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Commentary on Jeremiah 2 verses 20–28
In these verses the prophet goes on with his charge against this backsliding people. Observe here,
I. The sin itself that he charges them with - idolatry, that great provocation which they were so notoriously guilty of. 1. They frequented the places of idol-worship (Jer 2:20): "Upon every high hill and under every green tree, in the high places and the groves, such as the heathen had a foolish fondness and veneration for, thou wanderest, first to one and then to another, like one unsettled, and still uneasy and unsatisfied; but in all playing the harlot," worshipping false gods, which is spiritual whoredom, and was commonly accompanied with corporal whoredom too. Note, Those that leave God wander endlessly, and a vagrant lust is insatiable. 2. They made images for themselves, and gave divine honour to them (Jer 2:26, Jer 2:27); not only the common people, but even the kings and princes, who should have restrained the people from doing ill, and the priests and prophets, who should have taught them to do well, were themselves so wretchedly sottish and stupid, and under the power of such a strong delusion, as to say to a stock, "Thou art my father (that is, Thou art my god, the author of my being, to whom I owe duty and on whom I have a dependence)," and to a stone, to an idol made of stone, "Thou hast begotten me, or brought me forth; therefore protect me, provide for me, and bring me up." What greater affront could men put upon God, who is our Father that has made us? It was a downright disowning of their obligations to him. What greater affront could men put upon themselves and their own reason than to acknowledge that which is in itself absurd and impossible, and, by making stocks and stones their parents, to make themselves no better than stocks and stones? When these were first made the objects of worship they were supposed to be animated by some celestial power or spirit; but by degrees the thought of this was lost, and so vain did idolaters become in their imagination, even the princes and priests themselves, that the very idol, though made of wood and stone, was supposed to be their father, and adored accordingly. 3. They multiplied these dunghill deities endlessly (Jer 2:28): According to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah! When they had forsaken that God who is one, and all-sufficient for all, (1.) They were not satisfied with any gods they had, but still desired more, that idolatry being in this respect of the same nature with covetousness, which is spiritual idolatry (for the more men have the more they would have), which is a plain evidence that what men make an idol of they find to be insufficient and unsatisfying, and that it cannot make the comers thereunto perfect. (2.) They could not agree in the same god. Having left the centre of unity, they fell into endless discord; one city fancied one deity and another another, and each was anxious to have one of its own to be near them and to take special care of them. Thus did they in vain seek that in many gods which is to be found in one God only.
II. The proof of this. No witnesses need be called; it is proved by the notorious evidence of the facts. 1. They went about to deny it, and were ready to plead, Not guilty. They pretended that they would acquit themselves from this guilt, they washed themselves with nitre, and took much soap, offered many things in excuse and extenuation of it, Jer 2:22. They pretended that they did not worship these as gods, but as demons, and mediators between the immortal God and mortal men, or that it was not divine honour that they gave them, but civil respect; thus they sought to evade the convictions of God's word and to screen themselves from the dread of his wrath. Nay, some of them had the impudence to deny the thing itself; they said, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim, Jer 2:23. Because it was done secretly, and industriously concealed (Eze 8:12), they thought it could never be proved upon them, and they had impudence enough to deny it. In this, as in other things, their way was like that of the adulterous woman, that says, I have done no wickedness, Pro 30:20. 2. Notwithstanding all their evasions, they are convicted of it and found guilty: "How canst thou deny the fact, and say, I have not gone after Baalim? How canst thou deny the fault, and say, I am not polluted?" The prophet speaks with wonder at their impudence: "How canst thou put on a face to say so, when it is certain?" (1.) "God's omniscience is a witness against thee: Thy iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God; it is laid up and hidden, to be produced against thee in the day of judgment, sealed up among his treasures," Deu 32:34; Job 21:19; Hos 13:12. "It is imprinted deeply and stained before me;" so some read it. "Though thou endeavour to wash it out, as murderers to get the stain of the blood of the person slain out of their clothes, yet it will never be got out." God's eye is upon it, and we are sure that his judgment is according to truth. (2.) "Thy own conscience is a witness against thee. See thy way in the valley" (they had worshipped idols, not only on the high hills, but in the valleys, Isa 57:5, Isa 57:6), in the valley over-against Beth-peor (so some), where they worshipped Baal-peor (Deu 34:6, Num 25:3), as if the prophet looked as far back as the iniquity of Peor; but, if it mean any particular valley, surely it is the valley of the son of Hinnom, for that was the place where they sacrificed their children to Moloch and which therefore witnessed against them more than any other: "look into that valley, and thou canst not but know what thou hast done."
III. The aggravations of this sin with which they are charged, which made it exceedingly sinful.
1.God had done great things for them, and yet they revolted from him and rebelled against him (Jer 2:20): Of old time I have broken thy yoke and burst thy bonds; this refers to the bringing of them out of the land of Egypt and the house of bondage, which they would not remember (Jer 2:6), but God did; for, when he told them that they should have no other gods before him, he prefixed this as a reason: I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the land of Egypt! These bonds of theirs which God had loosed should have bound them for ever to him; but they had ungratefully broken the bonds of duty to that God who had broken the bonds of their slavery.
2.They had promised fair, but had not made good their promise: "Thou saidst, I will not transgress; then, when the mercy of thy deliverance was fresh, thou wast so sensible of it that thou wast willing to lay thyself under the most sacred ties to continue faithful to thy God and never to forsake him." Then they said, Nay, but we will serve the Lord, Jos 24:21. How often have we said that we would not transgress, we would not offend any more, and yet we have started aside, like a deceitful bow, and repeated and multiplied our transgressions!
3.They had wretchedly degenerated from what they were when God first formed them into a people (Jer 2:21). I had planted thee a noble vine. The constitution of their government both in church and state was excellent, their laws were righteous, and all the ordinances instructive and very significant; and a generation of good men there was among them when they first settled in Canaan. Israel served the Lord, and kept close to him all the days of Joshua, and the elders that out-lived Joshua, Jos 24:31. They were then wholly a right seed, likely to replenish the vineyard they were planted in with choice vines. But it proved otherwise; they very next generation knew not the Lord, nor the works which he had done (Jdg 2:10), and so they were worse and worse till they became the degenerate plants of a strange vine. They were now the reverse of what they were at first. Their constitution was quite broken, and there was nothing in them of that good which one might have expected from a people so happily formed, nothing of the purity and piety of their ancestors. Their vine is as the vine of Sodom, Deu 32:32. This may fitly be applied to the nature of man; it was planted by its great author a noble vine, a right seed (God made man upright); but it is so universally corrupt that it has become the degenerate plant of a strange vine, that bears gall and wormwood, and it is so to God, it is highly distasteful and offensive to him.
4.They were violent and eager in the pursuit of their idolatries, doted on their idols, and were fond of new ones, and they would not be restrained form them either by the word of God or by his providence, so strong was the impetus with which they were carried out after this sin. They are here compared to a swift dromedary traversing her ways, a female of that species of creatures hunting about for a male (Jer 2:23), and, to the same purport, a wild ass used to the wilderness (Jer 2:24), not tamed by labour, and therefore very wanton, snuffing up the wind at her pleasure when she comes near the he-ass, and on such an occasion who can turn her away? Who can hinder her from that which she lusts after? Those that seek her then will not weary themselves for her, for they know it is to no purpose; but will have a little patience till she is big with young, till that month comes which is the last of the months that she fulfils (Job 39:2), when she is heavy and unwieldy, and then they shall find her, and she cannot out-run them. Note, (1.) Eager lust is a brutish thing, and those that will not be turned away from the gratifying and indulging of it by reason, and conscience, and honour, are to be reckoned as brute-beasts and no better, such as were born, and still are, like the wild ass's colt; let them not be looked upon as rational creatures. (2.) Idolatry is strangely intoxicating, and those that are addicted to it will with great difficulty be cured of it. That lust is as headstrong as any. (3.) There are some so violently set upon the prosecution of their lusts that it is to no purpose to attempt to give check to them: those that do so weary themselves in vain. Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. (4.) The time will come when the most fierce will be tamed and the most wanton will be manageable; when distress and anguish come upon them, then their ears will be open to discipline, that is the month in which you may find them, Psa 141:5, Psa 141:6.
5.They were obstinate in their sin, and, as they could not be restrained, so they would not be reformed, Jer 2:25. Here is, (1.) Fair warning given them of the ruin that this wicked course of life would certainly bring them to at last, with a caution therefore not to persist in it, but to break off from it. He would certainly bring them into a miserable captivity, when their feet should be unshod, and they should be forced to travel barefoot, and when they would be denied fair water by their oppressors, so that their throat should be dried with thirst; this will be in the end hereof. Those that affect strange gods, and strange ways of worship, will justly be made prisoners to a strange king in a strange land. "Take up in time therefore; thy running after thy idols will run the shoes off thy feet, and thy panting after them will bring thy throat to thirst; withhold therefore thy foot from these violent pursuits, and thy throat from these violent desires." One would think that it should effectually check us in the career of sin to consider what it will bring us to at last. (2.) Their rejecting this fair warning. They said to those that would have persuaded them to repent and reform, "There is no hope; no, never expect to work upon us, or prevail with us to cast away our idols, for we have loved strangers, and after them we will go; we are resolved we will, and therefore trouble not yourselves nor us any more with your admonitions; it is to no purpose. There is no hope that we should ever break the corrupt habit and disposition we have got, and therefore we may as well yield to it as go about to get the mastery of it." Note, Their case is very miserable who have brought themselves to such a pass that their corruptions triumph over their convictions; they know they should reform, but own they cannot, and therefore resolve they will not. But, as we must not despair of the mercy of God, but believe that sufficient for the pardon of our sins, though ever so heinous, if we repent and sue for that mercy, so neither must we despair of the grace of God, but believe that able to subdue our corruptions, though ever so strong, if we pray for and improve that grace. A man must never say There is no hope, as long as he is on this side hell.
6.They had shamed themselves by their sin, in putting confidence in that which would certainly deceive them in the day of their distress, and putting him away that would have helped them, Jer 2:26-28. As the thief is ashamed when, notwithstanding all his arts and tricks to conceal his theft, he is found, and brought to punishment, so are the house of Israel ashamed, not with a penitent shame for the sin they had been guilty of, but with a penal shame for the disappointment they met with in that sin. They will be ashamed when they find, (1.) That they are forced to cry to the God whom they had put contempt upon. In their prosperity they had turned the back to God and not the face; they had slighted him, acted as if they had forgotten him, or did what they could to forget him, would not look towards him, but looked another way; they went from him as fast and as far as they could; but in the time of their trouble they will find no satisfaction but in applying to him; then they will say, Arise, and save us. Their fathers had many a time taken this shame to themselves (Jdg 3:9, Jdg 4:3, Jdg 10:10), yet they would not be persuaded to cleave to God, that they might come to him in their trouble with the more confidence. (2.) That they have no relief from the gods they have made their court to. They will be ashamed when they perceive that the gods they have made cannot serve them, and that the God who made them will not serve them. To bring them to this shame, if so be they might hereby be brought to repentance, they are here sent to the gods whom they served, Jdg 10:14. They cried to God, Arise, and save us. God says of the idols, "Let them arise, and save thee, for thou hast no reason to expect that I should Let them arise, if they can, from the places where they are fixed; let them try whether they can save thee: but thou wilt be ashamed when thou findest that they can do thee no good, for, though thou hadst a god for every city, yet thy cities are burnt without inhabitant," Jer 2:15. Thus it is the folly of sinners to please themselves with that which will certainly be their grief, and pride themselves in that which will certainly be their shame.
(Verse 25.) Keep your foot from nakedness, and your throat from thirst. And you said, I have despaired, I will not do it. I have loved strangers, and will follow after them. LXX: Turn your foot away from the rough path, and your throat from thirst. She said, I will act boldly because I have loved strangers, and I will follow after them. They who will celebrate the Passover are commanded to have shoes on their feet (Exodus 12). And the Apostle (Ephesians 6) preaches to have feet shod ready for the Gospel: lest while they walk through the solitude of this world, they be exposed to venomous creatures, which are to be trodden upon and crushed by the Gospel foot. We prevent our throat from being thirsty, when we fulfill the commandments of the Savior saying: Whoever is thirsty, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). By this despair of evil, she denied that she would do what the Lord commanded, and she explained the reason, saying: I have loved strangers, and I will follow them, thinking that by this impudent confession she could avoid sins. Furthermore, next to the road of sinners there is a rough path, which is turned into a smooth path by the Lord. Let anyone who follows heretics be noted for the praise of this verse; for he said, I have despaired, whether I act boldly in evil, and I will be strengthened in my error. However, it is necessary for someone who follows a different doctrine from the Church to love those who are different and to follow their footsteps, whether they are demons or the leaders of heretics who are alienated from God.
Nothing makes God as angry as when people from despair of better things cling to those that are worse. Indeed, this despair in itself is a sign of unbelief. One who despairs of salvation can have no expectation of a judgment to come. For if he dreaded such, he would by doing works prepare to meet his Judge. Let us hear what God says through Jeremiah: “Withhold your foot from a rough way and your throat from thirst,” and again, “shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away, and not return?”
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SUMMARY
Jeremiah 2:25 powerfully encapsulates the tragic spiritual state of Judah, portraying God's compassionate yet urgent appeal for His people to abandon their self-destructive path, contrasted sharply with Judah's fatalistic and defiant embrace of idolatry. The verse reveals Judah's deep-seated spiritual apostasy, where they openly confess their preference for foreign gods and practices over their covenant relationship with Yahweh, highlighting a profound rejection of divine grace and an embrace of spiritual infidelity.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
Jeremiah 2:25 employs several powerful literary devices to convey its urgent message. Personification is evident as God directly addresses Judah as a person, pleading with them to change their ways, making the divine-human interaction intensely personal and immediate, akin to a heartbroken spouse appealing to an unfaithful partner. The verse also uses vivid Imagery, particularly "unshod foot" and "thirsty throat," which are potent symbols of destitution, humiliation, and suffering, painting a clear and visceral picture of the dire consequences of Judah's apostasy. The entire narrative of Judah's relationship with God in Jeremiah is framed by the overarching Metaphor of marriage and spiritual adultery, with "strangers" serving as a direct metaphorical representation of foreign gods and illicit alliances, highlighting the profound betrayal of the covenant. Furthermore, there is a profound Irony in God's offer of hope and provision being met with Judah's declaration of "no hope," underscoring their spiritual blindness and stubbornness in the face of divine grace and the very source of true hope.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Jeremiah 2:25 stands as a poignant testament to the enduring tension between God's persistent grace and humanity's stubborn rebellion. Theologically, it underscores the nature of sin as spiritual adultery, a profound betrayal of the covenant relationship with a loving God who offers life and sustenance. Judah's fatalistic cry of "no hope" reveals a profound misunderstanding of God's character, which is always ready to forgive and restore, even in the face of deep apostasy. This verse serves as a stark reminder that true hope is found only in turning back to the Lord, not in embracing the fleeting allure of "strangers" or succumbing to despair. It highlights the devastating consequences of idolatry, not merely as a breaking of a rule, but as a severing of the life-giving connection to the living God, leading to spiritual barrenness and eventual judgment, yet always preceded by God's compassionate warning.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Jeremiah 2:25 resonates deeply with the human condition, even millennia later. God's compassionate warning to Judah to avoid the path of destitution and thirst mirrors His ongoing desire for our well-being and flourishing. Yet, like Judah, we often succumb to a fatalistic "there is no hope" mentality, either believing our sins are too great for God's grace or, perhaps more subtly, using it as an excuse to continue in patterns of behavior that lead us away from Him. This verse challenges us to honestly examine what "strangers" we have loved and pursued—whether they be worldly ambitions, fleeting pleasures, self-reliance, the approval of others, or even the subtle idols of comfort and control. God's persistent call to turn back reminds us that His mercy is always available, and true satisfaction, security, and hope are found only in Him. Let us not harden our hearts, but respond to His invitation to return to the fountain of living waters, trusting in His power to redeem and restore.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst" mean?
Answer: This phrase is a compassionate warning from God to Judah, urging them to avoid the devastating consequences of their apostasy. "Withhold thy foot from being unshod" refers to avoiding the path that leads to humiliation, captivity, or deep mourning. In ancient times, going barefoot was often a sign of distress, a prisoner's state, or a person in mourning, symbolizing utter destitution and vulnerability (see Isaiah 20:4). "And thy throat from thirst" likewise warns against the severe deprivation and suffering that would accompany divine judgment and exile, urging Judah to turn back to God, who is the "fountain of living waters" (Jeremiah 2:13). Essentially, God is pleading with them to avoid the inevitable, painful consequences of their idolatry and spiritual infidelity by returning to Him.
Why does Judah say, "There is no hope"?
Answer: Judah's declaration, "There is no hope," reflects a profound spiritual resignation or a cynical refusal to believe in God's mercy and power to restore. It could stem from a genuine, albeit mistaken, sense that their sin was too great to be forgiven, or more likely, it was a convenient excuse to continue in their rebellious ways. By claiming "no hope," they effectively absolved themselves of the responsibility to repent, rationalizing their continued idolatry by saying, "We're too far gone, so why bother trying to turn back?" This fatalism served as a justification for their continued pursuit of "strangers" (idols), demonstrating a hardened heart that preferred its chosen path of spiritual infidelity over the path of repentance and restoration offered by God. This attitude stands in stark contrast to God's consistent offer of redemption and forgiveness throughout the prophets (e.g., Isaiah 1:18).
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Jeremiah 2:25, with its depiction of Judah's stubborn pursuit of "strangers" and their declaration of "no hope," finds its ultimate fulfillment and resolution in Jesus Christ. Humanity, like ancient Judah, is prone to spiritual idolatry, seeking satisfaction and security in created things rather than the Creator. We often declare "no hope" in the face of our sin and brokenness, feeling too far gone or unwilling to truly turn. However, Christ comes as the embodiment of God's persistent love and the ultimate answer to our despair. He is the true "fountain of living waters" (John 4:10-14), offering spiritual satisfaction that the "broken cisterns" of worldly pursuits can never provide. Where Judah confessed, "I have loved strangers, and after them will I go," Jesus perfectly loved and obeyed God, even to the point of death on the cross, taking upon Himself the humiliation and thirst of our sin (John 19:28). Through His sacrifice, He provides the only true hope for humanity, breaking the cycle of despair and spiritual adultery. In Him, there is always hope, and His grace empowers us to turn away from "strangers" and walk in newness of life, following the One who truly satisfies our deepest longings and makes us a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17).