families--(See on [Jr 1:15]). Hear God's word not only collectively, but individually ([Zec 12:12-14]).
5. iniquity--wrong done to them ([Is 5:4]; [Mi 6:3]; compare [De 32:4]).
walked after vanity--contrasted with "walkest after me in the wilderness" ([Jr 2:2]): then I was their guide in the barren desert; now they take idols as their guides.
vanity ... vain--An idol is not only vain (impotent and empty), but vanity itself. Its worshippers acquire its character, becoming vain as it is ([De 7:26]; [Psa 115:8]). A people's character never rises above that of its gods, which are its "better nature" [Bacon] ([2Ki 17:15]; [Jon 2:8]).
6. Neither said they, Where, &c.--The very words which God uses ([Is 63:9], [11, 13]), when, as it were, reminding Himself of His former acts of love to Israel as a ground for interposing in their behalf again. When they would not say, Where is Jehovah, &c., God Himself at last said it for them (compare see on [Jr 2:2]).
deserts ... pits--The desert between Mount Sinai and Palestine abounds in chasms and pits, in which beasts of burden often sink down to the knees. "Shadow of death" refers to the darkness of the caverns amidst the rocky precipices ([De 8:15]; ).
7. plentiful--literally, "a land of Carmel," or "well-cultivated land": a garden land, in contrast to the "land of deserts" ([Jr 2:6]).
defiled--by idolatries ([Jud 2:10-17]; [Psa 78:58], ; ).
you ... ye--change to the second person from the third, "they" ([Jr 2:6]), in order to bring home the guilt to the living generation.
8. The three leading classes, whose very office under the theocracy was to lead the people to God, disowned Him in the same language as the nation at large, "Where is the Lord?" (See [Jr 2:6]).
priests--whose office it was to expound the law (Mal [2:6, 7]).
handle--are occupied with the law as the subject of their profession.
pastors--civil, not religious: princes ([Jr 3:15]), whose duty it was to tend their people.
prophets--who should have reclaimed the people from their apostasy, encouraged them in it by pretended oracles from Baal, the Phoenician false god.
by Baal--in his name and by his authority (compare [Jr 11:21]).
walked after things ... not profit--answering to, "walked after vanity," that is, idols ([Jr 2:5]; compare [Jr 2:11]; [Ha 2:18]).
9. yet plead--namely, by inflicting still further judgments on you.
children's children--Three manuscripts and Jerome omit "children's"; they seem to have thought it unsuitable to read "children's children," when "children" had not preceded. But it is designedly so written, to intimate that the final judgment on the nation would be suspended for many generations [Horsley]. (Compare [Eze 20:35], ; [Mi 6:2]).
10. pass over the isles--rather, "cross over to the isles."
Chittim ... Kedar--that is, the heathen nations, west and east. Go where you will, you cannot find an instance of any heathen nation forsaking their own for other gods. Israel alone does this. Yet the heathen gods are false gods; whereas Israel, in forsaking Me for other gods, forsake their "glory" for unprofitable idols.
Chittim--Cyprus, colonized by Phoenicians, who built in it the city of Citium, the modern Chitti. Then the term came to be applied to all maritime coasts of the Mediterranean, especially Greece ([Nu 24:24]; [Is 23:1]; [Da 11:30]).
Kedar--descended from Ishmael; the Bedouins and Arabs, east of Palestine.
11. glory--Jehovah, the glory of Israel ([Psa 106:20]; [Ro 1:23]). The Shekinah, or cloud resting on the sanctuary, was the symbol of "the glory of the Lord" ([1Ki 8:11]; compare [Ro 9:4]). The golden calf was intended as an image of the true God (compare [Ex 32:4], ), yet it is called an "idol" ([Ac 7:41]). It (like Roman Catholic images) was a violation of the second commandment, as the heathen multiplying of gods is a violation of the first.
not profit--([Jr 2:8]).
12. Impassioned personification ([Is 1:2]).
horribly afraid--rather, be horrified."
be ... very desolate--rather, "be exceedingly aghast" at the monstrous spectacle. Literally, "to be dried up," or "devastated," (places devastated have such an unsightly look) [Maurer].
13. two evils--not merely one evil, like the idolaters who know no better; besides simple idolatry, My people add the sin of forsaking the true God whom they have known; the heathen, though having the sin of idolatry, are free from the further sin of changing the true God for idols ([Jr 2:11]).
forsaken me--The Hebrew collocation brings out the only living God into more prominent contrast with idol nonentities. "Me they have forsaken, the Fountain," &c. ([Jr 17:13]; [Psa 36:9]; [Joh 4:14]).
broken cisterns--tanks for rain water, common in the East, where wells are scarce. The tanks not only cannot give forth an ever-flowing fresh supply as fountains can, but cannot even retain the water poured into them; the stonework within being broken, the earth drinks up the collected water. So, in general, all earthly, compared with heavenly, means of satisfying man's highest wants ([Is 55:1], 2; compare [Lu 12:33]).
14. is he a homeborn slave--No. "Israel is Jehovah's son, even His first-born" ([Ex 4:22]). [Jr 2:16], 18, 36, and the absence of any express contrast of the two parts of the nation are against Eichorn's view, that the prophet proposes to Judah, as yet spared, the case of Israel (the ten tribes) which had been carried away by Assyria as a warning of what they might expect if they should still put their trust in Egypt. "Were Israel's ten tribes of meaner birth than Judah? Certainly not. If, then, the former fell before Assyria, what can Judah hope from Egypt against Assyria? ... Israel" is rather here the whole of the remnant still left in their own land, that is, Judah. "How comes it to pass that the nation which once was under God's special protection ([Jr 2:3]) is now left at the mercy of the foe as a worthless slave?" The prophet sees this event as if present, though it was still future to Judah ([Jr 2:19]).
15. lions--the Babylonian princes ([Jr 4:7]; compare [Am 3:4]). The disaster from the Babylonians in the fourth year of Jehoiakim's reign, and again three years later when, relying on Egypt, he revolted from Nebuchadnezzar, is here referred to ([Jr 46:2]; [2Ki 24:1], 2).
16. Noph ... Tahapanes--Memphis, capital of Lower Egypt, on the west bank of the Nile, near the pyramids of Gizeh, opposite the site of modern Cairo. Daphne, on the Tanitic branch of the Nile, near Pelusium, on the frontier of Egypt towards Palestine. [Is 30:4] contracts it, Hanes. These two cities, one the capital, the other that with which the Jews came most in contact, stand for the whole of Egypt. Tahapanes takes its name from a goddess, Tphnet [Champollion]. Memphis is from Man-nofri, "the abode of good men"; written in Hebrew, Moph ([Ho 9:6]), or Noph. The reference is to the coming invasion of Judah by Pharaoh-necho of Egypt, on his return from the Euphrates, when he deposed Jehoahaz and levied a heavy tribute on the land ([2Ki 23:33-35]). Josiah's death in battle with the same Pharaoh is probably included ([2Ki 23:29], ).
have broken--rather, shall feed down the crown, &c., that is, affect with the greatest ignominy, such as baldness was regarded in the East ([Jr 48:37]; [2Ki 2:23]). Instead of "also," translate, "even" the Egyptians, in whom thou dost trust, shall miserably disappoint thy expectation [Maurer]. Jehoiakim was twice leagued with them ([2Ki 23:34], ): when he received the crown from them, and when he revolted from Nebuchadnezzar ([2Ki 24:1], 2, 7). The Chaldeans, having become masters of Asia, threatened Egypt. Judea, situated between the contending powers, was thus exposed to the inroads of the one or other of the hostile armies; and unfortunately, except in Josiah's reign, took side with Egypt, contrary to God's warnings.
17. Literally, "Has not thy forsaking the Lord ... procured this (calamity) to thee?" So the Septuagint: the Masoretic accents make "this" the subject of the verb, leaving the object to be understood. "Has not this procured (it, that is, the impending calamity) unto thee, that hast forsaken?" &c. ([Jr 4:18]).
led--([De 32:10]).
the way--The article expresses the right way, the way of the Lord: namely, the moral training which they enjoyed in the Mosaic covenant.
18. now--used in a reasoning sense, not of time.
the way of Egypt--What hast thou to do with the way, that is, with going down to Egypt; or what ... with going to Assyria?
drink ... waters--that is, to seek reinvigorating aid from them; so [Jr 2:13], 36; compare "waters," meaning numerous forces ([Is 8:7]).
Sihor--that is, the black river, in Greek, Melas ("black"), the Nile: so called from the black deposit or soil it leaves after the inundation ([Is 23:3]). The Septuagint identifies it with Gihon, one of the rivers of Paradise.
the river--Euphrates, called by pre-eminence, the river; figurative for the Assyrian power. In 625 B.C., the seventeenth year of Josiah, and the fourth of Jeremiah's office, the kingdom of Assyria fell before Babylon, therefore Assyria is here put for Babylon its successor: so in [2Ki 23:29]; [La 5:6]. There was doubtless a league between Judea and Assyria (that is, Babylon), which caused Josiah to march against Pharaoh-necho of Egypt when that king went against Babylon: the evil consequences of this league are foretold in this verse and [Jr 2:36].
19. correct ... reprove--rather, in the severer sense, "chastise ... punish" [Maurer].
backslidings--"apostasies"; plural, to express the number and variety of their defections. The very confederacies they entered into were the occasion of their overthrow ([Pr 1:31]; [Is 3:9]; [Ho 5:5]).
know ... see--imperative for futures: Thou shalt know and see to thy cost.