Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:9
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
9. plead ] rather, contend, as both A.V. and R.V. rightly render in Isa 49:25; Isa 50:8. To the modern ear the word “plead” suggests intercession, entreaty, a sense which the Hebrew verb never bears.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Plead – The word used by the plaintiff setting forth his accusation in a law-court (see Job 33:13 note).
With you – The present generation, who by joining in Manassehs apostasy have openly violated Yahwehs covenant. The fathers made the nation what it now is, the children will receive it such as the present generation are now making it to be, and God will judge it according as the collective working of the past, the present, and the future tends to good or to evil.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 2:9-13
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods?
Christian controversy
The text may be put into other words, thus: Go over to the islands of the Chittim, the isles and coast lands of the far west; then go to Kedar, away in the eastern desert,–go from east to west,–and ask if any heathen land has given up its idols, and you will find that no such thing has ever taken place; but whilst the heathen have kept to their gods as if they bad strong love for them, My people, for whom I have done so much, whose names are on the palms of My hands, have turned away from Me, and have given up their living and loving God for that which can do them no good. There must be some way of accounting for conduct so clearly unreasonable and ungrateful. We may perhaps find our way to the secret step by step, if we notice one or two things that we ourselves are in the habit of doing. We all know how much easier it is to keep up the form of religion than to be true to its spirit. Say that religion is a number of things to be done, some at this hour and some at that, and you bring it, so to speak, within range of the hand, and make it manageable; but instead of doing this, show that religion means spiritual worship, a sanctified conscience, and a daily, sacrifice of the will, and you at once invoke the severest resistance to its supremacy. Or say that religion simply means a passive acceptance of certain dogmas that can be fully expressed in words, which make no demand upon inquiry or sympathy, and you will awaken the least possible opposition; but make it a spiritual authority, a rigorous and incessant discipline imposed upon the whole life, and you will send a sword upon the earth, and enkindle a great fire. Earnest religious controversy seems to be but the higher aspect of another controversy which has vexed man through all time. The study of God is the higher side of the study of man. It is a singular thing that man has never been able to make himself quite out, though he has been zealously mindful of the doctrine that the proper study of mankind is man. He wants to know exactly whence he came and what he is; but the voice which answers him is sometimes mocking, and nearly always doubtful. Is it wonderful that man, who has had so much difficulty with himself, should have had proportionately greater difficulty with such a God as is revealed in the Bible? On the contrary, it will be found that the two studies–the study of man and the study of God–always go together, and that the ardour of the one determines the intensity of the other. In this view the text might read thus: Pass over the isles of the Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see whether the inhabitants thereof have studied the physiology and chemistry of their own bodies; but the philosophers of Christendom have built themselves upon protoplasm. Kedar cared nothing about humanity, and therefore it cared nothing about divinity. When man is not deeply interested in himself it is not likely that he will be deeply interested in God. In the doctrine that the very greatness of God is itself the occasion of religious controversy, and even of religious doubt and defective constancy, we find the best answer to a difficulty created by the words of the text. That difficulty may be put thus: If the people of Chittim and of Kedar are faithful to their gods, does it not prove that those gods have power to inspire and retain confidence? and if the people of Israel are always turning away from their God, does it not show that their God is unable to keep His hold upon their occasional love? Such a putting of the case would be valid if inquiry be limited to the letter. But if we go below the surface we must instantly strip it of all worth as a plea on behalf of idolatry. Clearly so; for, not to go further, if it proves anything it proves too much; thus–the marble statue which you prize so highly has never given you a moments pain; your child has occasioned you days and nights of anxiety; therefore a marble statue has more moral power (power to retain your admiration) than has a child. Your clock you understand thoroughly; you can unmake and make it again, and explain its entire mechanism down to the finest point of its action; but that child of yours is a mystery which seems to increase day by day: therefore you have more satisfaction in the clock than in the child. So the argument in favour of Kedar proves nothing, because it not only proves too much, but lands the reasoner in a practical absurdity. The foundation of this argument is, that of all subjects that engage the human mind, religion (whether true or false) is the most exciting; that in proportion as it enlarges its claims, will it be likely to occasion controversy; and that, as the religion of the Bible enlarges its claims beyond all other religions, assailing the intellect, the conscience, the will, and bringing every thought and every imagination of the heart into subjection, and demanding the corroboration of spiritual faith by works that rise to the point of self-crucifixion, the probability is that there will not only be a controversy between man and man as to its authority and beneficence, but also a controversy between man and God as to its acceptance; and that out of this latter controversy will come the very defection complained of in the text, and will come also the vexatious human controversies which may really be but so many excuses for resisting the moral discipline of the Gospel. This is the whole argument. Specially is to be noted that the principal controversy is not between man and man, but between man and God; our hearts are not loyal to our Maker; His commandments are grievous to souls that love their ease. The God of grace, rich in all comfort and promise, we do not cast off. We want such a God. But the God of law, of purity, of judgment, terrible in wrath and not to be deceived by lies, our hearts can only receive with broken loyalty, loving Him today, and grieving Him tomorrow. It is in this sad fact that we find the only satisfactory explanation of the slowness of the spread of the Christian kingdom. Evil hates goodness, hates light, hates God; and as truth cannot fight with carnal weapons, or force, itself upon the world by physical means, it can only stand at the door and knock, and mourn the slowness which it cannot accelerate. It is Gods will that the rock grow slowly, and that the forest hasten not its maturity; but it is surely not the will of the Lord that His children should grieve Him long, and provoke Him to wrath through many generations. We have been speaking of the controversy respecting the Unseen and Invisible God. There is a distinct effort made in our day to turn the controversy out of historical channels, and to fasten it upon abstract speculation. We must resist this effort, for we, at all events, believe that the discussion concerning essential Deity was started from a new centre when Jesus Christ came into the world. No name given under heaven amongst men has occasioned, and is now occasioning, so much controversy as the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Men do not know what to make of Christ. You cannot get rid of Christ: you exclude Him from your schools by Act of Parliament, but He, passing through the midst of you, says, Suffer Me and the children to meet; let the flowers see the sun; you find Him in statute books, in philanthropic institutions, in literature; you find Him now just as His disciples found Him, in out-of-the-way places, doing out-of-the-way things;–they marvelled that He spake with the woman,–the eternal marvel, the eternal hope! This leads us to remark that how strong soever Christianity may be in force and dignity of pure argument–and in that direction it has proved itself victorious on all fields–its mightiest force for good is in its vital and inexhaustible sympathy. Christianity as a sympathetic religion, tender, hopeful, patient, with morning light forever falling on its uplifted eyes, leaning with all its trust upon the Cross of the atoning Son of God, calling men from sin, ignorance, and death, is a figure the world will not willingly spare in its day of anguish and sore distress. It will be interesting to observe how God Himself meets the controversy which He deplores, for in doing so, we may learn a method of reply. When God answers, His reply must be the best. Look at the Divine challenge: What iniquity have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me? This sublime challenge you cannot find in all the sayings of heathen gods. And this is the invincible defence of the Christian religion in all ages and in all lands,–you have purity at the centre, you have holiness on the throne! Those who have read Augustines immortal work, The City of God, will remember with what fierce eloquence he scourges the gods of pagan Rome. How biting his tone, how keen his retorts, how broad his sarcasm! Why, he sternly demands, did the gods publish no laws which might have guided their devotees to a virtuous life? And again, Did ever the walls of any of their temples echo to any such warning voice? I myself, he continues, when I was a young man, used sometimes to go to sacrilegious entertainments and spectacles; I saw the priests raving in religious excitement, and before the couch of the mother of the gods there were sung productions so obscene and filthy for the ear that not even the mother of the foul-mouthed players themselves could have formed one of the audience. History, as you know, is full of such instances. Remembering these things, you may see the force of the inquiry, What iniquity have your fathers found in Me? This is the invincible defence of the Christian religion today. Observe how Jesus Christ repeats the very challenge we find in the text,–Which of you convinceth Me of sin? And, later on, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. They had accused Him often, but had convicted Him never! We apply this doctrine with timidity, for who would wilfully slay himself, or bring judgment upon a thousand men? Yet the application is this: When the Church is holy, the Christian controversy is ended in universal and immortal triumph! (J. Parker, D. D.)
Changing gods
The records of all ages exhibit the strange obstinacy with which the heathen usually cling to their superstitions. If we except the triumphs obtained over paganism by the Gospel of Christ from the apostolic age up to the present, some of which even in our own day have been most signal, the idolatrous nations of the world still perpetuate the absurd and unholy practices transmitted to them by their fathers. Most urgent then is it upon all Christians to feel pity for their fellow creatures sunk in the darkness and guilt of heathenism, and by Christian teachers to rescue them from their fearful condition. But there is also another practical consideration connected with a survey of the obstinate blindness and superstition of the heathen, and their devotion to their idolatrous worship, namely, the contrast which it affords to the conduct of too many who consider themselves worshippers of the one true God, and of Jesus Christ whom He hath sent. May it not too truly be said, Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
I. We have set before us evil conduct of the people.
1. The first step in the career of evil is forsaking God. This is the fountain and root of all other sins. While the prodigal son remained contented under his parents roof he knew nothing of the want, the hunger, which he afterwards experienced. His first sin, and that which led to all the evils which overtook him, was his neglect towards his parent, his indifference to his approbation, his wish to cast off the duties he owed to him. If then we would guard against evil, we must watch over our hearts, and beware of forsaking God. The more gross violations of His law are readily discovered, while perhaps we think little or nothing of that great sin which is the foundation of all others.
2. But this sin leads to another; for we are not content when we forsake God, that our hearts should continue a mere blank; we seek to fill up the void which His absence has made, and to find our satisfaction in other objects, which can never afford us true repose. Having forsaken God, we choose to ourselves idols. In the words of the Almighty in the chapter before us, they are gone far from Me, and have walked after vanity, and become vain; they even refuse His offers of peace and reconciliation.
II. Such is the universal offence of mankind against God: we proceed now to show the sinfulness, the ingratitude, and the folly, which are involved in it.
1. Its extreme sinfulness. Persons are apt to speak and to think of these subjects with the most careless indifference. They do not consider themselves as virtually addressed in such words as those in the chapter which precedes our text, where Jehovah says by His prophet, I will utter My judgments against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken Me, and have burned incense unto other gods. They do not open their eyes to the aggravation of their crime, as pointed out even by our natural sense of obligation to our Creator, of which the very heathen are examples; for, says the Almighty, hath any nation changed their gods, which are yet no god? The light of natural reason taught them that they ought to obey their Creator, their preserver, and their benefactor. But the proof of our sinfulness in forsaking God, and in placing our trust and happiness in the things of this present life, does not depend upon the mere light of natural conscience; for we have in our possession a revelation from Himself, in which He plainly declares to us His own unerring decision upon the subject. Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear Him, and keep His commandments, and obey His voice; and ye shall serve Him, and cleave unto Him.
2. But the sinfulness of forsaking God, and preferring other things to His service, is greatly aggravated by the ingratitude involved in the offence. The Almighty reminds His rebellious people of the miracles of mercy which He had performed on their behalf; how He had brought them out of the land of Egypt, etc. He gave them His law to guide them, and pastors to teach them; and He challenges them, as it were, to point out any instance in which He had acted unjustly or unkindly towards them: what iniquity have your fathers found in Me?
3. But there is still another consideration dwelt upon by the prophet in reference to this sinful and ungrateful course of conduct, namely, its unparalleled folly. The very heathen would not give up their vain hope of benefit from the supposed protection of their images of wood and stone; yet the professed worshippers of the one living and true God are too often willing to sacrifice the inestimable blessings of His favour for the most trifling gratifications of a frail and sinful life. My people have changed their glory, for that which doth not profit. No! it is the height of folly thus to choose the worldly mammon before the true riches; to forsake God for the creature; and to prefer earth to heaven, and time to eternity. Are we not conscious that we have seen guilty of the sin of forsaking God? (Christian Observer.)
Hath a nation changed their gods?
Xenophon said it was an oracle of Apollo, that these gods are rightly worshipped which were delivered them by their ancestors; and this he greatly applaudeth. Cicero also saith, that no reason shall ever prevail with him to relinquish the religion of his forefathers. The monarch of Morocco told an English ambassador that he had lately read St. Paul, and that he disliked nothing in him but this, that he had changed his religion, (John Trapp.)
Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this.
Seven wonders
Parents of olden time were wont to tell their eager children of seven wonders:
(1) The Pyramids.
(2) The Temple of the great Diana of the Ephesians.
(3) The Statue of Jupiter at Olympia.
(4) The Tomb of Mausolus. What a satire on immortality! Who was Mausolus? We know not, but the mausoleum is with us. He gave his name and glory to his tomb.
(5) The Colossus at Rhodes.
(6) The Pharos at Alexandria.
(7) The Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
We have to do, however, at this moment with marvels in the province of the spiritual life. There are some things here touching our relations with the spiritual world whereat heaven must wonder. A thoughtful man will find it impossible to explain them.
I. An unclaimed crown. God made man in His likeness, with a splendid birthright and glorious possibilities before him. He was of the line royal, the blood of the King of kings flowing in his veins. Where is the man to whom God extends this crown? See him yonder chasing butterflies, pursuing thistle down. He calls this pleasure. See him toiling with a muck rake, his eyes downcast, plucking coins out of the garbage and loading himself with them. He calls this wealth. See him climbing laboriously the rocky side of yonder cliff that he may carve his initials upon its face–and fall. And this is fame! All the while the windows of heaven are open above him and the glory of the celestial realms is unveiled before him. He gives no heed.
II. A secret sin. Here we touch the lowest part of our nature. A dog with a bone sneaks off to a corner of the garden and buries it, watching meanwhile out of the corners of his eyes that none may know his secret. So we bury our darling sins; so we flatter ourselves that none shall ever find us out. An Egyptian princess died four thousand years ago, and her body was committed to a company of priests for embalming. They said, Let us save ourselves the trouble; it will never be known. So they dipped the body of a common Egyptian into bitumen and placed it in the princess casket. It was a clever trick; but a few years ago, before a company of scientists at Tremont Temple, gathered together to witness the unswathing of the royal mummy, the bands of byssus were unwound, and the fraud perpetrated by those priests, now forty centuries dead and turned to dust, was detected. There is, indeed, nothing hidden that shall not be brought to light, and that which is done in a corner shall be proclaimed on the housetop.
III. A reprobates laugh. Not long ago I heard the merry laughter of a girl and looked that way. A carriage was passing by. Through the open window I saw two women, the one old, haggard, bedizened–it was easy to discern her vocation–the other a sweet-faced girl late from some country home, going garlanded to death. God help her! How dare they laugh who are hurrying on unprepared to the judgment bar? Yet they are making merry everywhere. O men and women, let us De safe and then be merry.
IV. A Christians groan. We profess to believe that the past is forgiven, all gone like a nightmare, and that heaven is open before us and that Christ walks with us, an ever-present and helpful friend. If a man believes these things, how can he ever hang his head like a bulrush? Surely something is wrong. One night in Newgate prison a man sang cheerily and swung like a boy on the post of his bed. Fine shining shall we have tomorrow! Who is this, and what shining shall there be? This is John Bradford, and tomorrow he is to die at the stake. But what matter, if the day after tomorrow he shall be in the midst of the merry making of heaven? Why, shall he not with gladsome heart be praising God?
V. A tattered livery. Our Lord tells of a marriage feast whereat a certain one was found who had not on the wedding gown. His host remonstrated with him, Friend, how earnest thou in hither in this garb? And the man was silent. We are going to the marriage supper of the Lamb. Our heavenly Host has provided for us fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. To appear in that heavenly presence clad in our own righteousness is to be found arrayed in rags and tatters, for all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.
VI. An averted face. A few days ago, at a hanging in a neighbouring State, it is said that twenty thousand people left town and tramped four miles along a country road to see a poor wretch swung from the gallows tree. There is, indeed, something brutal in our human nature. When our Lord was dying on the accursed tree it is written, The people stood beholding. Is it strange that men should look on anguish with a calm delight? Was it strange that men could look at Jesus dying and feel no responsive thrill of sympathy? Ah! a thousand times stranger is it that some of us should refuse to look upon Him! We hide, as it were, our faces from Him; He is despised and we esteem Him not.
VII. A waiting God. Behold, I stand at the door, etc. Wonderful patience! Love that passeth knowledge! His arms are loaded with the dainties of the kingdom, apples and pomegranates from the Kings gardens, and bread of life. Oh, let us draw the bolts that He may come in and sup with us! (D. J. Burrell, D. D.)
Sin unnatural
There is something unaccountable and unnatural about sin, which, if we were not the victims of its power every day, would startle and make us horribly afraid. If we merely heard of it as existing in some other of Gods worlds, we should doubt whether the report could be true. We should demand more than the usual amount of testimony before believing so unnatural a story, and when it was proved, should not cease to wonder, and to ask what cause beyond our experience had brought to pass a thing so marvellous.
I. It prevents men from pursuing what they own to be the highest good. There is a passage of Ovid where a person in a conflict between reason and desire is made to say, Video meliora proboque, deteriora sequor; and in a like strain we hear Paul, or rather the man made aware of the bondage of sin saying through him, That which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not, but what I hate, that I do. So true to human nature such words are, that no one ever thought of them as being misrepresentations of the real state of man. Everywhere we see examples of this sacrifice of a higher good to a lower, of acknowledged greater happiness to less, of the improvement of the mind to the enjoyments of the body, of future hopes to present pleasure, of an object of desire felt to be praiseworthy and exalted to one which is base and low and sure to be followed by remorse. We find this cleaving to the best of men and to the wisest: the influences of the Gospel may weaken but never remove this tendency. It belongs to mankind. Is there not, now, something very strange in this fatal proclivity toward the low, in this constant, wide-spread, unalterable folly of choosing wrong within the moral sphere of action. Suppose we found the same obliquity of judgment and choice elsewhere–that, for instance, a scholar, aware what was the right meaning of a passage according to the laws of thought and language, deliberately chose a wrong meaning; or a merchant, acquainted with the laws of trade, undertook an adventure with his eyes open, from which only ruin was to be expected; or a general, patriotic and discerning, adopted a plan of battle which all his experience had condemned as sure to end in his defeat: should we not regard such a person as a kind of moral prodigy, as fit to be put away in a museum of morbid psychology among the deranged men who have believed themselves to he two persons, or that their souls had gone from their bodies?
II. It is not dependent on a weak capacity, but the very highest intellects are often employed in its service. It is indeed true, that sagacity and folly will differ in their ways of sinning and of escaping detection. An absurd, or ill-contrived, crime will be committed by a boy or a half-witted person, and not by a man of shrewdness. Whence it may happen that the criminals in a penitentiary may be, in the average, below the ordinary range of intellect. In other words, the vigour of mind will show itself, either by abstaining from certain crimes, or by committing them in such a way that they will not be brought to light. But we do not find that the highest abilities keep men from sinning, from a life of pleasure, from deadly selfishness, from feelings which carry with them their own sting. Great minds lie like wrecks all along the course of life; either they disbelieve against evidence, or give themselves up to monstrous pleasures, or destroy the welfare of society by their self-will, or gnaw upon themselves with a deadly hatred of others.
III. Its existence involves the contradiction of the freedom and the slavery of the will. This is but another aspect of the truth which we have already considered–that the soul steadily chooses in some strange way an inferior good before a superior; but it is too important a view of our nature not to be noticed by itself. Mankind, in choosing the evil, have been an enigma to themselves and to the philosophers who have studied human nature. We see our nature exercise its freedom in various ways,–choosing now a higher good in preference to a lower, and now a lower before a higher,–doing this over and over within the sphere of earthly things, yet when it looks the supreme good full in the face unable to choose Him, unable to love Him, until, in some great crisis which we call conversion, and which is as marvellous as sin is, we find the soul acting with recovered power, acting out itself, and soaring in love to the fountain and life of its being. It is as if a balance should tell every small weight with minutest accuracy, and when a large weight was put on, should refuse to move at all. It is as if the planets should feel each others attraction hut be insensible to the force of the central sun. Is not sin then as unaccountable as it is deep seated and spreading in our nature?
IV. It has a power of resisting all known motives to a better life. This, again, is only another form of the remark, that we are kept by sin from pursuing our highest good; but under this last head we view man as opposing Gods plan for his salvation, while the other is more general. Here we see how causeless and unreasonable are the movements of sin, even when its bitterness has been experienced, and the way of recovery been made known. The way in which the Gospel comes to us is the most inviting possible–through a person who lived a life like ours on earth, and came into tender sympathy with us; through a concrete exhibition of everything true and good, not through doctrine and abstract statement. It has been the religion of our fathers, and of the holy in all time. It is venerable in our eyes. It is Gods voice to us. Where else can so many motives, such power of persuasion be found; and yet where else, in what other sphere where motives operate, is there so little success? Even Christians who have given themselves to the Gospel confess that all these weighty considerations often fail to move them; that they stand still or turn backwards a great part of their lives rather than make progress. So marvellous is the power of sin to deaden the force of motives to virtue, even in the minds of the best persons the world contains.
V. It can blind the mind to truth and evidence. Of this we see numberless examples in daily life. We see men who have been accustomed to judge of evidence within the same sphere in which religion moves, that of moral and historical proof, rejecting the Gospel and afterwards acknowledging that they were wilfully prejudiced, that their objections ought to have had no weight with a candid mind. We see prejudice against the Gospel lurking under some plausible but false plea, which the man has never taken the pains to examine, although immense personal interests are involved. We see men rejecting the Gospel unthinkingly, repeating some stale argument scarcely worth refutation, as if a great matter like the welfare of the soul might be trifled with, and made light of. It is strange, too, how quick the change is, when for some reason the moral or religious sensibilities are awakened after long slumber, how quick, I say, the change is from scepticism, or denial of the Gospel, or even hostility, to a state of belief. Multitudes of intelligent men have passed through such a conversion, and have felt ever afterwards that truth and evidence were sufficient, but that their souls were in a dishonest state. Now, how is this? Is this a new prejudice which has seized upon them, at their conversion, and has their candid scepticism given way to dishonest faith; or did sin,–that which in a thousand ways, through hope and fear, through indolence, through malignity, through love of pleasure, blinds and stupefies, did sin destroy their power of being candid before?
VI. The inconsistency of sin is marvellous in this respect that we allow and excuse in ourselves what we condemn in others. Men seem sometimes to have no moral sense, so open are their violations of morality, and so false their justifications of their conduct. And yet, when they come to pass censure upon others, they show such a quickness to discern little faults, such an acquaintance with the rule of duty, such an unwillingness to make allowances, that you would think a new faculty had been imparted to their minds. These severe critics of others are all the while laying up decisions and precedents against themselves, yet when their cases come on, the judges reverse their own judgments. They condemn men unsparingly for sins to which they are not tempted, although the radical principle in their own and in others sins is confessedly the same. Marvellous inconsistency! Strange that the same mind balances between two standards of conduct so long. Why does not the man, whose own rules condemn himself, begin to sentence himself, or to excuse and pardon others? Is not this an unnatural state of mind; impossible, save on the supposition that it is effected by some strange perversion of its judgments? (T. D. Woolsey.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. I will yet plead with you] arib, I will maintain my process, vindicate my own conduct, and prove the wickedness of yours.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
I will yet plead with you: this is to be understood either really, by his judgments, Psa 74:22, and that with great severities; or verbally, he will go on to deal with them, to convince them by his prophets, as he did with their fathers, that they may be left without excuse, Jer 7:25,26.
With your childrens children; either for the heinousness of their fathers sins; for God doth often visit the iniquities of the parents upon their children, Exo 20:5; or because they do imitate their parents.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. yet pleadnamely, byinflicting still further judgments on you.
children’s childrenThreemanuscripts and JEROMEomit “children’s”; they seem to have thought it unsuitableto read “children’s children,” when “children”had not preceded. But it is designedly so written, to intimate thatthe final judgment on the nation would be suspended for manygenerations [HORSLEY].(Compare Eze 20:35; Eze 20:36;Mic 6:2).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord,…. Either verbally, by reasoning with them, and reproving them for their ignorance, stupidity, and idolatry; or by deeds, inflicting punishment upon them; so the Targum,
“therefore I will take vengeance on you, or punish you, saith the Lord:”
and with your children’s children will I plead; who imitate their parents, and do the same evil things as they, which the Lord knew they would; and was particularly true of the Jews in the times of Christ, for which reason wrath came upon them to the uttermost.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Such backsliding from God is unexampled and appalling. Jer 2:9. “ Therefore will I further contend with you, ad with your children’s children will I contend. Jer 2:10. For go over to the islands of the Chittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and observe well, and see if such things have been; Jer 2:11. whether a nation hath changed it gods, which indeed are no gods? but my people hath changed its glory for that which profits not. Jer 2:12 . Be horrified, ye heavens, at this, and shudder, and be sore dismayed, saith Jahveh. Jer 2:13. For double evil hath my people done; me have they forsaken, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, the hold no water.”
In the preceding verses the fathers were charged with the backsliding from the Lord; in Jer 2:9 punishment is threatened against the now-living people of Israel, and on their children’s children after them. For the people in its successive and even yet future generations constitutes a unity, and in this unity a moral personality. Since the sins of the fathers transmit themselves to the children and remoter descendants, sons and grandsons must pay the penalty of the fathers’ guilt, that is, so long as they share the disposition of their ancestors. The conception of this moral unity is at the foundation of the threatening. That the present race persists in the fathers’ backsliding from the Lord is clearly expressed in Jer 2:17. In “I will further chide or strive,” is intimated implicite that God had chidden already up till now, or even earlier with the fathers. , contend, when said of God, is actual striving or chastening with all kinds of punishment. This must God do as the righteous and holy one; for the sin of the people is an unheard of sin, seen in no other people. “The islands of the Chittim” are the isles and coast lands of the far west, as in Eze 27:6; having originally been the name for Cyprus and the city of Cition, see in Gen 10:4. In contrast with these distant western lands, Kedar is mentioned as representative of the races of the east. The Kedarenes lived as a pastoral people in the eastern part of the desert between Arabia Petraea and Babylonia; see in Gen 25:13 and Eze 27:21. Peoples in the two opposite regions of the world are individualizingly mentioned instead of all peoples. , give good heed, serves to heighten the expression. = introduces the indirect question; cf. Ew. 324, c. The unheard of, that which has happened amongst no people, is put interrogatively for rhetorical effect. Has any heathen nation changed its gods, which indeed are not truly gods? No; no heathen nation has done this; but the people of Jahveh, Israel, has exchanged its glory, i.e., the God who made Himself known to it in His glory, for false gods that are of no profit. is the glory in which the invisible God manifested His majesty in the world and amidst His people. Cf. the analogous title given to God, , Amo 8:7; Hos 5:5. The exact antithesis to would be , cf. Jer 3:24; Jer 11:13; but Jeremiah chose to represent the exchange as not advantageous. God showed His glory to the Israelites in the glorious deeds of His omnipotence and grace, like those mentioned in Jer 2:5 and Jer 2:6. The Baals, on the other hand, are not , but, nothings, phantoms without a being, that bring no help or profit to their worshippers. Before the sin of Israel is more fully set forth, the prophet calls on heaven to be appalled at it. The heavens are addressed as that part of the creation where the glory of God is most brightly reflected. The rhetorical aim is seen in the piling up of words. , lit., to be parched up, to be deprived of the life-marrow. Israel has committed two crimes: a. It has forsaken Jahveh, the fountain of living water. , living water, i.e., water that originates and nourishes life, is a significant figure for God, with whom is the fountain of life (Psa 36:10), i.e., from whose Spirit all life comes. Fountain of living water (here and Jer 17:13) is synonymous with well of life in Pro 10:11; Pro 13:14; Pro 14:27, Sir. 21:13. b. The other sin is this, that they hew or dig out wells, broken, rent, full of crevices, that hold no water. The delineation keeps to the same figure. The dead gods have no life and can dispense no life, just as wells with rents or fissures hold no water. The two sins, the forsaking of the living God and the seeking out of dead gods, cannot really be separated. Man, created by God and for God, cannot live without God. If he forsake the living God, he passes in spite of himself into the service of dead, unreal gods. Forsaking the living God is eo ipso exchanging Him for an imaginary god. The prophet sets the two moments of the apostasy from God side by side, so as to depict to the people with greater fulness of light the enormity of their crime. The fact in Jer 2:11 that no heathen nation changes its gods for others, has its foundation in this, that the gods of the heathen are the creations of men, and that the worship of them is moulded by the carnal-mindedness of sinful man; so that there is less inducement to change, the gods of the different nations being in nature alike. But the true God claims to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, and does not permit the nature and manner of His worship to depend on the fancies of His worshippers; He makes demands upon men that run counter to carnal nature, insisting upon the renunciation of sensual lusts and cravings and the crucifixion of the flesh, and against this corrupt carnal nature rebels. Upon this reason for the fact adduced, Jeremiah does not dwell, but lays stress on the fact itself. This he does with the view of bringing out the distinction, wide as heaven, between the true God and the false gods, to the shaming of the idolatrous people; and in order, at the same time, to scourge the folly of idolatry by giving prominence to the contrast between the glory of God and the nothingness of the idols.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Expostulations with Israel. | B. C. 629. |
9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead. 10 For pass over 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.
The prophet, having shown their base ingratitude in forsaking God, here shows their unparalleled fickleness and folly (v. 9): I will yet plead with you. Note, Before God punishes sinners he pleads with them, to bring them to repentance. Note, further, When much has been said of the evil of sin, still there is more to be said; when one article of the charge is made good, there is another to be urged; when we have said a great deal, still we have yet to speak on God’s behalf, Job xxxvi. 2. Those that deal with sinners, for their conviction, must urge a variety of arguments and follow their blow. God had before pleaded with their fathers, and asked why they walked after vanity and became vain, v. 5. Now he pleads with those who persisted in that vain conversation received by tradition from their fathers, and with their children’s children, that is, with all that in every age tread in their steps. Let those that forsake God know that he is willing to argue the case fairly with them, that he may be justified when he speaks. He pleads that with us which we should plead with ourselves.
I. He shows that they acted contrary to the usage of all nations. Their neighbours were more firm and faithful to their false gods than they were to the true God. They were ambitious of being like the nations, and yet in this they were unlike them. He challenges them to produce an instance of any nation that had changed their gods (Jer 2:10; Jer 2:11) or were apt to change them. Let them survey either the old records or the present state of the isles of Chittim, Greece, and the European islands, the countries that were more polite and learned, and of Kedar, that lay south-east (as the other north-west from them), which were more rude and barbarous; and they should not find an instance of a nation that had changed their gods, though they had never done them any kindness, nor could do, for they were no gods. Such a veneration had they for their gods, so good an opinion of them, and such a respect for the choice their fathers had made, that though they were gods of wood and stone they would not change them for gods of silver and gold, no, not for the living and true God. Shall we praise them for this? We praise them not. But it may well be urged, to the reproach of Israel, that they, who were the only people that had no cause to change their God, were yet the only people that had changed him. Note, Men are with difficulty brought off from that religion which they have been brought up in, though ever so absurd and grossly false. The zeal and constancy of idolaters should shame Christians out of their coldness and inconstancy.
II. He shows that they acted contrary to the dictates of common sense, in that they not only changed (it may sometimes be our duty and wisdom to do so), but that they changed for the worse, and made a bad bargain for themselves. 1. They parted from a God who was their glory, who made them truly glorious and every way put honour upon them, one whom they might with a humble confidence glory in as theirs, who is himself a glorious God and the glory of those whose God he is; he was particularly the glory of his people Israel, for his glory had often appeared on their tabernacle. 2. They closed with gods that could do them no good, gods that do not profit their worshippers. Idolaters change God’s glory into shame (Rom. i. 23) and so they do their own; in dishonouring him, they disgrace and disparage themselves, and are enemies to their own interest. Note, Whatever those turn to who forsake God, it will never do them any good; it will flatter them and please them, but it cannot profit them. Heaven itself is here called upon to stand amazed at the sin and folly of these apostates from God (Jer 2:12; Jer 2:13): Be astonished, O you heavens! at this. The earth is so universally corrupt that it will take no notice of it; but let the heavens and heavenly bodies be astonished at it. Let the sun blush to see such ingratitude and be afraid to shine upon such ungrateful wretches. Those that forsook God worshipped the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; but these, instead of being pleased with the adorations that were paid to them, were astonished and horribly afraid; and would rather have been very desolate, utterly exhausted (as the word is) and deprived of their light, than that it should have given occasion to any to worship them. Some refer it to the angels of heaven; if they rejoice at the return of souls to God, we may suppose that they are astonished and horribly afraid at the revolt of souls from him. The meaning is that the conduct of this people towards God was, (1.) Such as we may well be astonished and wonder at, that ever men, who pretend to reason, should do a thing so very absurd. (2.) Such as we ought to have a holy indignation at as impious, and a high affront to our Maker, whose honour every good man is jealous for. (3.) Such as we may tremble to think of the consequences of. What will be in the end hereof? Be horribly afraid to think of the wrath and curse which will be the portion of those who thus throw themselves out of God’s grace and favour. Now what is it that is to be thought of with all this horror? It is this: “My people, whom I have taught and should have ruled, have committed two great evils, ingratitude and folly; they have acted contrary both to their duty and to their interest.” [1.] They have affronted their God, by turning their back upon him, as if he were not worthy their notice: “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, in whom they have an abundant and constant supply of all the comfort and relief they stand in need of, and have it freely.” God is their fountain of life, Ps. xxxvi. 9. There is in him an all-sufficiency of grace and strength; all our springs are in him and our streams from him; to forsake him is, in effect, to deny this. He has been to us a bountiful benefactor, a fountain of living waters, over-flowing, ever-flowing, in the gifts of his favour; to forsake him is to refuse to acknowledge his kindness and to withhold that tribute of love and praise which his kindness calls for. [2.] They have cheated themselves, they forsook their own mercies, but it was for lying vanities. They took a great deal of pains to hew themselves out cisterns, to dig pits or pools in the earth or rock which they would carry water to, or which should receive the rain; but they proved broken cisterns, false at the bottom, so that they could hold no water. When they came to quench their thirst there they found nothing but mud and mire, and the filthy sediments of a standing lake. Such idols were to their worshippers, and such a change did those experience who turned from God to them. If we make an idol of any creature-wealth, or pleasure, or honour,–if we place our happiness in it, and promise ourselves the comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had in God only,–if we make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a cistern, which we take a great deal of pains to hew out and fill, and at the best it will hold but a little water, and that dead and flat, and soon corrupting and becoming nauseous. Nay, it is a broken cistern, that cracks and cleaves in hot weather, so that the water is lost when we have most need of it, Job vi. 15. Let us therefore with purpose of heart cleave to the Lord only, for whither else shall we go? He has the words of eternal life.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The particle עוד oud, yet, or still, is not without weight; for the Prophet intimates, that if God had already punished the perfidy and wickedness of the people, he still retained whole his right to do so, as though he had said, “Think not that you have suffered all your punishment, though I have already severely visited your fathers for their wickedness and obstinacy; for as ye proceed in the same course, and as there is no moderation nor limits to your sins, I will not desist from what I have a right to do, but will punish to the last both you and your children, and all succeeding generations.” We now then understand what the Prophet means.
It is indeed usual with hypocrites foolishly to cast off all fear, especially after having been once chastised by the Lord; for they think it enough that they have suffered punishment for their sins; and they do not consider that God moderately punishes the sins of men to invite others to repentance, and that he is in such a way sharp and severe as yet to restrain himself, in order that there may be room for hope, and that they who have sinned, while waiting for pardon, may thus more readily and willingly return to the right way. This is what hypocrites do not consider; but they think that God on the first occasion expends all his rigor, and so they promise themselves impunity as to the future. As for instance, — When God chastises a city, or a country, with war, pestilence, or famine, while the evils continue there is dread and anxiety: most of those whom God thus afflicts sigh and groan, and even howl; but as soon as some relaxation takes place, they shake off the yoke, and having no concern for their wickedness, they return again as dogs to their vomit. It is hence necessary to declare to hypocrites what we see to have been done here by Jeremiah, — that God so visits men for their sins, that in future he ceases not to pursue the same course, when he sees men so refractory as not to profit under his scourges.
Still, therefore, he says: this threat no doubt exasperated the minds of the nation: for as they dared to clamor against God, as we find in many places, and said that his ways were thorny, they spared not the prophets, and this we shall hereafter see: they indeed gave the prophets an odious character; and what? “These prophets,” they said, “chatter nothing else but burdens, burdens, as though God ever fulminated against us; it would be better to close our ears than to be continually frightened by their words.” It must then have been a severe thing to the Jews, when the Prophet said, Still God will contend with you But it was needful so to do.
Let us then learn from this passage, that whenever God reproves us, not only in words, but in reality, and reminds us of our sins, we do not so suffer for one fault as to be free for the future, but that until we from the heart repent, he ever sounds in our ears these words, Still God will contend with you: and a real contention is meant; for Jeremiah speaks not of naked doctrine, but intimates that the Jews were to be led before God’s tribunal, because they ceased not to provoke his wrath: (36) and he declares the same thing respecting their children and the third generation. It afterwards follows —
(36) Gataker thinks that it was verbal pleading: “It is as if he had said, ‘I have argued the case with your forefathers already, let me debate the matter a little further with you, and let your posterity also consider well what I now say,‘ (see Deu 31:19.) And so is the same word afterwards used for debating the case or pleading, verse 29 (Jer 2:29).” Henry, Adam Clarke, and Blayney, take the same view; but Scott seems to agree with Calvin The verb רוב, followed as it is here by את, ever means a verbal dispute or contention. See Num 20:13; Neh 13:11; Proverb 25:9; Isa 45:9. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
C. Penetrating Analysis Jer. 2:9-19
TRANSLATION
(9) So yet I present My case against you (oracle of the LORD), and with your children I must contend. (10) For pass over to the isles of Kittim and look! To Kedar send and make serious investigation! See if there was ever the like. (11) Has a nation changed gods (and they are non-gods)? But My people have exchanged their Glory for the useless one. (12) Be appalled, O heavens, at this! Bristle and be exceedingly amazed (oracle of the LORD). (13) For two evils My people have done: Me they have forsaken, a fountain of living water, to hew for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns which can not contain water. (14) Is Israel a bondman? Is he a house-born slave? Why does he become a prey? (15) Against him the lions roar, they let their voice resound; they have made his land a desolation, his cities are laid waste without inhabitant. (16) Also the children of Noph and Tahpanhes have cracked your skull. (17) Did you not bring this upon yourself in that you forsook the LORD your God when He was leading you in the way? (18) And now, what advantage is it to you to go to Egypt to drink the waters of the Nile or what advantage is it to you to go to Assyria to drink of the waters of the River? (19) Your wickedness shall chastise you and your backsliding shall rebuke you. Know and see that bad and bitter is your forsaking the LORD your God, and My fear you do not possess (oracle of the LORD, GOD of host).
COMMENTS
In Jer. 2:9-19 the prophet analyzes the present apostasy pointing out (1) the deplorable condition of apostasy (Jer. 2:9-13) and (2) the terrible consequences of their backsliding (Jer. 2:14-19).
1. The deplorable condition of apostasy (Jer. 2:9-13)
As a prosecutor arguing his case before a jury the Lord presents His case against Israel. A technical legal word is actually used in Jer. 2:9 which means to plead in a legal sense or present ones case. The you of Jer. 2:9 probably refers to the past generation of apostates about whom the prophet has been speaking in Jer. 2:4-8. The childrens children would be the present generation to which Jeremiah was preaching. Repeated acts of rebellion through the years have called forth repeated reproach and punishment on the part of God.
The prophet argues that the apostasy of Judah is unprecedented in all the history of the world. He challenges his hearers to go westward to Kittim and eastward to Kedar to see if they could uncover another example of a nation which had changed deities (Jer. 2:10). Kittim refers to the isles of the Mediterranean (cf. Num. 24:24; Dan. 11:30) and perhaps also the coastlands of Italy and Greece (cf. Gen. 10:4). Kedar was the name of one of the sons of Ishmael (Gen. 25:13) and is here used of Arabia in general. A pagan nation will not voluntarily change gods even though they have the best reason in the world to do so viz., their gods are nonentities (Jer. 2:11). Yet Israel has changed their Glory (God)[134] for the useless one (Baal). When a nation ceases to trust in God that nation has lost its true glory.
[134] The use of Glory for God occurs in Psa. 106:20 and Psa. 3:3. A similar title for God is the Pride of Israel (Amo. 8:7; Hos. 5:5).
It is characteristic of the divine lawsuit that God or the prophet calls upon the heavens to bear testimony in the case (e.g., Mic. 6:1 f.; Isa. 1:2). Thus in Jer. 2:12 the prophet calls upon the heavens to be appalled, to bristle (lit., make your hair stand on end) and be exceedingly amazed (lit., become stiff with horror) over the sin of Judah. The heavens had looked down upon the original prophetic admonition and warning to Israel (Deu. 32:1). Now they look down upon the willful and reckless transgression of the divine will. Nature which functions in perfect obedience to the will of the Creator is, as it were, horrified at the thought of Gods highest creatures rebelling against His will.
Two specific charges are leveled against the people of God in Jer. 2:13. They have forsaken the Lord, a fountain of living water,[135] in order to hew out for themselves cisterns. A cistern in antiquity had three fundamental deficiencies: (1) The best cisterns in Palestine, even those cut in solid rock, were prone to crack thus causing the precious water to be lost. (2) Even if by constant care the cistern was made to hold, yet the water collected from clay roofs has the color of weak soapsuds, tastes like the earth and is full of worms.[136] (3) A cistern at its best is limited in the amount of water it can hold. In the hour of greatest need, during the long dry spells, it fails to supply the life-giving water. Who in their right mind would prefer this unwholesome and inadequate water supply to the sweet and wholesome water of a bubbling fountain? Why do men prefer man-made systems of salvation to the over-flowing, ever-fresh and invigorating fountain of divine grace? God satisfies the needs of the whole man both for time and eternity. One who truly drinks at this fountain shall never thirst again (Joh. 4:13).
[135] Jeremiah uses the figure again in Jer. 17:13. Many years earlier David had said of the Lord: With you M the fountain of life (Psa. 36:9).
[136] W. M. Thompson, The Land and the Book (London: Nelson, 1873), p. 287.
2. The terrible consequences of apostasy (Jer. 2:14-19)
In making the transition from considering the condition of apostasy to pointing out the consequences of apostasy, Jeremiah points to the example of the northern kingdom of Israel. Israel had been dragged away into slavery by the Assyrians. By means of two rhetorical questions the prophet drives home the point that Israel had not been born to be a slave to nations. Israel was in fact a member of the Lords family, the firstborn son of the Lord (Exo. 4:22). That Israel should be captive in another land is an unnatural state of affairs and demands a reasonable explanation. Why then has Israel become a prey to the nations, helpless to resist the advances of neighboring states? (Jer. 2:13). Israels enemies like lions have roared against Gods people, have made the land a desolation and laid waste the cities (Jer. 2:14). Why?
From Israel in the north Jeremiah turns his attention to Judah in Jer. 2:16. The verse is best regarded as a prediction written as though it has already been fulfilled.[137] The translation cracked your skull is based on a slight alternation in the Hebrew vowel points which, in effect, the American Standard Version has also followed. Noph and Tahpanhes are important Egyptian cities, the latter being a fortress commanding the road to Palestine (Jer. 44:1; Jer. 46:15). The prophecy then is that Judah will receive a mortal blow at the hands of Egypt. The fulfillment is to be found in the defeat of Josiah at Megiddo and the consequent subjugation of Judah (2Ki. 23:29).[138] Unable to learn from the fate of the northern kingdom, Judah was doomed to repeat that fate.
[137] The Hebrew language has no past, present and future tenses as does English. Hebrew is concerned only with whether a certain action is complete or incomplete. In English translations predictive prophecy has often been obscured by past tense.
[138] Some would date these verses after 609 B.C. and since the passage is not dated, this possibility cannot be ruled out.
Now why had Israel suffered? Why was Judah yet to suffer? You have brought it upon yourself, says the prophet. From the time of the wilderness wanderings to the present they had refused to follow the leading of the Lord (Jer. 2:17). Having turned from the Fountain of Living Water Judah was drinking desperately from the waters of the Nile and from the River, i.e., the Euphrates[139] in Assyria (Jer. 2:18). These broken cisterns could not provide the life-giving water the nation needed. In the view of Jeremiah there was no advantage whatsoever for Judah to become entangled in international politics.[140] The historical books of the Old Testament bear witness to the fact that Israels vacillation between Egypt and Assyria proved disastrous. Since they had forsaken the Lord and no longer feared Him they were doomed to chastisement and punishment at the hands of their enemies (Jer. 2:19). Through the depths of their suffering they would come to realize how heinous was their crime against God. They had sowed the wind and they were about to reap the whirlwind.
[139] The Euphrates river was regarded as the boundary between Syria-Palestine and Assyria. Gen. 15:18 points to the fact that the River is the Euphrates.
[140] Isaiah (Isa. 30:2-5; Jer. 31:1) and Hosea (Hos. 7:11; Hos. 7:16) had already in veighed against an Egyptian alliance.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(9) I will yet plead with you.We hear, as it were, the echo of the words of Hos. 2:2. The injured lord and husband will appear as the accuser of the faithless bride, and set forth her guilt as in an indictment.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
9. Plead Better. contend. It is the term used of the plaintiff making accusation in court. It covers all means, corrective or punitive, which would tend to establish the right.
Children’s children The fathers are mentioned in Jer 2:5, the present generation in Jer 2:7; Jer 2:9, and here, their descendants. In all, a fundamental moral unity is assumed. They are one in sin, and so will be one in punishment.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
YHWH Expresses His Astonishment At The Incredible Way In Which They Have Behaved ( Jer 2:9-13 ).
YHWH expresses His astonishment at the behaviour of His people, and calls on the heavens to witness what they have done, firstly because, unlike all other nations, they have changed the object of their worship by seeking to strange gods, and secondly because they have turned from Himself, the well-spring of living water, to broken cisterns (false gods and false beliefs) which can hold no water.
Jer 2:9-11
“For which reason I will yet contend with you, says YHWH,
And with your children’s children will I contend.
For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see,
And send to Kedar, and consider diligently,
And see if there has been such a thing,
Has a nation changed its gods,
Which yet are no gods?
But my people have changed their glory,
For that which does not profit.”
Because they have turned away from Him He will now contend not only with them but also with their children and their children’s children. For let them all consider the situation. Let them pass over to the isles of Kittim (the Mediterranean islands to the west) and let them send to Kedar (the Arabian encampments in the east), and let them consider diligently and see if anything quite as remarkable as this has ever happened, that a nation should change the objects of its worship! Why no other nation at all has changed its gods, even though they are no-gods, nonentities. But Judah, what have Judah done? They have changed their glory (YHWH Himself) for what is of no profit to them (the Baalim etc.). They have downgraded the object of their worship, and thereby they have downgraded themselves.
There is a reminder in this of how in the past YHWH had revealed His glory to His people when His cloud had descended on the Tabernacle (e.g. Exo 40:34) and the Temple (e.g. 2Ch 5:13-14), shielding them from His glory which was being manifested there. But now, instead of wondering at His glory, they were exchanging this for wooden images coated with gilded plate.
Jer 2:12
“Be astonished, O you heavens, at this,
And be horribly afraid,
Be you very desolate,
Say YHWH.”
No wonder then that YHWH called on the heavens, and the angels, to be astonished at what was happening, and to be very much afraid because of what the consequences would be on Judah. Indeed they were to be very desolate at the thought of what was coming. For not only had Judah exchanged His glory for a wooden thing coated with earthly gold, but they had also forsaken the One Who was the very source of their spiritual lives.
Moses had called on the heavens to witness what he had to say about the glory of the Lord (Deu 32:1), but as in Isa 1:2, YHWH could only call on the heavens, as impartial witnesses, to witness the mess that Israel had made of their lives, and be horrified.
Jer 2:13
“For my people have committed two evils,
They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
And have hewed them out cisterns,
Broken cisterns which can hold no water.”
He calls the heavens to witness that His people have committed two evils. Firstly in that they have forsaken Him as the well-spring of living waters, the One Who was the very source of fruitful life, the One Who could send the life-giving rains, the One Who was the very means of spiritual blessing, and secondly in that they have instead made their own cisterns (moulded their own gods), which are broken cisterns which can hold no water, and can send no rain. They have exchanged spiritual and physical well-being for spiritual and physical bankruptcy.
When the rains came the springs poured out clean, fresh running water (living water), the rivers were full, the crops were well-watered and all could drink continually from an abundance of fresh clean water (compare Joh 4:10-14). Life was everywhere. And as earlier prophets had made clear this was a true picture of the spiritual blessing that God wanted for His people (Isa 44:1-5; Isa 55:10-13). But instead they had exchanged this for a hole which they had dug for themselves in the ground, which only stored limited water that was tepid and dirty, water which tasted of clay and was worm-filled, obtained from cisterns which leaked so badly that they were soon empty. All they were then left with was an extreme thirst and an empty, dank hole in the ground.
The world is full of broken cisterns which appear to offer so much but in the end leave us with the same thirst as we had before. And yet all the while, if only we will see it, there is One Who is the source of all true life and blessing, waiting for us to come and drink of Him (compare Joh 4:10-14). But it means leaving the broken cisterns behind.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 2:9. I will yet plead with you That is, I will maintain by arguments the equity of my proceedings, and the injustice of yours.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Observe Reader! the Lord is still pleading. It is the day of grace, not the hour of judgment. And of all the sottish sins of Israel surely, this exceeded the whole, that after knowing the one, true, and only Lord of heaven and earth, they actually took up with idols. A thing hardly to be believed possible. Why the poor ignorant nations around, were never known to change their dunghill gods, for other dunghill gods; if Egypt worshipped the cat; they never could be prevailed upon to make an exchange for any other idol; such was their veneration from father to son. But Israel, the Lord’s chosen, the Lord’s people, and to whom the Lord had made himself known, by signs and wonders, and a mighty stretched out arm: Israel took up with dunghill gods also, and worshipped they knew not what! Oh! what a degraded state is man brought to, by the fall?
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 2:9 Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
Ver. 9. I will yet plead with you, ] i.e., Debate the case with you, and set you down by sound reason. So he did to our first parents when they had sinned; but doomed the serpent without any more ado.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah
GOD’S LAWSUIT
Jer 2:9
Point out that ‘plead’ is a forensic term. There is a great lawsuit in which God is plaintiff and men defendants. The word is frequent in Isaiah.
I. The reason for God’s pleading.
II. The manner.
III. The purpose.
IV. The patience.
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 2:9-13
9Therefore I will yet contend with you, declares the LORD,
And with your sons’ sons I will contend.
10For cross to the coastlands of Kittim and see,
And send to Kedar and observe closely
And see if there has been such a thing as this!
11Has a nation changed gods
When they were not gods?
But My people have changed their glory
For that which does not profit.
12Be appalled, O heavens, at this,
And shudder, be very desolate, declares the LORD.
13For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water.
Jer 2:9 contend This VERB repeated twice (Qal IMPERFECT, BDB 936, KB 1224, cf. Jer 2:29) refers to a legal lawsuit (cf. Jer 2:35). This literary structure is one of three used by Prophets to communicate their message (lament, legal case, promise oracle).
with your sons’ sons I will contend This shows that lifestyle priorities are passed on to our children with the result of blessing or cursing (cf. Exo 34:7; Deu 5:9). Just an additional thought, I so rejoice in Deu 7:9, where God’s love and mercy extends to the thousand generations of those who love and trust Him.
Jer 2:10 Notice the series of IMPERATIVES.
1. cross – Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 716, KB 778
2. see – Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 906, KB 1157
3. send – Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 1018, KB 1511
4. observe closely – Hithpolel IMPERATIVE, BDB 106, KB 122
5. see – same as #2
Kittim This refers to the original Phoenician settlement on Cyprus, but came to refer to all of the islands to the west of Palestine.
Kedar This was an Arab tribe to the east. This entire phrase is used metaphorically for from east to west. The whole point of the verse is Ask anyone! Let anyone be a witness about the things of Jer 2:11-13.
Jer 2:11 What a powerful question. Israel had abandoned the only true God and went after the false, vain, non-existent idols of the surrounding pagan nations (cf. Jer 2:13).
their glory The NKJV and NRSV capitalize glory (BDB 458, see Special Topic: Glory ), thereby showing it is a characteristic title for God (cf. Rom 1:23). He was Israel’s glory! When they reject Him they have no glory (cf. Hos 4:7).
For that which does not profit If Jer 2:8, lines 3 and 4, are parallel, then this may refer to Ba’al worship (see ,Special Topic: Fertility Worship of the Ancient Near East ).
Jer 2:12 O heavens The heavens are often used as witnesses in God’s lawsuit (cf. Deu 4:26; Deu 30:19; Deu 32:1).
Notice that YHWH directs the oldest witness (O heavens, usually paired with O earth) to
1. be appalled – Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 1030, KB 1563, cf. Jer 4:9; Jer 18:16; Jer 19:8; Jer 49:17; Jer 50:13; Eze 27:35; Eze 32:10
2. shudder – Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 972, KB 1343, cf. Eze 27:35; Eze 32:10
3. be very desolate, Qal IMPERATIVE, BDB 351 II, KB 349 plus utterly, BDB 547, cf. Isa 60:12; literally dry up, cf. Isa 44:27
Jer 2:13 fountain of living waters This is another descriptive title for God (cf. Jer 17:13; Psa 36:9; Joh 4:10-14; Joh 7:38-39; Rev 21:6).
To hew for themselves This is the problem of fallen humanity, even covenant humanity. They try to run their own lives (cf. Jer 2:17; Jer 2:19). Their failure will open the door for YHWH’s mercy and grace in the new covenant of Jer 31:31-34 (cf. Eze 36:22-38).
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
plead = argue, contend.
children’s children = sons’ sons.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Jer 2:9-13
Jer 2:9-13
“Wherefore I will yet contend with you, saith Jehovah, and with your children’s children will I contend. For pass over to the isles of Kittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there hath been such a thing. Hath a nation changed its gods, which yet are no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be ye horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith Jehovah. 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.”
Jer 2:13 is the climax of this paragraph. The first verse (Jer 2:9) uses legal terms that represent God as pressing a lawsuit against his people for doing a totally unheard of thing, namely, they had deserted the true God and gone after Baal. Furthermore, in all history it was never even heard of that even a pagan nation would forsake its ancestral gods!
Perhaps the reason why pagan nations had so generally clung to their ancient “no gods” was rooted in the fact that the worship of such nonentities was rooted in and designed to satisfy basic instincts and passions; whereas the higher religion of the true God was designed to lift man to a far more spiritual and exalted level.
“Kittim … and Kedar …” (Jer 2:10). Kittim (Chittim in some versions) is the same as Cyprus. “Cyprus represents the West; Kedar (in N. Arabia) represents the East. Taken together they stand for the whole pagan world.
“My people have committed two evils …” (Jer 2:13). Whereas the pagan nations were guilty of the one evil of worshipping their “no-gods,” Israel was guilty of two evils: (1) forsaking the true God, and (2) going after worthlessness.
The foolishness and stupidity of Israel’s dual crime is illustrated here by the imaginary action of a rancher or farmer stopping up a flowing spring of water and constructing cisterns in place of it. The cisterns soon cracked and could hold no water.
Sermons sometimes stress the stagnant waters of a cistern compared with spring waters; but the text states that such cisterns “could hold no water,” not even stagnant water. This is indeed an apt illustration of the folly of men who turn away from the saving religion of God to build instead of it their own worthless systems of religion.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
I will: Jer 2:29, Jer 2:35, Isa 3:13, Isa 43:26, Eze 20:35, Eze 20:36, Hos 2:2, Mic 6:2
with your: Exo 20:5, Lev 20:5
Reciprocal: Psa 50:7 – Hear Eze 17:20 – plead Act 22:7 – why
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 2:9. The prophet seems to have dropped the illustration of bride and wife and now takes a direct form of language. In spite of all the unfaithfulness of the people, the Lord pleads with them arid even promises to do so from generation to generation.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 2:9. Wherefore I will yet plead with you By my prophets, and by my judgments, as I pleaded with your fathers, that you may be left without excuse. And with your childrens children will I plead According to the tenor of the law, wherein God threatens to visit the sins, particularly the sin of idolatry, of the fathers upon the children, unto the third and fourth generation.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:9 Wherefore I will yet {n} plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
(n) Signifying that he would not as he might, straightway condemn them, but shows them by evident examples their great ingratitude that they might be ashamed and repent.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Yahweh’s promise to contend with His people 2:9-13
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Because of their unparalleled idolatry, the Lord promised to contest His people. Even their grandchildren would experience His discipline because of their forefathers’ sins. That is, they would have to live with the consequences of their forefathers’ sins.
". . . Scripture often stresses the solidarity of one generation with another, endorsing our sense of pride or shame over our collective past." [Note: Kidner, p. 34.]