Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 2:6

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Jeremiah 2:6. Through the wilderness — Egypt was the house of their bondage: the desert through which they passed after they came out of Egypt, was a place where the means of life were not to be found; where no one family could subsist, much less a company of 600,000 men. God mentions these things to show that it was by the bounty of an especial providence that they were fed and preserved alive. Previously to this, it was a land through which no man passed, and in which no man dwelt. And why? because it did not produce the means of life; it was the shadow of death in its appearance, and the grave to those who committed themselves to it.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

A nation’s unfaithfulness (2:1-19)

While Josiah was reconstructing the outward form of Judah’s religion, Jeremiah was searching into the deeply rooted attitudes of the people and trying to bring about a truly spiritual change. He contrasts the nation’s present sad condition with its devotion to God in former days. Israel once loved God, as a bride loves her husband. She was like the firstfruits of the harvest that belonged to God, and those who plundered her were punished (2:1-3).
God now challenges the nation to produce proof that her turning away from God has resulted from any failure on God’s part. He brought his people out of Egypt, cared for them on their long journey through harsh dry country, and gave them a pleasant fertile land to live in. But they polluted the land by their wickedness. Under the leadership of ungodly priests, ignorant teachers, corrupt rulers and worthless prophets, they turned away from God and followed the religious practices of their heathen neighbours (4-8).
Therefore, God lays a charge of unfaithfulness against his people, and calls upon the sun, moon and stars that shine upon them to be his witnesses. Heathen nations remain true to their gods, even though those gods may be lifeless and useless. Israel and Judah, by contrast, exchanged the true and living God for useless idols (9-12). They acted like people who turned away from the natural spring that gave them a permanent supply of pure water, and trusted for their water supply in a cracked cistern they had made themselves (13).
Israel and Judah boasted that they were God’s children, but now they are becoming slaves of other nations. A century earlier Assyria had invaded the northern kingdom, destroyed its cities and taken its people into captivity (14-15). Other nations now threatened the southern kingdom. God warns that it is useless and foolish for Judah to ask either Egypt or Assyria to help defend it against enemy invasions. It is useless because such attacks are a judgment on Judah for its disobedience. It is foolish because, in seeking aid from a more powerful nation, Judah is placing itself under that nation’s religious influence and political power (16-19).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"Hear ye the word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus saith Jehovah, What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain? Neither said they, Where is Jehovah that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man dwelt? And I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. The priests said not, Where is Jehovah? and they that handle the law knew me not: the rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit."

The gross stupidity and sinfulness of the whole nation are dramatically stated here. Israel, once the Chosen People, enjoying the exalted position as the wife of Jehovah himself, protected from every enemy, and moved into Canaan to replace its ancient pagan inhabitants, had themselves become worse than the people they replaced, and had "walked after worthlessness." RKH tells us that the word "worthlessness," through a play on words (paronomasia) is a reference to Baal. He also stated that, in those Near Eastern international treaties, `To go after' (or walk after) meant to serve as a vassal."R. K. Harrison, Jeremiah, p. 53.

In Israel's pursuit of worthlessness in their going after Baal, they had themselves become worthless, because men invariably become like what they love and worship. This immortal truth was allegorized by Nathaniel Hawthorne in his Legend of the Great Stone Face.

"Land of deserts and pits … etc."

"The desert between Mount Sinai and Palestine abounds in chasms and pits, in which beasts of burden may sink down to their knees. `Shadow of death' refers to the darkness of the caverns amidst the rocky precipices (Deuteronomy 8:15)."Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown's Commentary, p. 507.

God indeed had tenderly led Israel safely through countless difficulties and dangers; so what had gone wrong? Jeremiah 2:8 cites four classes of the leadership of the nation as extremely culpable, these being, (1) the priests, (2) the Levites, (3) the rulers (shepherds), and (4) the prophets.

The priests were complacent and indifferent; the Levites knew not God; the shepherds (rulers) were disobedient; and the prophets were working for Baal rather than for the Lord, money and sensual indulgence probably being the inducements that took them away from their duty. The text states that they walked after things that do not profit. Ash tells us that, "The Hebrew word rendered `do not profit' comes from the same root as `worthlessness' in Jeremiah 2:5,"Anthony L. Ash, Psalms (Abilene, Texas: A.C.U. Press, 1987), p. 49. and it is therefore connected with Baal. This is a terrible summary of the incompetence and inability of Israel's leadership. They were a stupid group of blind, selfish, and apostate leaders. With that type of leadership, the people hardly had a chance. As Jesus stated it, "They were as sheep not having a shepherd" (Mark 6:34).

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Modern researches have shown that this description applies only to limited portions of the route of the Israelites through the Sinaitic peninsula.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

The Prophet goes on with the same subject; for God adduces here no small crime against his people, as they had buried his favom’s in oblivion. Indeed, a redemption so wonderful was worthy of being celebrated in all ages, not only by one nation, but by all the nations of the earth. As then the Jews had thus buried the memory of a favor so remarkable and valuable, their base impiety appeared evident. Had they not experienced the power and kindness of God, or had they only witnessed them in an ordinary way, their guilt might have been extenuated; but as God had from heaven made an unusual display of his power, and as his majesty had been manifested before the eyes of the people, how great was their sottishness in afterwards forgetting their God, who had openly and with such proofs made himself known to them!

We now then understand what the Prophet means by saying, they have not said: for God here sharply reproves the stupidity of the Jews, — that they did not consider that they were under perpetual obligations to him for his great kindness in delivering them in a manner so wonderful from the land of Egypt. By saying that they did not say, Where is Jehovah, he intimates that he was present with them and nigh them, but that they were blind, and that hence they were without an excuse for their ignorance, as he was not to be sought as one at a distance, or by means tedious and difficult. If then this only had come to their mind, “Did not God once redeem us?” they could not have departed after their vanities. How then was it that their error, or rather their madness, was so great that they followed idols? Even because they did not choose to make any effort, or to apply their minds to seek or to inquire after God.

Here then the Prophet meets the objection of the hypocrites, who might have said, that they had been deceived, and had relapsed through ignorance; for they have ever some evasions ready at hand, when they are called to an account for their sins. But lest the Jews should make any pretense of this kind, the Prophet here shews that they had not been through a mistake deceived, but that they had followed after falsehood through a wicked disposition, for they had willfully despised God and refused to inquire respecting him, though he was sufficiently nigh them.

This passage deserves to be especially noticed; for there is nothing more common than for the ungodly, when they are proved guilty, to have recourse to this subterfuge, — that they acted with good intention, when they gave themselves up to their own superstitions. The Prophet then takes off this mask, and shews that where God is once known, his name and his glory cannot be obliterated, except through the depravity of men, as they knowingly and willfully depart from him. Hence all apostates are by this one clause condemned, that they may no more dare to make evasions, as though they have been through more simplicity deceived: for when the matter is examined, their malignity and ingratitude are discovered, because they deign not to inquire, Where is Jehovah?

And he afterwards adds what explains this sentence. I have said that other nations are not here condemned, but the Jews, who had known by clear experience that God was their father. As then God had, by many testimonies, made himself known to them, they had no pretext for their ignorance. Hence the Prophet says, that they did not consider where God was who brought them from the land of Egypt, and made them to pass through the desert He could not have stated this indiscriminately of all nations; but, as it has been said, the words are addressed particularly to the Jews, who had clearly witnessed the power of God; so that they could not have sinned except willfully, even by extinguishing, through their own malignity, the light presented to them, which shone before their eyes. And here, also, the Prophet amplifies their guilt by various circumstances: for he says, not simply that they had been brought out of Egypt, but intimates that God had been their constant guide for forty years; for this time is suggested by the word “desert.” The history was well known; hence a brief allusion was sufficient. He, at the same time, by mentioning the desert, greatly extols the glory of God.

But the first thing to be observed is, that the Jews were inexcusable, who had not considered that their fathers had been wonderfully and in an unusual manner preserved by God’s hand for forty years; for they had no bread to eat, nor water to drink. God drew water for them from a rock, and satisfied them with heavenly bread; and their garments did not wear out during the whole time. We then see that all those circumstances enhanced their guilt. Then follows what I have referred to: the Prophet calls the desert a dry or a waste land, a dreary land, a horrible land, a land of deadly gloom, as though he had said, that the people had been preserved in the midst of death, yea in the midst of many deaths: for man was not wont to pass through that land, nor did any one dwell in it ⁽³⁰⁾ “Whence then,” he says, “did salvation arise to you? from what condition? even from death itself: for what else was the desert but a horrible place, where you were surrounded, not only by one kind of death, but by a hundred? Since then God brought you out of Egypt by his incredible power, and fed you in a supernatural manner for forty years, what excuse can there be for so great a madness in now alienating yourselves from him?” Now this passage teaches us, that the more favors God confers on us, the more heinous the guilt if we forsake him, and less excusable will be our wickedness and ingratitude, especially when he has manifested his kindness to us for a long time and in various ways.

(30) Though the general import of this verse is given, yet the version is not very accurate. I offer the following-

And they have not said, “Where is Jehovah, Who brought us up from the land of Egypt, Who led us in the wilderness, Through a land of waste and of the pit, Through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, Through a land in which no man traveled, And no human being dwelt there?”

The word “pit” is used poetically, the singular for the plural, and correctly rendered “pits” in our version. It is probably an allusion to the practice of digging pits and covering them over, in order to catch wild beasts; and the word is used here only to express hidden dangers. “The shadow of death” means a barren dreariness. After “land,” in the last line but one, אשר is supplied by three MSS., and by the Septuagint, though by no means in character with the Greek language; but the idiom of the Hebrew requires it, and is no doubt the true reading. I have rendered אדם in the last line, after Blayney, “human being.” The five last lines are thus given by the Septuagint, —

Who conducted you in the wilderness,
In a land unknown and inaccessible ( ἀβάτῳ )
In a land without water and barren ( ἀκάρπῳ —fruitless)
In a land through which no man passed,
And no son of man inhabited there.

The word “barren” is rendered more literally by Theodotion, “σκιασ θανάτου — of the shadow of death.” — Ed

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 2

Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD ( Jeremiah 2:1-2 );

Now this is the first message that he has to deliver. As God is calling to His people and it's really a very pathetic thing. It's filled with pathos as God is calling the people much as Jesus did in His message to the church of Ephesus. "Oh, you've got your works. You've got your organizations. You've got your committees. You're functioning but oh, I've got this against you. You've left your first love. Now remember from whence you have fallen." And God is actually calling the people to the very same thing-to remember the first love that they had for God. God said, "I can remember that first love that you had. That excitement that you had in Me where all you could think about all day long was Me. You were singing the praises unto Me. Your life was just filled with joy and ecstasy as you were walking with Me. You were writing little notes to Me. You were singing praises unto Me. You were making up love songs to Me. I remember those days," God said. The days of your first love. And God is recalling it to Jerusalem.

Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of that engagement, when you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown ( Jeremiah 2:2 ).

"When you were willing to follow Me wherever I would lead you. When you were so dedicated and committed that nothing was held back as far as your commitment." "Where do you want me to go, Lord? What do you want me to do? Lord, I'm for it. Let's go." And God said, "I remember those days when you were so devoted, so committed. The love that you had for Me then."

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. Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity did your fathers find in me, that they are gone far from me, and walked after emptiness, and become empty? ( Jeremiah 2:3-5 )

"What have I done? What did I do?" And the messages are perennial. There's always a certain group to whom the message still applies. And I feel that God is speaking to many of you tonight, even as He spoke to Israel. Even as Jesus spoke to the church of Ephesus. He said, "Hey, what did I do that you would turn away from Me? I remember the love, the devotion, the commitment that you used to have. What did I do? How did I offend you? Where did you get turned off? How is it that you've turned your heart away from Me? How is it that you don't have that same devotion and dedication anymore? What iniquities did your fathers find in Me that they would turn and follow after these emptinesses until they themselves became empty?"

They no longer say, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of Egypt, that led us through the wilderness, through the land of the deserts and pits, through a land of drought, and the shadow of death, through the land that no man passed through, and where no man lived? And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness thereof; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and you made my heritage an abomination. The priests weren't saying, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law did not know me: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after the things that do not profit ( Jeremiah 2:6-8 ).

Now of course when the priests, the pastors become corrupted, then what can you expect? There are so many men today who are so completely liberal in their theology that they no longer really rank as Christians. But still they occupy pulpits and preach their messages to the attended throngs on Sunday morning. But it is no longer the Gospel that they preach. It is no longer the power of Jesus Christ to save a man from sin and the blood of Jesus Christ that redeemed us from our lost estate. But they are flowery speeches of, "It's nice to be nice so go out and be nice this week and just platitudes. Think right. You are what you think. You become what you think. And so correct your thinking." The whole problem with the world is the way men are thinking. Get rid of your negative thoughts; only think in positive terms and all. And there is no more a preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is tragic. The same condition that God was crying about in Israel.

John Hilton, I was with him this week back in Maryland, Middletown, Maryland. And John met the pastor in Middletown of the United Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ. Now you that know John can appreciate it. John was in his cut offs. He introduced himself as the new pastor of Calvary Chapel there in Middletown and he thought, "Well, this fellow's a pastor of the United Church of Christ," so he said, "Well, it's great to meet you and I imagine you've been a pastor there for thirty-five years." He said, "I imagine it's a real thrill to share Jesus Christ with people for thirty-five years." He said I was just trying to make conversation. And this guy turned on him and said, "Young man, you don't know a thing about the gospel, talking about Jesus Christ." Just started berating, yelling at John, getting livid with him. And John said, "I didn't know what I'd said. Just tried to talk to the man about the joy of the Lord and loving Jesus." But what can you expect from the people that are sitting under that man's ministry week after week of a real devotion to God or a love for God or a commitment of their lives to Him? It's all programmed. It's all a formal relationship with God.

So God speaks out against them, "The priests who handle the law, they don't even know me. The pastors have transgressed against Me. The prophets are prophesying by Baal."

Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead ( Jeremiah 2:9 ).

Even so I'm still going to plead with you, God said.

For pass over the isles of Cypress ( Jeremiah 2:10 ),

In other words, go to the west. And Cypress was considered the door to the whole western part of the world. Chittim, Cypress.

and send unto Kedar ( Jeremiah 2:10 ),

Now Kedar was the gateway to the east. So go to the west, go to the east.

and consider diligently, and see if such a thing has ever happened before ( Jeremiah 2:10 ).

Such a thing exists.

Has a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? ( Jeremiah 2:11 )

People don't do that. Their whole religious system is so deeply involved in their cultural aspects that people just don't change their gods, even those that worship false gods.

But God said,

but my people have changed their glory ( Jeremiah 2:11 )

That is, their fellowship with Me.

for that which does not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens ( Jeremiah 2:11-12 ),

The angels looking down with astonishment. And I'm sure that they do that on us many times. The angels, I'm sure, are just shocked when they see us starting to do something. "Oh no, look at that, what's that?" Now you know it. And they see us in our stupid moves. I'm sure they just think, "Oh no, I can't look." And they know the disaster that we're going to fall into because of our own follies.

Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD. For my people have committed two evils; [first] they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters ( Jeremiah 2:12-13 ),

So many times water is used as a symbol of life because water is so essential for life. And the Lord so often takes it from the physical on into the spiritual and He said, "I am the water of life. If any man drinks of Me, he will never thirst again."

Jesus cried to the assembled multitude at the Feast of Tabernacles. "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink. He that drinks of the water that I give, out of his belly there will flow rivers of living water" ( John 7:37-38 ). And the last chapter of the Bible, the last invitation in the Bible, "And he that is athirst, let him come and drink of the water of life freely" ( Revelation 22:17 ). The last invitation to the gospel, for thirsty man to come and to drink of the water of life freely.

Now God said they were forsaken me, the fountain of living water. The source, the spring from which life comes.

and [instead they have] hewed out cisterns ( Jeremiah 2:13 ),

Now, that land being an arid land and not really receiving that much rain, it is necessary over there that they set up exotic type of water systems. The Essenes were able to exist in the very dry, barren area down near the Dead Sea where you get maybe an inch of water a year or an inch and a half, two inches at the most a year. But the way they were able to survive down there was by building these great cisterns. And then when it would rain up in the highlands and these washes and gullies would become full of water, they had their dams and they diverted the flow of the water on into these cisterns that they had carved out of this limestone. If you go to Masada, you'll find that all the way around the side of the hill there in Masada are these huge cisterns that they've carved out, as well as the cisterns up on the top of Masada. These huge caverns that have been carved down of the sandstone and, again, they had a dam in the river. And you can see the little ledges that they have carved where they would bring the water along the ledges and dump into these cisterns. And thus, they would gather just the sparsest amount of rain but they would gather the over, the water that would run off and they would preserve it in these cisterns.

But cisterns were not a source of water, except that they were a reservoir. In other words, they weren't springs; they had no source within them. They had to gather the runoff water. And so at best, a cistern could hold only water that would get stagnant. And God said, "Marvel ye heaven, be astonished. Look at that. They have forsaken Me, the spring, the fountain of living water, in order that they might hew out these cisterns." But then He said, they are

broken cisterns, that can't hold water ( Jeremiah 2:13 ).

Now carrying it over to the spiritual aspect of it, man basically, instinctively is religious. He's got to believe in something. And when men forsake God, they establish a system of thought, a philosophy, concepts, or whatever that they commit themselves to. They become devoted to and they have to believe in it and it requires faith. A creed to be believed, a standard of life, philosophy of life or whatever. So men create their own philosophies, their own rationales for life, their own cisterns. But the thing is all of these cisterns, they can't hold water. They leave you thirsty. They will not satisfy you. The end result is emptiness.

Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes [actually cities of Egypt] have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself ( Jeremiah 2:14-17 ),

Haven't you brought all of this upon yourself? God said.

in that thou hast forsaken the LORD your God? ( Jeremiah 2:17 )

Looking at the calamities that have happened, we bring them upon ourselves. If we'd only been serving the Lord these things wouldn't have happened. Why does it take calamity many times to wake us up?

And now what have you to do with the way of Egypt? ( Jeremiah 2:18 )

They were, of course, looking to an alliance with Egypt to save them from the Babylonians. And an alliance with Assyria, but Assyria was soon to fall to the Babylonians. So an alliance with Assyria wasn't going to be any good. Egypt itself will be taken.

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 you have forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. 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 you are wondering, playing the harlot ( Jeremiah 2:19-20 ).

So the high hills were the places of worship, under the groves that they planted, the green trees. Again, the places of worship as they had turned from God and were committing spiritual adultery or playing the harlot in a spiritual sense.

Yet [when I created, when I planted you] I planted you a noble vine, it was good seed ( Jeremiah 2:21 ):

Abraham.

how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? ( Jeremiah 2:21 )

Again, the figure as Isaiah so graphically illustrates the fifth chapter of the vine that became wild.

For though thou wash thee with nitre ( Jeremiah 2:22 ),

That isn't the saltpeter that we know today, potassium nitrate, but it is a residue that is on the bottom of the lakes when the lakes dry up that they would boil and use in making soap. They'd use it for cleaning.

and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD ( Jeremiah 2:22 ).

You may try to wash yourself outwardly, but it's an inward problem.

How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? See thy way in the valley, know what you have done: for you are as a swift camel traversing her ways; you're like a wild donkey that is used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure ( Jeremiah 2:23-24 );

Now this figure of the wild donkey that God uses is a wild donkey that is in heat, a female donkey in heat. And she's sniffing the wind trying to find out where the male donkeys are in order that she might go and she doesn't care what the male donkey is. She just wants a male donkey. And God uses this as a figure here of Israel who is just turned away from God and just will take anything. Will worship anything. And so susceptible to worship anything. Like the wild donkey snuffing the wind at her pleasure.

in her occasion ( Jeremiah 2:24 )

That is, during the time of her season.

who can take her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her heat they will find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod ( Jeremiah 2:24-25 ),

In other words, you're running after these things until you wear your feet out.

and thy throat from thirst: but you have said, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, the kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, Saying to a stock [that is, to a piece of wood they've carved into an idol], You are my father; and to a stone [that they've carved out a little figure, You are the one that created me], You have 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 O god, and save us. But where are your gods that you have made? let them arise, if they can save you in the time of trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah ( Jeremiah 2:25-28 ).

So each city had its own local pagan deity. And as many cities as they had, they had gods. And the tragic thing was God said, "Hey, look, you've turned away from Me. You've turned to these other gods, but in trouble you'll be calling. When your calamity comes you'll be saying, 'Arise, God, save us.'" He said, "But don't bother calling. Go ahead and call unto these gods that you have been worshipping, you have been serving."

It is a tragic thing when God turns a deaf ear to man. When God said to Jeremiah, "Ephraim is given over to her idols. Let her alone. Don't pray anymore for their good, for if you do I'm not going to listen." That's a sad day when God turns a deaf ear to man and God said that day is coming. If you persist in following after strange flesh, strange gods and the worship of these strange gods, there will come a day of trouble and you will call upon God. But He said, "I won't hear, I won't answer." "Many will come in that day," Jesus said, "saying, 'Lord, Lord, open unto us.'" He'll say, "No, I never knew you." Those are heavy words that we need to consider seriously.

Wherefore will ye plead with me? you've all transgressed against me ( Jeremiah 2:29 ),

Why are you going to plead? You've been transgressing against Me.

In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion ( Jeremiah 2:30 ).

God said, "I've dealt with you in vain. Your children are so stubborn and rebellious. And with your own sword you've killed My prophets that I sent to you."

O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? Why do my people say, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her gown? yet my people have forgotten me days without number ( Jeremiah 2:31-32 ).

Now one thing we've never had and that is a bride that forgets a gown for her wedding. You just don't forget some things. And yet God said you've forgotten Me so many days that you can't number them.

Why do you trim your way to seek love? therefore you have taught the wicked ones thy ways. 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 ( Jeremiah 2:33-34 ).

You're open with it.

Yet you say, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because you say, I have not sinned ( Jeremiah 2:35 ).

You say, "Well, it's not wrong. It doesn't matter. God doesn't care. It's not really sin." And God speaks out against that. He said,

Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. 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 2:36-37 ).

No wonder God said to Jeremiah, "Now don't look at your faces. Don't be afraid of their faces." Boy, he had a heavy, heavy message to lay on these people. He was really laying it on them and not sparing. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

Yahweh’s claims to having dealt justly with His people 2:4-8

The general flow of thought in this early part of Jeremiah’s message is: from Israel’s early devotion to Yahweh (Jeremiah 2:2-3), to her departure from Him (Jeremiah 2:4-13), to the tragic results of her unfaithfulness (Jeremiah 2:14-19). In this second pericope, the irrationality of Israel’s apostasy stands out.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The Israelites had not even asked themselves where the Lord-who had redeemed them in the Exodus and preserved them through the wilderness-was. They totally disregarded Him.

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Neither said they, where is the Lord?.... They did not ask after him, nor seek his face and favour, nor worship him, nor took any notice of the blessings he bestowed upon them:

that brought us up out of the land of Egypt? by means of Moses the deliverer, with a mighty hand, and outstretched arm; for, though Moses was the instrument, God was the efficient cause of the deliverance; the favour was his, and the glory of it ought to have been given to him:

that led us through the wilderness; of "Shur", or of "Sin", the desert of Arabia, Exodus 15:22 and a dreadful and terrible one it was:

through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death; where were scorpions, fiery serpents, drought, and no water, and so very dangerous as well as uncomfortable travelling; and yet through all this they were led, and wonderfully supplied and preserved;

through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt; there was no passenger in it, nor inhabitants on it, so that there were none to relieve them; whence it appears, that all their supply, support, and preservation, were from the Lord. The Jews y interpret this of the first man Adam, after this manner,

"all land, concerning which the first man decreed that it should be inhabited, it is inhabited; and all land, concerning which he did not decree it should be inhabited, it is not inhabited; and such they suggest was this wilderness;''

see Deuteronomy 8:15.

y T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 31. 1. & Sota, fol. 46. 2.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      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 first-fruits 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 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.

      Here is, I. A command given to Jeremiah to go and carry a message from God to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He was charged in general (Jeremiah 1:17; Jeremiah 1:17) to go and speak to them; here he is particularly charged to go and speak this to them. Note, It is good for ministers by faith and prayer to take out a fresh commission when they address themselves solemnly to any part of their work. Let a minister carefully compare what he has to deliver with the word of God, and see that it agrees with it, that he may be able to say, not only, The Lord sent me, but, He sent me to speak this. He must go from Anathoth, where he lived in a pleasant retirement, spending his time (it is likely) among a few friends and in the study of the law, and must make his appearance at Jerusalem, that noisy tumultuous city, and cry in their ears, as a man in earnest and that would be heard: "Cry aloud, that all may hear, and none may plead ignorance. Go close to them, and cry in the ears of those that have stopped their ears."

      II. The message he was commanded to deliver. He must upbraid them with their horrid ingratitude in forsaking a God who had been of old so kind to them, that this might either make them ashamed and bring them to repentance, or might justify God in turning his hand against them.

      1. God here puts them in mind of the favours he had of old bestowed upon them, when they were first formed into a people (Jeremiah 2:2; Jeremiah 2:2): "I remember for thy sake, and I would have thee to remember it, and improve the remembrance of it for thy good; I cannot forget the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals."

      (1.) This may be understood of the kindness they had for God; it was not such indeed as they had any reason to boast of, or to plead with God for favour to be shown them (for many of them were very unkind and provoking, and, when they did return and enquire early after God, they did but flatter him), yet God is pleased to mention it, and plead it with them; for, though it was but little love that they showed him, he took it kindly. When they believed the Lord and his servant Moses, when they sang God's praise at the Red Sea, when at the foot of Mount Sinai they promised, All that the Lord shall say unto us we will do and will be obedient, then was the kindness of their youth and the love of their espousals. When they seemed so forward for God he said, Surely they are my people, and will be faithful to me, children that will not lie. Note, Those that begin well and promise fair, but do not perform and persevere, will justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings. God remembers the kindness of our youth and the love of our espousals, the zeal we then seemed to have for him and the affection wherewith we made our covenants with him, the buds and blossoms that never came to perfection; and it is good for us to remember them, that we may remember whence we have fallen, and return to our first love, Revelation 2:4; Revelation 2:5; Galatians 4:15. In two things appeared the kindness of their youth:-- [1.] That they followed the direction of the pillar of cloud and fire in the wilderness; and though sometimes they spoke of returning into Egypt, or pushing forward into Canaan, yet they did neither, but for forty years together went after God in the wilderness, and trusted him to provide for them, though it was a land that was not sown. This God took kindly, and took notice of it to their praise long after, that, though much was amiss among them, yet they never forsook the guidance they were under. Thus, though Christ often chid his disciples, yet he commended them, at parting, for continuing with him, Luke 22:28. It must be the strong affection of the youth, and the espousals, that will carry us on to follow God in a wilderness, with an implicit faith and an entire resignation; and it is a pity that those who have so followed him should ever leave him. [2.] That they entertained divine institutions, set up the tabernacle among them, and attended the service of it. Israel was then holiness to the Lord; they joined themselves to him in covenant as a peculiar people. Thus they began in the spirit, and God puts them in mind of it, that they might be ashamed of ending in the flesh.

      (2.) Or it may be understood of God's kindness to them; of that he afterwards speaks largely. When Israel was a child, then I loved him,Hosea 11:1. He then espoused that people to himself with all the affection with which a young man marries a virgin (Isaiah 62:5), for the time was a time of love,Ezekiel 16:8. [1.] God appropriated them to himself. Though they were a sinful people, yet, by virtue of the covenant made with them and the church set up among them, they were holiness to the Lord, dedicated to his honour and taken under his special tuition; they were the first fruits of his increase, the first constituted church he had in the world; they were the first-fruits, but the full harvest was to be gathered from among the Gentiles. The first-fruits of the increase were God's part of it, were offered to him, and he was honoured with them; so were the people of the Jews; what little tribute, rent, and homage, God had from the world, he had it chiefly from them; and it was their honour to be thus set apart for God. This honour have all the saints; they are the first-fruits of his creatures,James 1:18. [2.] Having espoused them, he espoused their cause, and became an enemy to their enemies,Exodus 23:22. Being the first-fruits of his increase, all that devoured him (so it should be read) did offend; they trespassed, they contracted guilt, and evil befel them, as those were reckoned offenders that devoured the first-fruits, or any thing else that was holy to the Lord, that embezzled them, or converted them to their own use, Leviticus 5:15. Whoever offered any injury to the people of God did so at their peril; their God was ready to avenge their quarrel, and said to the proudest of kings, Touch not my anointed,Psalms 105:14; Psalms 105:15; Exodus 17:14. He had in a special manner a controversy with those that attempted to debauch them and draw them off from being holiness to the Lord; witness his quarrel with the Midianites about the matter of Peor,Numbers 25:17; Numbers 25:18. [3.] He brought them out of Egypt with a high hand and great terror (Deuteronomy 4:34), and yet with a kind hand and great tenderness led them through a vast howling wilderness (Jeremiah 2:6; Jeremiah 2:6), a land of deserts and pits, or of graves, terram sepulchralem--a sepulchral land, where there was ground, not to feed them, but to bury them, where there was no good to be expected, for it was a land of drought, but all manner of evil to be feared, for it was the shadow of death. In that darksome valley they walked forty years; but God was with them; his rod, in Moses's hand, and his staff, comforted them, and even there God prepared a table for them (Psalms 23:4; Psalms 23:5), gave them bread out of the clouds and drink out of the rocks. It was a land abandoned by all mankind, as yielding neither road nor rest. It was no thoroughfare, for no man passed through it--no settlement, for no man dwelt there. For God will teach his people to tread untrodden paths, to dwell alone, and to be singular. The difficulties of the journey are thus insisted on, to magnify the power and goodness of God in bringing them, through all, safely to their journey's end at last. All God's spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for a safe conduct through the wilderness of this world, no less dangerous to the soul than that was to the body. [4.] At length he settled them in Canaan (Jeremiah 2:7; Jeremiah 2:7): I brought you into a plentiful country, which would be the more acceptable after they had been for so many years in a land of drought. They did eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof, and were allowed so to do. I brought you into a land of Carmel (so the word is); Carmel was a place of extraordinary fruitfulness, and Canaan was as one great fruitful field, Deuteronomy 8:7. [5.] God gave them the means of knowledge and grace, and communion with him; this is implied, Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:8. They had priests that handled the law, read it, and expounded it to them; that was part of their business, Deuteronomy 33:8. They had pastors, to guide them and take care of their affairs, magistrates and judges; they had prophets to consult God for them and to make known his mind to them.

      2. He upbraids them with their horrid ingratitude, and the ill returns they had made him for these favours; let them all come and answer to this charge (Jeremiah 2:4; Jeremiah 2:4); it is exhibited in the name of God against all the families of the house of Israel, for they can none of them plead, Not guilty. (1.) He challenges them to produce any instance of his being unjust and unkind to them. Though he had conferred favours upon them in some things, yet, if in other things he had dealt hardly with them, they would not have been altogether without excuse. He therefore puts it fairly to them to show cause for their deserting him (Jeremiah 2:5; Jeremiah 2:5): "What iniquity have your fathers found in me, or you either? Have you, upon trial, found God a hard master? Have his commands put any hardship upon you or obliged you to any thing unfit, unfair, or unbecoming you? Have his promises put any cheats upon you, or raised your expectations of things which you were afterwards disappointed of? You that have renounced your covenant with God, can you say that it was a hard bargain and that which you could not live upon? You that have forsaken the ordinances of God, can you say that it was because they were a wearisome service, or work that there was nothing to be got by? No; the disappointments you have met with were owing to yourselves, not to God. The yoke of his commandments if easy, and in the keeping of them there is great reward." Note, Those that forsake God cannot say that he has ever given them any provocation to do so: for this we may safely appeal to the consciences of sinners; the slothful servant that offered such a plea as this had it overruled out of his own mouth,Luke 19:22. Though he afflicts us, we cannot say that there is iniquity in him; he does us no wrong. The ways of the Lord are undoubtedly equal; all the iniquity is in our ways. (2.) He charges them with being very unjust and unkind to him notwithstanding. [1.] They had quitted his service: "They have gone from me, nay, they have gone far from me." They studied how to estrange themselves from God and their duty, and got as far as they could out of the reach of his commandments and their own convictions. Those that have deserted religion commonly set themselves at a greater distance from it, and in a greater opposition to it, than those that never knew it. [2.] They had quitted it for the service of idols, which was so much the greater reproach to God and his service; they went from him, not to better themselves, but to cheat themselves: They have walked after vanity, that is, idolatry; for an idol is a vain thing; it is nothing in the world,1 Corinthians 8:4; Deuteronomy 32:21; Jeremiah 14:22. Idolatrous worships are vanities, Acts 14:15. Idolaters are vain, for those that make idols are like unto them (Psalms 115:8), as much stocks and stones as the images they worship, and good for as little. [3.] They had with idolatry introduced all manner of wickedness. When they entered into the good land which God gave them they defiled it (Jeremiah 2:7; Jeremiah 2:7), by defiling themselves and disfitting themselves for the service of God. It was God's land; they were but tenants to him, sojourners in it, Leviticus 25:23. It was his heritage, for it was a holy land, Immanuel's land; but they made it an abomination, even to God himself, who was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel. [4.] Having forsaken God, though they soon found that they had changed for the worse, yet they had no thoughts of returning to him again, nor took any steps towards it. Neither the people nor the priests made any enquiry after him, took any thought about their duty to him, nor expressed any desire to recover his favour. First, The people said not, Where is the Lord?Jeremiah 2:6; Jeremiah 2:6. Though they were trained up in an observance of him as their God, and had been often told that he brought them out of the land of Egypt, to be a people peculiar to himself, yet they never asked after him nor desired the knowledge of his ways. Secondly, The priests said not, Where is the Lord?Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:8. Those whose office it was to attend immediately upon him were in no concern to acquaint themselves with him, or approve themselves to him. Those who should have instructed the people in the knowledge of God took no care to get the knowledge of him themselves. The scribes, who handled the law, did not know God nor his will, could not expound the scriptures at all, or not aright. The pastors, who should have kept the flock from transgressing, were themselves ringleaders in transgression: They have transgressed against me. The pretenders to prophecy prophesied by Baal, in his name, to his honour, being backed and supported by the wicked kings to confront the Lord's prophets. Baal's prophets joined with Baal's priests, and walked after the things which do not profit, that is, after the idols which can be no way helpful to their worshippers. See how the best characters are usurped, and the best offices liable to corruption; and wonder not at the sin and ruin of a people when the blind are leaders of the blind.