Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:5
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?
5. Has Israel had any excuse for their disloyalty to Me? None.
have walked after vanity ] ‘vanity’ (lit. a breath) is here used in the same sense as in 1Ki 16:13. Jehovah and His prophets regarded idols simply as unsubstantial, unreal things. Hence ‘vanity’ (i.e. idols) expresses their view. So in 1Co 8:4. Cp. Jer 2:8 ; Jer 2:11, Jer 16:19 ; 1Sa 12:21; Isa 44:9 f. Ch. Jer 10:10 contrasts God as “the true God,” “the living God”; while the notions of that which is unreal and that which is positively injurious are combined in Jer 16:19.
and are become vain ] have their characters assimilated to the objects which they serve. Cp. Rom 1:21 f., they “became vain in their reasonings they became fools.”
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me] Have they ever discovered any thing cruel, unjust, oppressive in my laws? Any thing unkind or tyrannical in my government? Why then have they become idolaters?
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
God having, as it were on his own behalf, shown how kind he had been, calls upon them to speak now, if they knew any thing of injury, either in breach of covenant or severity, that they can charge him with, that they have thus apostatized. See Poole “Isa 1:18“; See Poole “Isa 5:3“: compare Mic 6:2-4. By this manner of speech his proceeding appears the more justifiable; he both makes their conviction the clearer, and the reproof the sharper.
Walked after vanity, viz. idols, showing their folly in going from God to such vain things as idols are, Deu 32:21; 1Sa 12:20,21; and see on Isa 41:29; the abstract for the concrete, Ecc 1:2.
Become vain, viz. in following their imaginations; fools,
Rom 1:21,22, as senseless as the stocks and stones that they made their idols of, Psa 115:8; and herein they are said to go far from God, and choose their delusions, Jon 2:8.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
5. iniquitywrong doneto them (Isa 5:4; Mic 6:3;compare De 32:4).
walked aftervanitycontrasted with “walkest after me in thewilderness” (Jer 2:2): thenI was their guide in the barren desert; now they take idolsas their guides.
vanity . . . vainAnidol is not only vain (impotent and empty), but vanityitself. Its worshippers acquire its character, becoming vainas it is (Deu 7:26; Psa 115:8).A people’s character never rises above that of its gods, which areits “better nature” [BACON](2Ki 17:15; Jon 2:8).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me,…. What injustice or injury has been done them? there is no unrighteousness in God, nor can any be done by him; or what unfaithfulness, or want of truth and integrity in performing promises, had they found in him? he never suffers his faithfulness to fail, or any of the good things he has promised. So the Targum,
“what falsehood have your fathers found in my word?”
none at all; God is a covenant keeping God:
that they are gone far from me; from my fear, as the Chaldee paraphrase; from the word and worship, and ways of God:
and have walked after vanity; after idols, the vanities of the Gentiles, Jer 14:22:
and are become vain? in their imaginations and in their actions, in their knowledge and in their practice, worshipping idols, as well as guilty of many other sins.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Then follows the charge: What, iniquity have your fathers found in me, that having forsaken me they should walk after vanity and become vain? Here Jeremiah charges the people with two crimes, — that they had departed from the true God, whom they had found to be a deliverer, — and that they had become vain in their devices; or, in other words, that they were become for no reason apostates: for their sin was enhanced, because there had been no occasion given them to forsake God, and to alienate themselves from him. As then God had kindly treated them, and they themselves had shaken off the yoke, and as there was no one whom they could compare with God, they could not have said, “We have been deceived, ” — how so? “ For ye have, he says, followed vanity; and vanity alone was the reason why ye have departed from me.” (29) I wish I could proceed farther; but I have some business to which I was called even before the lecture.
(29) The literal rendering of this verse is as follows, —
5. Thus saith Jehovah, What have your fathers found in me? Oppression? For they have gone far from me, And have followed after vanity, And have become vain.
The word שול, oppression, injustice, or tyranny, is so placed in the sentence that it cannot be construed with “what.” The word “vanity” means often an idol, and it is so considered here by the Targum, by Piscator, Grotius, Gataker, and others. It is often found in the plural, “vanities,” as it is here in the Septuagint; see Deu 32:21; 1Kg 16:26; Psa 31:6 : but it is here the poetical singular. They “became vain,” that is, foolish, sottish, having no more sense or reason than their idols, as idolaters are represented in Psa 115:8. Their senselessness is set forth in the next verse. An idol is especially called “vanity,” because it can do no good and avails nothing: deluded imagination alone gives it all its efficacy and power. Samuel gives a true account of idols, 1Sa 12:21. But as long as the devil deceives and deludes the world, idols and images will be in repute, though they are in themselves wholly useless and worthless, while yet they prove ruinous to the souls of men. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(5) Vanity.In the special sense, as a synonym for idol-worship (Deu. 32:21; 1Ki. 16:13). As in the character of a husband wronged by his wifes desertion Jehovah pleads with His people, and asks whether He has failed in anything.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
5. Have walked after vanity The original of “vanity” is, in the historical books, used in the sense of idols or false gods, as in Deu 32:21; 1Ki 16:13 ; 1Ki 16:26, etc.; but in Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms, it is used in a more general or abstract sense. In this book it is used in its earlier import, and this is one of many indications of the affinity of this book in thought and language with the formative period of Hebrew life. The precise words of this text occur in 2Ki 17:15, where they are applied to the ten tribes. They involve the universally recognised law that the worshipper will be as the worshipped. The deity enshrined in the soul will, of necessity, be the dominant force in the life and character. God will be first of all Creator in his own realm.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 2:5. What iniquity have your fathers found That is, “What injustice or unfaithfulness, in not performing my part of the Horeb covenant?” Walked after vanity, refers to their worship of idols. What an instance of goodness in God is it, that he would, as it were, render an account of his conduct to his people, and plead with them, as a man with his equal!
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 2:5 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?
Ver. 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me? ] How unreasonable was their apostasy! and how senseless is your pleading from their example! Nothing is more irrational than irreligion.
That they are gone far from me.
And have walked after vanity.
And are become vain,
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
What iniquity. Reference to Pentateuch (Deu 32:4). App-92.
iniquity. Hebrew. ‘aval. App-44.
fathers. Not merely recently, but of old (Jer 2:7. Jdg 2:10, &c).
vanity = the vanity. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Ad-junct), for vain things: i.e. idols. Compare Jer 10:3-10, Jer 10:15; Jer 14:22; Jer 16:19, Jer 16:20. Deu 32:21. Act 14:15. 1Co 8:4.
become vain? Compare 2Ki 17:15. Idolaters always become like the gods they worship. Compare Psa 115:8; Psa 135:18.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
What: Jer 2:31, Isa 5:3, Isa 5:4, Isa 43:22, Isa 43:23, Mic 6:2, Mic 6:3
are gone: Jer 12:2, Isa 29:13, Eze 11:15, Mat 15:8
walked: Jer 10:8, Jer 10:14, Jer 10:15, Jer 14:22, Deu 32:21, 1Sa 12:21, 2Ki 17:15, Jon 2:8, Act 14:15
and are: Jer 51:17, Jer 51:18, Psa 115:8, Isa 44:9, Rom 1:21
Reciprocal: Gen 4:6 – General Deu 32:15 – then he Jdg 2:2 – why have 2Ch 25:15 – Why hast thou sought Job 31:5 – walked Job 34:23 – that he Psa 4:2 – love Psa 50:7 – Hear Pro 27:10 – own Isa 1:2 – they have Isa 1:4 – gone away backward Isa 1:18 – and let us Isa 46:12 – that Jer 2:11 – a nation Jer 10:3 – customs Jer 23:16 – they make Eze 14:5 – estranged Amo 2:11 – Is it Mal 1:2 – Wherein Luk 15:13 – and took Act 22:7 – why Jam 2:20 – O vain
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 2:5. Sometimes a wife will listen to the counsel of her parents who are objecting to the husband even after years of married life. If those objections are made on a true basis it is well for them to interfere, but they should be sure that such is the case before trying to dissolve the marriage. This husband demands to know what are the objections which have led to the coldness of the wife. That, coldness had arrived to the extent that the wife was going off after others who offered her some of their possessions; she had gone after vanity.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:5 Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they have gone {e} far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become {f} vain?
(e) That is, fallen to vile idolatry.
(f) Altogether given to vanity, and are become blind and insensible as the idols that they serve.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord wanted to know what He had done to provoke His people to leave Him and pursue other gods that left them empty. The Hebrew word hahebel, translated "emptiness," may be wordplay with the name Baal.