gods that are 'no gods'; Israel gave up the LORD for 'that which doth not profit'. 'Glory' (kavod) is the LORD himself, as in Ps 106:20, 'they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass', and Rom 1:23 uses the same words of 'the glory of the uncorruptible God'.

Verse 12

Be astonished, O ye heavens — The heavens are called as witnesses, as in Deut 32:1 and Isa 1:2, 'Hear, O heavens'. They are told to be 'horribly afraid' and 'very desolate' at what v.11 describes. The charge is brought in v.13 as 'two evils'.

Verse 13

two evils — They forsook 'the fountain of living waters', a title the LORD bears again in 17:13, and cut 'cisterns, broken cisterns', that 'can hold no water'. Ps 36:9 says 'with thee is the fountain of life'; Christ speaks to the woman of Samaria of 'living water' (John 4:10). 'Forsaken' (azab) returns in vv.17 and 19.

Verse 14

Is Israel a servant? — Yelid bayit is one 'born in the house', as the 'trained servants, born in his own house' of Abram (Gen 14:14). The answer is no: 'Israel is my son, even my firstborn' (Ex 4:22). A son is plundered ('spoiled') only because of what follows in vv.17–19.

Verse 16

Noph and Tahapanes — Noph is Memphis, and Tahapanes (Tahpanhes) another Egyptian city. The remnant of Judah later came to 'Tahpanhes' against the LORD's word (43:7), and 44:1 lists both cities with Migdol as places where Jews dwelt. The Egyptian blows on Judah are told in 2 Kings 23:29–35.

Verse 17

Hast thou not procured this unto thyself — The LORD gives the cause: Judah has 'forsaken' him 'when he led thee by the way'. 'Forsaken' (azab) is the verb of vv.13 and 19, so three verses give one charge. The consequence is stated in v.19: 'Thine own wickedness shall correct thee'.

Verse 18

the waters of Sihor… the waters of the river — Sihor is the Nile, 'before Egypt' (Josh 13:3), and 'the river' the Euphrates, on the road to Assyria. They had turned to those waters instead of the fountain of v.13, as Isa 30:2 says of those who 'walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth', and Hos 7:11, 'they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria'.

Verse 19

thy backslidings shall reprove thee — Meshuvah, a turning away, from the verb shub, to turn back, appears first in Jeremiah here, then in chapters 3, 5, 8 and 14. 'Evil' and 'bitter' mark what is felt when the LORD is forsaken. 'My fear is not in thee' states the root of it.

Verse 20

I have broken thy yoke — The LORD freed them from Egypt: 'I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright' (Lev 26:13). Israel's vow, 'I will not transgress', is followed by worship 'upon every high hill and under every green tree', which Deut 12:2 had told them to destroy; 'playing the harlot' (zanah) is the marriage language of v.2.

Verse 21

a noble vine — Sorek, the choice red vine (Gen 49:11), is the 'choicest vine' of Isa 5:2. 'Wholly a right seed' means true stock. It turned to 'the degenerate plant of a strange vine', the wild grapes of Isa 5:2, 4. Christ says, 'I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman' (John 15:1).

Verse 22

nitre… soap — 'Nitre' (neter, natron, a mineral cleanser; also in Prov 25:20) and 'soap' (borith, a lye; also in Mal 3:2) are the strongest cleaners named. The stain is 'marked' before the LORD: 'The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond' (17:1).

Verse 23

I have not gone after Baalim — They deny what the LORD has seen: 'Baalim' is the plural of Baal. The 'valley' may be the valley of the son of Hinnom, where the high places of Baal stood (19:5–6), though some take it as the valley opposite Beth-peor. The bikrah, a young she-camel, runs here and there across her own tracks.

Verse 24

A wild ass used to the wilderness — The wild ass is the animal 'sent out… free' in Job 39:5, and Ephraim is called 'a wild ass alone by himself' (Hos 8:9). No one needs to chase her: 'in her month they shall find her', which is read either as her breeding season, when she runs after the male unrestrained, or as the last month of her carrying, when she is heavy and easily overtaken.

Verse 25

There is no hope — They answer the warning with the despair of 18:12, 'There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices'. 'Strangers' (zarim) are foreign gods: 3:13 speaks of 'scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree'. Judah is told to keep her foot from being worn bare and her throat from thirst.

Verse 27

Saying to a stock, Thou art my father — 'A stock' (ets, a tree, wood) and 'a stone' are addressed as father and as the one who 'brought me forth'. They 'turned their back' and not 'their face' (also 32:33), yet 'in the time of their trouble' they say 'Arise, and save us'. The same verb 'arise' is given back in v.28: 'let them arise, if they can save thee'.

Verse 28

where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? — The makers of the gods are the ones asking for rescue from them. 'According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah' is repeated in 11:13, with 'altars to burn incense unto Baal'. 11:12 says that they 'shall not save them at all in the time of their trouble'.

Verse 29

ye all have transgressed against me — Pasha, to rebel, is the verb of v.8, where 'the pastors also transgressed against me'; here 'all' includes the four groups of that verse. 'Plead' is rib as in v.9: the people who answer the suit are told that all have transgressed.

Verse 30

your own sword hath devoured your prophets — 'In vain' the LORD struck them: 'they received no correction', as 5:3 says, 'they have refused to receive correction'. Their own violence killed the prophets he sent, as Neh 9:26 puts it: 'slew thy prophets which testified against them'. 2 Kings 21:16 records that 'Manasseh shed innocent blood very much'.

Verse 31

a land of darkness — The Hebrew ma'pelyah, thick darkness, occurs only here. The LORD asks whether he has been like the wilderness of v.6 to them, though it was he who led them through it. The people reply 'We are lords; we will come no more unto thee'.

Verse 32

Can a maid forget her ornaments — A bride would not forget the attire of her wedding day, yet 'my people have forgotten me days without number'. 'Forgotten' (shakach) is the verb of 3:21, 'they have forgotten the LORD their God'. 'Ornaments' (adi) is the word of Isa 49:18, 'as with an ornament', and 'attire' (kishshurim) is the bride's sash or girdle.

Verse 34

the blood of the souls of the poor innocents — 'Secret search' is machteret, a break-in. Ex 22:2 says a thief 'found breaking up' who is killed leaves no blood-guilt. Here the blood is on Judah's 'skirts' for all to see, shed with no burglary to excuse it, and the victims were 'poor innocents'.

Verse 35

I have not sinned — The claim, 'Because I am innocent', is the one that 1 John 1:10 answers: 'If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.' The LORD will 'plead' (shaphat, to judge), a different verb from rib in vv.9 and 29: the suit now becomes a verdict.

Verse 36

to change thy way — 'Gaddest' (azal) is to go about, here seeking new alliances. Judah 'shalt be ashamed of Egypt', as she was 'of Assyria': Isa 30:3 gives the same outcome, 'the strength of Pharaoh be your shame'. Ahaz sent to Assyria for help (2 Kings 16:7–9).

Verse 37

thine hands upon thine head — The sign of grief; Tamar 'laid her hand on her head, and went on crying' (2 Sam 13:19). Judah will 'go forth from him', from Egypt, mourning. 'Confidences' (mivtach) are the things she trusted, and 'the LORD hath rejected' them: 'thou shalt not prosper in them'.