Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:30
In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
30. your children ] not literally such, nor yet young men slain in battle, but equivalent to the frequent expression “children of thy people” (e.g. Eze 3:11; Eze 33:2; Eze 33:12; Eze 33:17; Eze 33:30), i.e. the people considered individually, as contrasted with the aggregate.
your prophets ] Some commentators make the reference to be to such events as those recorded in 1Ki 18:4-13, or to some unknown outbreak of violence. But the passage may well point to the comparatively recent massacres by Manasseh, traditionally including Isaiah (Isa 21:16).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Your own sword hath detoured your prophets – An allusion probably to Manasseh 2Ki 21:16. Death was the usual fate of the true prophet Neh 9:26; Mat 23:37.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Your children; either your posterity, that you breed up like yourselves; or rather, your inhabitants in every city, they being frequently called the children of such a city, or such a place: children of Seir, 2Ch 25:14, children, of the province, Ezr 2:1, and children of thy people, Lev 19:18, and abundance more the like; and thus it is comprehensive both of parents and children.
Correction, i.e. The fruit of correction, viz. instruction. The same word is rendered correction, Pro 23:13, which signifies instruction, Pro 5:12, and in other places; and so to be taken here: it notes their refractoriness, that though they were corrected, yet they would not be instructed; though God did smite them, yet the rod prevailed as little with them as the word.
Your own sword hath devoured your prophets; either the sword that I have sent to destroy you hath destroyed your false prophets together with you, Hos 4:5, and so it is both a prophecy and a threatening; or rather, you have been so far from receiving counsel and instruction, that you have, by the sword, and other ways of destruction, (which is to be understood by the sword,) murdered those that I sent to reprove your follies in the days of Asa, Joash, Manasseh, &c., Neh 9:26. See Mat 23:34,35.
Devoured; or, eaten up; a metaphor. Hence we read of the edge of the sword, which both in Hebrew and Greek is called the mouth of the sword, Jer 21:7; Luk 21:24. Like a destroying lion; without respect or pity; with all manner of savage usage; see Psa 7:2; laying aside all humanity.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
30. (Jer 5:3;Jer 6:29; Isa 1:5;Isa 9:13).
your childrenthat is,your people, you.
your . . . sword . . .devoured . . . prophets (2Ch 36:16;Neh 9:26; Mat 23:29;Mat 23:31).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
In vain have I smitten your children,…. Or, “for vanity” g; for vain speaking, for making vain oaths and vows; so it is explained in the Talmud h; but the sense is, that the rod of chastisement was used in vain; the afflictions that came upon them had no effect on them to amend and reform them; they were never the better for them:
they received no correction; or instruction by them; see Jer 5:3,
your own sword hath devoured your prophets; as Isaiah, Zechariah, and Uriah, who were sent to them to reprove and correct them, but they were so far from receiving their correction, that they put them to death; though Kimchi mentions it as the sense of his father, and which he approves of, that this is to be understood, not of the true prophets of the Lord, but of false prophets; wherefore it is said, “your prophets”; and they had no prophets but false prophets, whose prophecy was the cause of the destruction of souls, and this brought ruin upon the prophets themselves; and this sense of the words Jerom gives into; it follows:
like a destroying lion; that is, the sword of the Lord, according to the latter sense; the judgments of God, by which the people fall, and their false prophets with them, were like a lion that destroys and devours all that come near it. The Septuagint and Arabic versions add,
and ye were not afraid; which confirms what was before said, that chastisement and correction were in vain.
g “propter vanitatem, [sive] vaniloquentiam”, Vatablus. h T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 32. 2. & Cetubot, fol. 72. 1.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Some expound the beginning of this verse as though the meaning were, — that God chastised the Jews on account of their folly, because they habituated themselves to falsehoods: but the latter clause does not correspond. There is therefore no doubt but that God here expostulates with the Jews, because he had tried to bring them to the right way and found them wholly irreclaimable. A similar expostulation is found in Isaiah,
“
In vain,” he says, “have I chastised you; for from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness.” (Isa 1:6)
There God shews that he had tried every remedy, but that the Jews, being wholly refractory in their spirit, were wholly incurable. Jeremiah speaks now on the same subject: and God thus exaggerates the wickedness of the people; for he testifies that he had tried whether they would be taught, not only by words, but also by scourges and chastisements, but that his labor in both instances had been in vain. He spoke before of teaching, “Keep thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst.” The Prophets, then, had exhorted the Jews by God’s command to rest quietly. This teaching had been useless and unfruitful. God now adds, that he had tried in another way to bring them back to a right mind; but this effort had been also useless and in vain: In vain have I chastised you; for ye have not received correction
But he speaks of children, in order to shew that the whole people were unteachable: for though lusts boil more in youth, yet their obduracy is not so great as in the old; as he who has through his whole life hardened himself in the contempt of God, can hardly be ever healed and be amended by correction; for old age is of itself morose and difficult to be pleased, and the old also think, that wrong is in a manner done them when they are reproved: but when the insolence and obduracy of the young are so great that they reject all correction, it is more strange and monstrous. The Prophet then shews that there was nothing sound or right in that people, since their very children refused correction. (62)
We now perceive his object, — that, as God had sent his prophets, and as their labor availed nothing, he now shews, that not only the ears of the people had been deaf to wholesome teaching, but that they were hard — necked and untamable; for he had tried to correct them by scourges, but effected nothing. It follows, their sword has devoured the prophets But I cannot finish now.
(62) Blayney renders the word “instruction.” The Septuagint have “ παιδείαν — discipline: “the Syriac, Vulgate, and the Targum are the same; but the Arabic has “instruction — eruditionem.” The strict meaning of the word מוסר, is restraint, check, discipline, correction. Not to receive restraint or correction, is not to be thereby improved or reformed, but to proceed in the same course, see Jer 5:3. The word has also a secondary meaning, instruction, as the effect of correction, see Zep 3:7. But here it clearly means correction. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(30) Your own sword hath devoured your prophets.So in the long reign of Manasseh, the prophets who rebuked him had to do so at the risk of their lives. Isaiah, as the tradition ran, had been foremost among the sufferers. Much innocent blood had been shed from one end to another of Jerusalem (2Ki. 21:11-16).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ISRAEL’S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT, Jer 2:29-35.
30. Sword hath devoured See 1Ki 18:4; 1Ki 18:13; 1Ki 19:10 ; 2Ki 21:16, etc.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 2:30. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets That is to say, “You yourselves have put your prophets to death for reproving you.” Thus Asa and Joash were put to death in the reign of Manasseh; see 1Ki 19:1; 1Ki 19:10. Neh 9:26 and Mat 23:34-35. Houbigant renders the last clause, As a destroying lion lays waste your habitation. And he begins the next verse, See ye the word of the Lord; &c. which may be rendered, O ye of this generation, behold ye the case of JEHOVAH. The subsequent words allude to the murmurings of the children of Israel in the wilderness. Instead of, We are lords, Houbigant reads, We will depart. The meaning of the Hebrew seems to be, “We disclaim the divine authority; we will assert our own independency.”
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
Ver. 30. In vain have I smitten your children. ] My hammers have but beaten cold iron; ye are incorrigible, irreformable. See Isa 1:5 . See Trapp on “ Isa 1:5 “
Your own sword hath devoured your prophets.
Like a destroying lion.
a Lib. x. cap. 4.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
devoured your prophets. See 1Ki 18:4, 1Ki 18:13; 2Ki 21:16. 2Ch 24:21. Compare Mat 23:37. Luk 11:47. Act 7:51, Act 7:52.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
In vain: Jer 5:3, Jer 6:29, Jer 6:30, Jer 7:28, Jer 31:18, 2Ch 28:22, Isa 1:5, Isa 9:13, Eze 24:13, Zep 3:2, Rev 9:20, Rev 9:21, Rev 16:9
your own sword: Jer 26:20-24, 1Ki 19:10, 1Ki 19:14, 2Ch 24:21, 2Ch 36:16, Neh 9:26, Mat 21:35, Mat 21:36, Mat 23:29, Mat 23:34-37, Mar 12:2-8, Luk 11:47-51, Luk 13:33, Luk 13:34, Act 7:52, 1Th 2:15
Reciprocal: Lev 26:23 – General 2Sa 2:26 – sword Isa 5:4 – General Isa 57:17 – and he Isa 59:3 – your hands Jer 7:6 – and shed Jer 13:23 – Ethiopian Jer 19:4 – filled Jer 26:8 – the priests Jer 26:15 – ye shall Jer 26:23 – who Jer 32:3 – Zedekiah Jer 36:26 – to take Jer 46:14 – the sword Eze 11:6 – General Eze 22:2 – bloody city Eze 22:24 – General Eze 22:25 – they have devoured Eze 34:3 – ye kill Dan 9:13 – made we not our prayer before Zec 11:3 – a voice Mat 5:12 – for so Mat 14:10 – and beheaded Mat 23:30 – the blood Mat 23:35 – upon Mat 23:37 – thou Mar 12:3 – they Luk 3:20 – General Luk 6:23 – for in Luk 20:10 – beat Rom 11:3 – Lord 2Ti 4:17 – and I Heb 11:37 – were slain Jam 5:10 – for Rev 3:19 – many Rev 16:6 – they have
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 2:30. Smitten your children does not refer to the personal offspring of any individuals. The second word refers to them as a nation and the third means the citizens of the nation. The phrase is a reference to past chastisements that God had imposed upon the nation but which had not caused it to repent. Even the prophets who dared rebuke the people for their sins were not spared front the murderous sword.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they have received no correction: your {r} own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
(r) That is, you have killed your prophets, that exhorted you to repentance, as Zechariah, Isaiah, etc.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
But the Lord’s discipline had not produced repentance (cf. Mat 23:37; Luk 13:34; Act 7:52). Even the younger generation refused to learn from their chastening. If this oracle dates from the time of Josiah, as seems probable, the younger generation-of which Jeremiah was a part-would have seen the fruit of King Manasseh’s apostasy, and should have turned from it.
"In the secular realm when a great king visited an erring vassal with some kind of punishment the vassal would come to heel, at least in the normal case. But in the case of Israel the divine visitation in some form of judgment was in vain. The people would not accept correction. Rather, they turned on Yahweh’s representatives and spokesmen, the prophets, and destroyed them [cf. Jer 26:20-23; 2Ki 21:16; Neh 9:26]." [Note: Thompson, pp. 182-83.]