Jeremiah 2:1-37
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 kindnessa 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.
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 plentifulb 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.
9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.
10 For pass overc 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.
14 Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?
15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled,d 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.
20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress;e 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:f for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.
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.
Jeremiah 2:2. I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth. God now addressed them, that he might do the same to the children as he had done to the fathers, and rejoice over them as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride in the day of her espousals. Base must be the heart that could reject so gracious a message, and from a prophet so young. But the Israelites in those days, as Judah in later times, made ungrateful returns for favours so divine.
Jeremiah 2:6. Neither said they, where is the Lord that led us through a land of deserts and of pits? ושׁוחה veshuchah designates glens, gills, ravines, as well as pits, deep places, gloomy like the shadow of death, and where the sun cannot shine: a country without roads, a waste howling wilderness. Psalms 23:4.
Jeremiah 2:9. I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord; concerning the crime, the grievous crime and blindness of idolatry. I will yet plead with your children, and argue the question at large, if it can be adduced why you of all the nations of the earth should be the only people which have changed their gods? Is there any such thing in the more enlightened Isles of Chittim, and in all the nations of the Greeks, of whom you borrow arts and sciences? What benefit has this change of gods brought to your country? In the days of David, and other upright kings, you were happy; now the fine promises of Baal have superinduced the worst of miseries.
Jeremiah 2:13. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. The figures here are beautiful. Fountains of water are the joy of citizens, around which villages and towns are built. God is a fountain of joy to his people, and a well of salvation; while the idols of the age, pleasure, music, feasting and dancing are but broken cisterns to the conscious mind, which seeks for happiness not dependent on created good.
Jeremiah 2:15. The young lions, the princes of Chaldea, have roared upon him, as on their prey.
Jeremiah 2:16. The children of Noph and Tahapanes. The inhabitants of Memphis and Daphni, cities of Egypt, Isaiah 19:11; Isaiah 19:13, have broken the crown from off thy head, by depriving thee of national independence.
Jeremiah 2:18. What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor, the old name of the Nile, whose waters were black and muddy, according to Virgil: Et viridem Ægyptum nigrâ fœcundat arenâ. Georg. 4:291. This great river was called Siris by the Ethiopians, but the Hebrews retain the old name. Or in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river. The Euphrates in Syria is called by way of eminence, the River. Why vacilate, oh Judah, between those two great powers for safety? Egypt will strip thee. Babylon will destroy thee. Why not cast thy gods into the fire, and cry to heaven, as Samuel in Mizpeh, and Hezekiah in the day of rebuke and blasphemy? This idea is repeated, Jeremiah 2:33.
Jeremiah 2:22. Though thou wash thyself with nitre; that is, natron, steatite, or a peculiar kind of fuller's earth found in Syria and Egypt: yet thine iniquity is marked before me. Natron will effervesce with acids like calcareous earths.
Jeremiah 2:23. How canst thou say, I am not polluted. Thy glory is thy shame. Hast thou not departed from me, the best of husbands, filling the valley of Jehoshaphat with thy bloody worship, immolating poor innocents to Moloch, and multiplying thy gods, as thy cities. Ah Judah, once the choice vine of Sorek, but now bitter as the apples of Sodom.
Jeremiah 2:24. A wild ass, flying from me as the swift-footed dromedary, to every criminal excess. The בכרה bichra, onager, is said to be the wild ass of the woods. Job 6:5. This animal, most difficult to tame, strikingly expressed the impetuous passions of gentile excesses, enormities, and shame, to which there is here a delicate allusion. In her occasion, when she strays for society with the male, who can turn her away. But in her month thou shalt find her. Those breaks of the jews for gentile feasts, are here rebuked by the wanton ass, the lowest of the brutes. Well might the kings, the prophets, and the priests of Judah be ashamed as a thief when apprehended for robbing his neighbour's house.
Jeremiah 2:32. Can a maid forget her ornaments. בתולה betoolah, a virgin. Isaiah applies the word to Babylon, and other virgin cities, which had never been taken by storm, and plundered. Virgins were distinguished in the east from married women by the superior ornaments of dress: and the better sort of women would never appear without proper attention to that distinction. This was a very ingenious mode of reproving a harlot nation.
Jeremiah 2:33. Why trimmest thou thy way. See on Jeremiah 2:18.
REFLECTIONS.
Our young prophet, being divinely inspired, goes from Anathoth to open his commission in Jerusalem. His sword is sharp, his words are strong, and his confidence divine. Oh what a sight, to see a child going to reclaim greyheaded rulers and priests from apostasy and crimes! He attacks them single-handed, and in their grand fort, the courts of the temple. Sinners and nations should be allured to repentance by the hallowed recollections of former years. The Lord remembered the kindness and love which distinguished the Hebrew piety in their youth, and the love of righteousness they sometimes showed in the day of their espousals. But ah, whither, whither are ye fled, oh happy days of infantine simplicity and active zeal. Shall man, who ought to grow in grace, degenerate into ignorance, and be carried away with the worst of crimes? Let him call to mind his first love, that he may weep and do his first works.
God expostulates with backsliders in most conclusive arguments. What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone after vain idols; and that in their troubles they have never enquired for the God who delivered them from the Egyptians! Was I ever wanting to bless their labours, and to defend their country, while they walked in my ways? Men who forsake the good ways of the Lord will one day be called upon to assign a reason for their conduct, and at a tribunal where they shall not dare to offer a specious defence. How grievous in the eyes of heaven is the criminal preference which men give to the pleasures of the age to all the hallowed delights of communion with God!
Apostasy is a crime not only grievous, but peculiar in its nature. Which of the nations of Chittim have changed their gods? Which of the southern nations, of whom Kedar is first, have changed their gods? These interrogations mark the highest displeasure of heaven against degeneracy of heart and conduct. God is indeed greatly dishonoured by a blasphemous and profligate public, but he is not so much dishonoured by them as by men who forsake the ways of righteousness. The heavens themselves are astonished and tremble at this.
Apostasy is a complicated crime. It forsakes God the fountain of living waters, to hew out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. God in the effusion of his Spirit, which flows in the channel of his ordinances, is this fountain of life; but they who seek help in idols, or in the pleasures, riches and honours of the world, shall be as much disappointed as those who come to seek water in broken cisterns.
Israel's apostasy was horrible in its characters, worse than beasts in their feasts, and destitute of help in war. They relied on Egypt, though that nation had often plundered their country; and they immolated their infants to idols, wanted for glory and defence; yet neither Tophet nor Moloch pitied the fathers when bleeding by the sword. How awful that a people who have once known the Lord should ever return to their vomit, and commit the enormities of the age. Oh save my soul from the slightest shades of guilt, that righteousness may be my glory, my salvation and defence.