Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:7
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.
7. a plentiful land ] lit. a land of the Carmel. The word Carmel properly means a piece of ground fertile and well-cultivated (Jer 4:26 R.V. mg.), but was commonly used as the actual name of one such spot of Palestine, the only promontory that the sea-board of the country possesses, jutting out into the Mediterranean, and bounding the great plain of Esdraelon.
defiled ] with (i) idolatry, (ii) sacrifices of their children; so Ps. 104:37. The old inhabitants of Canaan were driven out for their sins (cp. Deu 9:4 ff; Deu 18:12, etc.). Israel has proved little better. See Jer 3:2; Jer 3:9.
mine heritage ] Cp. Exo 15:17; Psa 79:1. Elsewhere it is generally Israel itself that goes by this name; e.g. Deu 32:9. Cp. Jer 10:16; 1Sa 10:1 ; 1Ki 8:51; Psa 28:9; Psa 78:71; Isa 19:25.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A plentiful country – literally, a land of the Carmel, a Carmel land (see 1Ki 18:19, note; Isa 29:17, note).
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 7. And I brought you into a plentiful country] The land of Canaan.
My land] The particular property of God, which he gave to them as an inheritance, they being his peculiar people.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Plentiful country, Heb.
land of Carmel, Isa 29:17; understand Canaan, Num 13:27; See Poole “Isa 35:2“.
To eat the fruit thereof and the goodness; to enjoy all the blessing of it.
My land, i.e. consecrated to my name, Lev 25:23; and this you have defiled by going a whoring after your idols, Jer 3:1, and many other abominations, Psa 106:29,35,37-39.
Mine heritage; in the same sense that it is said in the foregoing clause my land, and which you received from me as your heritage, the place that I chose for my churchs present habitation, and earnest of their future heavenly one.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
7. plentifulliterally, “aland of Carmel,” or “well-cultivated land”: a gardenland, in contrast to the “land of deserts” (Jer2:6).
defiledby idolatries(Jdg 2:10-17; Psa 78:58;Psa 78:59; Psa 106:38).
you . . . yechange tothe second person from the third, “they” (Jer2:6), in order to bring home the guilt to the living generation.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And I brought you into a plentiful country,…. “Into the land of Carmel”, as in the Hebrew text; that is,
“into the land of Israel, which was planted as Carmel,”
as the Targum paraphrases it; with wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, pomegranates, and olives; a land flowing with milk and honey, De 8:8, so Ben Melech:
to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; of vineyards and oliveyards, which they had not planted, and for which they had never laboured, Jos 24:13:
but when ye entered ye defiled my land; which the Lord had chosen above all lands, where he would have a temple built for his worship, and where he would cause his Shechinah or glorious Majesty to dwell; but this they defiled by their sins and transgressions, and particularly by their idolatry, as follows:
that made mine heritage an abomination; by devoting it to the worship of idols, as the Targum paraphrases it.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He afterwards adds, And I brought you in, etc. Here Jeremiah introduces God as the speaker; for God had, as with his hand stretched forth, brought in the children of Abraham into the possession of the promised land, which they did not get, as it is said in Psa 44:3, by their own power and by their own sword; for though they had to fight with many enemies, yet it was God that made them victorious. He could then truly say, that they did not otherwise enter the land than under his guidance; inasmuch as he had opened a way and passage for them, and subdued and put to flight their enemies, that they might possess the heritage promised to them. I brought you in, he says, into the land, into Carmel Some consider this to be the name of a place; and no doubt there was the mount Carmel, so called on account of its great fertility. As then its name was given to it because it was so fertile, it is nothing strange that Jeremiah compares the land of Israel to Carmel. Some will have the preposition כ, c a ph, to be understood, “I have brought you into a land like Carmel.” But there is no need laboriously to turn in all directions the Prophet’s words. It is, as I think, a common noun, meaning fruitful, and used here to shew that the Israelites had been brought by God’s hand into a fertile land; for its fertility is everywhere celebrated, both in the Law and in the Prophets. (31)
That ye might eat its fruit and its abundance; that is, “I wished you to enjoy the large and rich produce of the land.” By these words God intimates that the Israelites ought to have been induced by such allurements cordially to serve him; for by such liberal treatment he kindly invited them to himself. The greater, then, the bounty of God towards the people, the greater was the indignity offered by their defection, when they despised the various and abounding blessings of God.
Hence he adds, And ye have polluted my land, (32) and mine heritage have ye made an abomination; as though he had said, “This is the reward by which my bounty towards you has been compensated. I indeed gave you this land, but on this condition, that ye serve me faithfully in it: but ye have polluted it.” He calls it his own land, as though he had said, that he had so given the land to the Israelites, that he remained still the lord of it as a proprietor, though he granted the occupation of it to them. He hence shews that they impiously abused his bounty, in polluting that land which was sacred to his name. For the same purpose he calls it his heritage, as if he said that they possessed the land by an hereditary right, and yet the heritage belonged to their Father. They ought, therefore, to have considered, that they had entered into the land, because it had been given to Abraham and to his children for an heritage, — by whom? By God, who was the fountain of this bounty. The more detestable, then, was their ingratitude, when they made the heritage of God an abomination It follows —
(31) That the word means a fruitful field or country is evident from Isa 10:18; Isa 16:10; Jer 4:26, etc. there was also a city bearing this name, situated in the tribe of Judah, Jos 15:55, and also a mountain belonging to the tribe of Manasseh, Jos 19:26. — Ed.
(32) “And ye came” is left out. The same verb in a causative sense is used at the beginning of the verse, rendered, “I brought.” It would be more striking to retain the same verb, and not to use “but when” in the latter instance, as in our version, —
And I caused you to come into a fruitful land, To eat its fruit and its rich produce; And ye came and polluted my land, And made mine heritage an abomination.
The whole runs thus much better, and has the conciseness of poetry: and the idea intended to be conveyed is more apparent — God caused them to come, and they came. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(7) A plentiful country.Literally, a land of Carmel, that word, as meaning a vine-clad hill, having become a type of plenty. So the forest of his Carmel, in Isa. 37:24; elsewhere, as in Isa. 10:18; Isa. 32:15, fruitful. The LXX. treats the word as a proper name, I brought you unto Carmel.
When ye entered.The words point to the rapid degeneracy of Israel after the settlement in Canaan, as seen in the false worship and foul crimes of Judges 17-21. So in Psa. 78:56-58. Instead of being the pattern nation, the firstfruits of mankind, they sank to the level, or below the level, of the heathen.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
7. I brought you into a plentiful country The original is Carmel, ( ) garden land, as opposed to the “wilderness.” The fruits of this “Carmel” are enumerated in Deu 8:7-9; “a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and depths that spring out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat, and barley, and vines, and fig-trees, and pomegranates; a land of oil olive, and honey; a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness; thou shalt not lack any thing in it; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou mayest dig brass.” In order rightly to appreciate this description we must bear in mind that its background is the peninsula of Sinai and the South Country, and also that the contrast was intensified and heightened by the hardships and privations of the forty years’ wandering in this region of silence and desolation. As the traveller of to-day emerges from the wilderness of the wandering into the land of promise he exchanges gloom, sterility, solitude, and monotony for beauty, variety, and the exhilaration of life.
Ye defiled my land It should have been, in all its length and breadth, a sanctuary; ye have made it an abomination. Its high hills have become altars of lust; its green trees coverts of uncleanness; and even its sacred temple is filled with pollutions.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 2:7 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.
Ver. 7. And I brought you into a plentiful country. ] You lived in my good land, but not by my good laws; you had aequissima iura, sed iniquissima ingenia, most just laws but most foul nature, as was said of the Athenians; as if I had hired you to be wicked, so have you abused my mercies to my greatest dishonour.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
a plentiful country = a country of garden land. Hebrew the land of a Carmel. Compare Isa 33:9; Isa 35:2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
brought: Num 13:27, Num 14:7, Num 14:8, Deu 6:10, Deu 6:11, Deu 6:18, Deu 8:7-9, Deu 11:11, Deu 11:12, Neh 9:25, Eze 20:6
a plentiful country: or, the land of Carmel
ye defiled: Jer 3:1, Jer 3:9, Jer 16:18, Lev 18:24-28, Num 35:33, Num 35:34, Deu 21:23, Psa 78:58, Psa 78:59, Psa 106:38, Psa 106:39, Eze 36:17, Mic 2:10
Reciprocal: Exo 3:8 – unto a good Lev 18:25 – the land Isa 26:10 – in the Jer 3:2 – thou hast Jer 32:30 – children Eze 20:18 – defile Eze 20:28 – they saw Hos 9:3 – the Lord’s Mal 2:11 – profaned
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 2:7. This bride was brought safely through the honeymoon until she was conducted to the place that was to be her home. And what a great home it was that her loving husband had provided for her! An entire tract large enough to accommodate a country, and thriving with luscious fruits and everything one could reasonably desire. With such provisions it would he expected that a bride would be contented and happy, and satisfied with nothing short of wholehearted devotion to such a wonderful companion. Sad to say, this bride not only became coldhearted toward her husband who had provided her with such a wonderful home, but she began at once to corrupt this good dowry with wild plants and weeds of idolatry.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 2:7-8. And I brought you into a plentiful country Hebrew, into the land of Carmel. Carmel was so fertile a part of Judea, that the word from thence came to be used to express a fruitful place in general. Canaan was as one great, fruitful field, Deu 8:7. When ye entered, ye defiled my land By your sins, especially by your idolatries, Psa 106:38; that sin being greatly aggravated by this circumstance, that the people thereby renounced Gods authority in that very land into which he had brought them, by a train of unparalleled wonders, and the propriety of which he had reserved to himself, though he had graciously bestowed upon them the use of it: see Lev 25:23. The priests said not, Where is the Lord? That race of men, whom I exalted to the honourable office of ministering to me in holy things, neither inquired after me, nor cultivated any acquaintance or intercourse with me. And they that handle the law knew me not They, whom I appointed to the important office of instructing others in the knowledge of me and their duty, (see Mal 2:6-7,) were ignorant or regardless of it themselves. And this was the principal cause of that degeneracy of manners which prevailed among the people. The pastors also transgressed against me By pastors here, distinguished from the priests and prophets, are meant the kings, princes, and chiefs of the nation; for the word pastor is used in the prophets for a magistrate, as well as for a teacher of the people, and ecclesiastical governor. And the prophets prophesied by Baal Gave forth prophecies in the name of Baal, with a view to recommend him as a god. Or, they that should have taught the people the true worship of God, were themselves worshippers of, and advocates for, Baal, and drew others from God to the worship of that idol; and walked after things that do not profit Namely, after idols; things that could not possibly do them any service, but were sure to bring ruin upon them. It appears from hence, that all orders and degrees of men in authority had contributed to that general corruption of manners, whereof Jeremiah complains.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit of it and the goodness of it but when ye entered, ye defiled {h} my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
(h) By your idolatry and wicked manners, Psa 78:58; Psa 106:38 .
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord had brought His people into a fruitful land and had given them its produce and wealth, but they had defiled His land with their sins and made it an abomination with their idolatry.