Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:34
Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
34. blood, etc.] “The allusion may be to deaths due to miscarriage of justice or the result of exaction (Jer 7:6, Jer 22:3 end, 17; cf. Mic 3:10; Psa 94:21), or to the sacrifice of children (see Jer 19:4; cf. Psa 106:38) or possibly to the martyrdoms under Manasseh (2Ki 21:16; 2Ki 24:4).” Dr.
I have not found it at the place of breaking in ] or perhaps not at house-breaking didst thou catch them. The allusion is to the law (Exo 22:2) by which it was permitted to slay a thief caught in the act of breaking into a house. The persons whom Israel had thus treated were in no such position, but such was nevertheless their fate.
but upon all these ] The words are obscure and probably the text of the whole verse is corrupt. As it stands, “these” must refer to the misdeeds indicated or to the (bloodstained) “skirts” incriminating the offenders. By a slight modification of the MT. we get the LXX rendering of “all these,” viz. every oak. This, however, can hardly be defended.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
I have not found it … – Rather, thou didst not find them breaking into thy house. The meaning is, that these poor innocents had committed no crime: they were not thieves caught in the act, whom the Law permitted men to slay Exo 22:2, and therefore Israel in killing them was guilty of murder. The one crime here of theft is put for crime generally.
Upon all these – Or, because of all this. Thou killedst the poor innocents, not for any crime, but because of this thy lust for idolatry.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 34. The blood of the souls of the poor innocents] We find from the sacred history that Manasseh had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; see 2Kg 21:16, and Eze 34:10.
I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.] Such deeds of darkness and profligacy are found only in Israel. Dr. Blayney translates, “I have not found it in a digged hole, but upon every oak.” Others cover the blood that it may not appear; but ye have shed it openly, and sprinkled it upon your consecrated oaks, and gloried in it.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
In thy skirts, viz. of thy garments; a synecdoche of the kind; the tokens of thy cruelty may be seen openly there: or, in thy hands, as the LXX.: or a metaphor from birds of rapine, whose wings are bloody with their prey; but not so well. Is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents, i.e. in thee is found the murders expressed here by blood of innocent persons, meant here by souls, comprising both their sacrificing of their little children to their idols, Psa 106:37,38; Eze 16:20,21,36, murdering souls as well as bodies; and also all those cruelties, oppressions, and murders that they executed upon poor innocent persons, which were not a few in what Manasseh did, 2Ki 21:16; Eze 7:23; 9:9, and in special the prophets, Jer 2:30, that came in Gods name to reclaim them; which notes their desperate malice as well as cruelty, to slay their physicians.
By secret search, Heb. by digging; as if the earth had covered the blood, or as if they had committed their wickedness in some obscure places.
But upon all these; upon thy garments openly enough, as exposed to public view. There needs no such strict scrutiny to be made.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
34. Alsonot only art thoupolluted with idolatry, but also with the guilt of sheddinginnocent blood [MAURER].ROSENMULLER not so welltranslates, “even in thy skirts,” c. that is, there is nopart of thee (not even thy skirts) that is not stained withinnocent blood (Jer 19:4; 2Ki 21:16;Psa 106:38). See as to innocentblood shed, not as here in honor of idols, but of prophets forhaving reproved them (Jer 2:30;Jer 26:20-23).
soulsthat is, persons.
searchI did not needto “search deep” to find proof of thy guilt; for it was”upon all these” thy skirts. Not in deep caverns didst thouperpetrate these atrocities, but openly in the vale of Hinnom andwithin the precincts of the temple.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents,…. Either of the innocent infants of poor persons, who were sacrificed to Moloch; or of the poor prophets of the Lord, whom they slew, because they faithfully reproved them for their sins; and the blood of those being found in their skirts is expressive of the publicness and notoriety of their sin, and also of the large quantity of blood shed, inasmuch as the skirts of their garments were filled with it, as if they had trod and walked in blood; see Isa 63:3.
I have not found it by secret search; or, “by digging” q; there was no need to dig for it; it lay above ground; it was upon their skirts, public enough: or, “in ditches”, as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin r versions; as when murders are privately and secretly committed; but these were done openly. Some read the words, “thou didst not find them with a digging instrument” s; so Jarchi interprets the words,
“you did not find them with a digging instrument, or in digging, when you slew them;”
you did not find them prepared as thieves to break up your houses, or digging down your walls, and breaking through into your houses, then you would have been justified by the law in slaying them, Ex 22:2, but this was not the case:
but upon all these; upon all their skirts, and not in ditches, or under ground; or, “for all these”; thou hast so done; not for their sins, for theft, or any other; but for their faithful reproofs and rebukes; so Jarchi, for all these words with which they reproved thee; or for all these, the idols on whose account, in the worship of them, the blood of the innocents was shed.
q “in suffossione”, Vatablus, Calvin, De Dieu; “effossione”, Junius Tremellius “perfossione”, Schmidt. r , Sept. “in fossis”, V. L. s “Cum perfossorio”, Pagninus, Montanus; “sub. instrumento”, Grotius; “terebro”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The Prophet repeats, as I think, what he had before said, — that the wickedness of his nation was incorrigible; for they repented not when warned, but on the contrary raged like wild beasts against the Prophets and religious teachers. Those interpreters are mistaken who think that the savage cruelty of the Jews in general is here condemned; and all are of this opinion. But the Prophet no doubt enhances this evil, by saying, that the Jews were not only obstinate in their vices, but also raged furiously against the Prophets. Hence he shews again, that God had used all remedies to heal the Jews, but without effect, for what better medicine could have been offered than for the Prophets to reprove the people and to shew to them how wickedly they had departed from God? God then wished thus to correct the vices of his own people; but so far was he from effecting anything, that at Jerusalem and through the whole of Judea, the Prophets were slaughtered, and the whole land was filled with and polluted by their blood.
Hence he says, Even in thy wings has been found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents. He calls the borders of garments wings. He seems to say, that these slaughters were not hid, for the Jews were besprinkled with blood to the very extremities of their garment; as though he had said, “There is no cause for me to deal sharply with you in this instance; for your filthiness is most apparent: ye have not only been rebellious against my teaching, but ye have also cruelly murdered my prophets. If ye ask, Where these slaughters are to be found? Even in your wings, on the borders of your garments; so that your crimes are fully known.” We now perceive what the Prophet means.
We must also notice the import of the particle גם, g a m, also, or even. Their cruelty was worse and more nefarious, because they thus rose up against their own physicians; for the prophets, as it has been said, were the ministers of their safety. As then they thus raged against God’s favor so as to murder his prophets, it became still more evident, that they were utterly irreclaimable.
He afterwards adds what serves for a confirmation. They have not been found in digging under Some give another explanation; but their opinion is right who think, that the Prophet alludes to what is said by Moses in Exo 22:2, — that if a thief should be found in digging under, (or undermining,) he might be killed with impunity: for he who thus breaks through into the houses of others, is equal to a robber in audacity; and he ought to be counted not only a thief, but also as one guilty of manslaughter and felony. God then says, that the Prophets, who had been slain by the Jews, had not been found in digging up, that is, had not been found guilty of any crime, either of robbery or of murder: for he mentions a particular act, instead of the general crime. But it has been on account of all these things; that is, “because they boldly dared to reprove you, because they severely condemned your vices, because they discovered your baseness, because they were enemies to your perfidy and to your sins: as then the prophets had thus by the divine Spirit carried on war with your sins, they have on this account been murdered by you. (66)
We see how well the whole passage reads, provided it be applied to the prophets only. It was not indeed the object of Jeremiah to condemn murders generally among the Jews, but to shew that they were the enemies of the prophets, because they were opposed to every good and sound counsel, and were incapable of receiving instruction. The mistake of other expounders is hereby made evident: for in the last clause they touch neither heaven nor earth. It follows —
(66) Our version of this text seems on the whole the best. “Blood,” דם, is to be taken here in a collective sense, as the verb to which it belongs is plural. Instead of “poor innocents, “it ought rather to be “the innocent poor,“ as the noun in Hebrew generally precedes its adjective. “Found” is in the first person, and there is no different reading, and it is so in the Septuagint, and the Vulgate, though the Syriac and Arabic give the second person, and the Targum the third person plural, as Calvin does. The last word is rendered “these” in the Vulgate and the Targum; but “oak” in the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the Arabic, and adopted by Blayney, but disapproved by Houbigant and Horsley As to the word, rendered in our version, “secret search,” the early versions have pit, pits, or ditches, and so the Targum Blayney renders it “a digged hole,“ of which Horsley approves; and he refers, as an illustration, to Lev 17:13, and to Eze 24:7. The word means digging, and seems to be used here metaphorically for searching; there is no need of adding “secret” to it, —
Also in thy skirts has been found The blood of the souls of the innocent poor: Not by searching have I found it, But upon all these (i.e., skirts.)
The reference is to what is said in Jer 2:30, where the Jews are charged with the killing the prophets. As to “the blood, “we find a similar passage in Eze 24:7. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(34) Also in thy skirts . . .The general meaning is clear, and points to the guilt of Israel in offering her childrenthe poor innocentsin horrid sacrifice to Molech; perhaps, also, to her maltreatment of the prophets. Their blood is on the skirts of her raiment; perhaps, if we take another reading, on the palms of her hands. The last clause is, however, obscure enough. We have to choose, according to variations of reading and construction, between (1) I have not found it as by secret search (literally, by digging, as men dig through the wall of a house in search of plunder), but under every oak or terebinth, or, more probably, as in the Authorised version, upon all thesei.e., the sin was patent, flagrant, everywhere; and (2) Thou didst not find them (those who had been put to death) in the place of breaking throughi.e., in the act of the robber that would have deserved death (Exo. 22:2; Job. 24:16); but because of all thisi.e., thou didst slay them through thy passion for idolatry. Of these (1) commends itself most.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
34. Secret search Rather, at housebreaking. The meaning is, Thou didst not kill the poor for crime, but this is innocent blood upon thy skirts.
But upon all these Rather, on account of all these, the wicked lusts of idolatry. But the passage is difficult, and this sense, which is favoured by Keil, Hitzig, R. Payne Smith, and others, is far from satisfactory.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 2:34 Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
Ver. 34. Also in thy skirts. ] In the skirts of thy garments. Heb., In thy wings – an allusion, say some, to birds of prey, which stain their wings with the blood of lesser fowls.
Is the blood of the souls.
I have not found it by secret search.
But upon all these.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
blood. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of the Subject), for the guilt of bloodshedding.
souls. Hebrew. nephesh. App-13.
poor = helpless. Hebrew. ‘ebyon. See note on Pro 6:11.
it: i.e. the guilt (of bloodshedding) on the “poor innocents”.
these: i.e. these [thy skirts] which evidence it. Note the Figure of speech Ellipsis, in this verse. Compare Jer 22:17.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Also: Jer 7:31, Jer 19:4, 2Ki 21:16, 2Ki 24:4, Psa 106:37, Psa 106:38, Isa 57:5, Isa 59:7, Eze 16:20, Eze 16:21, Eze 20:31
I: Jer 6:15, Jer 8:12, Eze 24:7
secret search: Heb. digging
Reciprocal: 1Sa 15:14 – What meaneth 1Ki 2:5 – put 2Ch 28:3 – burnt Job 10:6 – General Psa 10:15 – seek Psa 36:2 – For he Ecc 7:17 – not Isa 59:3 – your hands Jer 2:23 – How canst Jer 7:6 – and shed Jer 7:11 – even Jer 26:15 – ye shall Lam 1:9 – filthiness Lam 4:14 – they have polluted Eze 7:23 – for Eze 8:8 – General Eze 9:9 – and the land Eze 11:6 – General Eze 16:36 – and by Eze 21:24 – your transgressions Eze 22:2 – bloody city Eze 22:25 – they have devoured Mat 23:35 – upon 1Ti 5:24 – General Rev 18:24 – in her
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 2:34. Skirts is used figuratively, meaning Israel’s garments were stained with the blood of innocent persons. Secret is not in the original as a separate word but is a part of the same word for search. It is machtereth which Strong defines, a burglary; figuratively unexpected examination.” The thought is that God did not have to make any “lie test” kind of examination or try to “catch” the gutlty people when they were not expecting it. Upon all these means the Lord saw the evidences of their guilt plainly displayed.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
2:34 Also in thy {x} skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.
(x) The prophets and the faithful are slain in every corner of your country.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
In spite of all this guilt, Israel still claimed to be "innocent"-and hoped that Yahweh’s anger against her would subside. But the Lord promised to bring her to judgment because she falsely claimed to be "not guilty."
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
In her unfaithfulness, Israel had gone so far as putting innocent people to death (cf. Jer 26:20-23; 1Ki 21:16; Neh 9:26). If these people had done something worthy of death, such as breaking into a house, such bloodshed would have been excusable (cf. Exo 22:2-3)
"Wicked behaviour always involves innocent people to some extent, as Christ demonstrated in bearing the sins of humanity (cf. 1Pe 2:20-24)." [Note: Harrison, Jeremiah and . . ., p. 62.]