Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:14
[Is] Israel a servant? [is] he a homeborn [slave]? why is he spoiled?
14. Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave?] An emphatic negative is the reply expected, as in Jer 2:31. Israel is not a slave but a son. Why then is he spoiled? If (which is however doubtful) the early legislation, as given in Exo 21:1-3, still held good, children born to a slave who married one of the slave girls in his master’s house, remained the permanent property of their owner. The meaning here will be, Is Israel permanently subjected to each whim of a cruel master? Cp. the somewhat similar passages, Jer 8:4, Jer 14:19; and specially Jer 22:28, Jer 49:1.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
14 30. Israel’s sin and obstinacy under punishment
14 17. Co. points out that Jer 2:13 connects naturally with Jer 2:18. The cisterns from which Israel has sought water proving unavailable, she has tried the rivers of Egypt and Assyria. Accordingly, while holding that the vv. are genuine utterances of Jeremiah, he thinks with some considerable probability that they are misplaced here.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
It was Israels glory to be Yahwehs servant Jer 30:10, and slaves born in the house were more prized than those bought with money as being more faithful Gen 14:14. Cannot Yahweh guard His own household? How happens it that a member of so powerful a family is spoiled? In the next verse the prophet gives the reason. Israel is a runaway slave, who has deserted the family to which he belongs by right of birth, and thereby brought upon himself trouble and misery.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 2:14
Is Israel a servant?
is he a home-born slave? why is he spoiled?
Israel a home-born slave
Is this a contemptuous inquiry?–Israel a servant, Israel a home-born slave. Is there not scorn underlying the interrogation, as who should say, Thou art a worm, a thing to be crushed by the foot, or a servile thing to be made no account of by the auditor of the universe? Nothing of the kind. There is a tone of tenderness in this inquiry. In Bible times to be a home-born slave was to be next the son of the family; there was a domestic interest in such a slave, full of pathos, and the condition brought with it its own advantages and rights; a slave born in the house took rank almost with the son, certainly immediately after the son; and the Lord seems to say, Is not Israel a servant, a home-born slave,–has he not rights at home, has he not domestic interests and family claims, a status which he can assert and maintain, and the fruit of which he is at liberty to enjoy? Why then is he spoiled; why has he thrown his inheritance away; why does he not seize the possessions to which he is entitled, and live within the light and the security of the privilege which belongs to him in his domestic relations? So there is no scorn in the words home-born slave. The Divine voice infused the pathos of emphasis into the word homeborn. Who can say home in a tone that is worthy of its music? Surely only He who has made the universe a home for His creatures, and offered them the hospitality of His infinite love. God comes after us, and says, Are ye not Mine; do you not belong to My house; are you not in the covenant of My love; is not your name upon the record of My memory; and goes not out after you all the solicitude of My heart? Why then have you spoiled your destiny, perverted your way, gone in a forbidden course, and exposed yourselves to the paw and the teeth of the lion? (J. Parker, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 14. Is Israel a servant?] Is he a slave purchased with money, or a servant born in the family? He is a son himself. If so, then, why is he spoiled? Not because God has not shown him love and kindness; but because he forsook God, turned to and is joined with idols.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? did I ever account him so? or did I not rather always reckon him my first-born? so some, as Jer 2:31. But it may better relate to his sad condition and abuses from others, as Jer 49:1, which God or the prophet doth here inquire into; and slave is here rightly added to
home-born, ( though not in the text,) to express the baseness of his service, because the master had power to make those slaves who were born of slaves in his house; which argues his condition very low, whether he were thus born, or had been forced to sell himself to be a slave.
Why is he spoiled? He speaks either of the thing that is to be as if it were already done, because of the certainty of it, as of that devastation made by the Assyrians and Chaldeans, who afflicted the remnant of the Jews; or of that havoc that was made of them formerly by Sennacherib, the Assyrians, and Egyptians. Why is he thus tyrannized over, Isa 42:24, as if strangers had the same right over him as owners over their slaves? He removes here the false causes of Israels misery, that he may the more aggravate and set home the true, as Jer 2:17,19. He was my son; if he now become a slave, he may thank himself:
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
14. is he a homeborn slaveNo.”Israel is Jehovah’s son, even His first-born” (Ex4:22). Jer 2:16; Jer 2:18;Jer 2:36, and the absence of anyexpress contrast of the two parts of the nation are againstEICHORN’S view, that theprophet proposes to Judah, as yet spared, the case of Israel (the tentribes) which had been carried away by Assyria as a warning of whatthey might expect if they should still put their trust in Egypt.”Were Israel’s ten tribes of meaner birth than Judah? Certainlynot. If, then, the former fell before Assyria, what can Judah hopefrom Egypt against Assyria? . . . Israel” is rather here thewhole of the remnant still left in their own land, that is, Judah.”How comes it to pass that the nation which once was under God’sspecial protection (Jer 2:3) isnow left at the mercy of the foe as a worthless slave?” Theprophet sees this event as if present, though it was stillfuture to Judah (Jer 2:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Is Israel a servant?…. That he does not abide in the house, in his own land, but is carried captive, becomes subject to others, and is used as a slave; so the Targum,
“as a servant;”
is he not the Lord’s first born? are not the people of Israel called the children of the living God? how come they then to be treated not as children, as free men, but as servants? this cannot be owing to any breach of covenant or promise on God’s part, or to the failure of the blessing of national adoption bestowed on them; but to some sin or sins of theirs, which have brought them into this miserable condition:
is he a home born slave? or born in the house, of the handmaid, and so in the power of the master of the family in whose house he was born,
Ex 21:4 or the sense is, either Israel is a servant,
or a son of the family d, as some render the words; not the former, being not only the son of a free woman, but Jehovah’s firstborn; if the latter,
why is he spoiled? why is he delivered up to the spoilers? as the Targum; why should he be given up into the hands of the Babylonians, and become their prey? is it usual for fathers to suffer their children, or those born in their house, to be so used? some reason must be given for it.
d “filius familias”, Munster.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
By this double sin Israel has drawn on its own head all the evil that has befallen it. Nevertheless it will not cease its intriguing with the heathen nations. Jer 2:14. “ Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a booty? Jer 2:15. Against him roared the young lions, let their voice be heard, and made his land a waste; his cities were burnt up void of inhabitants. Jer 2:16. Also the sons of Noph and Tahpanes feed on the crown of thy head. Jer 2:17. Does not this bring it upon thee, thy forsaking Jahveh thy God, at the time when He led thee on the way? Jer 2:18. And now what hast thou to do with the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Nile? and what with the way to Assur, to drink the waters of the river? Jer 2:19. Thy wickedness chastises thee, and thy backslidings punish thee; then know and see that it is evil and bitter to forsake Jahveh thy God, and to have no fear of me, saith the Lord Jahveh of hosts.” The thought from Jer 2:14-16 is this: Israel was plundered and abused by the nations like a slave. To characterize such a fate as in direct contradiction to its destiny is the aim of the question: Is Israel a servant? i.e., a slave or a house-born serf. is he who has in any way fallen into slavery, a slave born in the house of his master. The distinction between these two classes of salves does not consist in the superior value of the servant born in the house by reason of his attachment to the house. This peculiarity is not here thought of, but only the circumstance that the son of a salve, born in the house, remained a slave without any prospect of being set free; while the man who has been forced into slavery by one of the vicissitudes of life might hope again to acquire his freedom by some favourable turn of circumstances. Another failure is the attempt of Hitz. to interpret as servant of Jahveh, worshipper of the true God; for this interpretation, even if we take no account of all the other arguments that make against it, is rendered impossible by . That expression never means the son of the house, but by unfailing usage the slave born in the house of his master. Now the people of Israel had not been born as serf in the land of Jahveh, but had become , i.e., slave, in Egypt (Deu 5:15); but Jahveh has redeemed it from this bondage and made it His people. The questions suppose a state of affairs that did not exist. This is shown by the next question, one expressing wonder: Why then is he it become a prey? Slaves are treated as a prey, but Israel was no slave; why then has such treatment fallen to his lot? Propheta per admirationem quasi de re nova et absurda sciscitatur. An servus est Israel? atqui erat liber prae cunctis gentibus, erat enim filius primogenitus Dei; necesse est igitur quaerere aliam causam, cur adeo miser sit (Calv.). Cf. the similar turn of the thought in Jer 2:31. How Israel became a prey is shown in Jer 2:15 and Jer 2:16. These verses do not treat of future events, but of what has already happened, and, according to Jer 2:18 and Jer 2:19, will still continue. The imperff. and alternate consequently with the perff. and , and are governed by , so that they are utterances regarding events of the past, which have been and are still repeated. Lions are a figure that frequently stands for enemies thirsting for plunder, who burst in upon a people or land; cf. Mic 5:7; Isa 5:29, etc. Roared , against him, not, over him: the lion roars when he is about to rush upon his prey, Amo 3:4, Amo 3:8; Psa 104:21; Jdg 14:5; when he has pounced upon it he growls or grumbles over it; cf. Isa 31:4. – In Jer 2:15 the figurative manner passes into plain statement. They made his land a waste; cf. Jer 4:7; Jer 18:16, etc., where instead of we have the more ordinary . The Chet h. from , not from the Ethiop. (Graf, Hitz.), is to be retained; the Keri here, as in Jer 22:6, is an unnecessary correction; cf. Ew. 317, a. In this delineation Jeremiah has in his eye chiefly the land of the ten tribes, which had been ravaged and depopulated by the Assyrians, even although Judah had often suffered partial devastations by enemies; cf. 1Ki 14:25.
Jer 2:16 Israel has had to submit to spoliation at the hands of the Egyptians too. The present reference to the Egyptians is explained by the circumstances of the prophet’s times-from the fact, namely, that just as Israel and Judah had sought the help of Egypt against the Assyrians (cf. Hos 7:11; 2Ki 17:4, and Isa 30:1-5) in the time of Hezekiah, so now in Jeremiah’s times Judah was expecting and seeking help from the same quarter against the advancing power of the Chaldeans; cf. Jer 37:7. Noph and Tahpanes are two former capitals of Egypt, here put as representing the kingdom of the Pharaohs. nop , in Hos 9:6 mop contracted from , Manoph or Menoph, is Memphis, the old metropolis of Lower Egypt, made by Psammetichus the capital of the whole kingdom. Its ruins lie on the western bank of the Nile, to the south of Old Cairo, close by the present village of Mitrahenny, which is built amongst the ruins; cf. Brugsch Reiseberichte aus Egypten, 60ff., and the remarks on Hos 9:6 and Isa 19:13. , elsewhere spelt as here in the Keri – cf. Jer 43:7., Jer 44:1; Jer 46:14, Eze 30:18 -was a strong border city on the Pelusiac arm of the Nile, called by the Greeks (Herod. ii. 20), by the lxx ; see in Eze 30:18. A part of the Jews who had remained in the land fled hither after the destruction of Jerusalem, Jer 43:7. , feed upon thy crown (lit., feed on thee in respect of thy crown), is a trope for ignominious devastation; for to shave one bald is a token of disgrace and sorrow, cf. Jer 47:5; Jer 48:37, Isa 3:17; and with this Israel is threatened in Isa 7:20. , to eat up by grazing, as in Job 20:26 and Job 24:21; in the latter passage in the sense of depopulari. We must then reject the conjectures of J. D. Mich., Hitz., and others, suggesting the sense: crush thy head for thee; a sense not at all suitable, since crushing the head would signify the utter destruction of Israel. – The land of Israel is personified as a woman, as is shown by the fem. suffix in . Like a land closely cropped by herds, so is Israel by the Egyptians. In Jer 6:3 also the enemies are represented as shepherds coming with their flocks against Jerusalem, and pitching their tents round about the city, while each flock crops its portion of ground. In Jer 12:10 shepherds lay the vineyard waste.
Jer 2:17-19 In Jer 2:17 the question as to the cause of the evil is answered. is the above-mentioned evil, that Israel had become a prey to the foe. This thy forsaking of Jahveh makes or prepares for thee. is neuter; the infin. is the subject of the clause, and it is construed as a neuter, as in 1Sa 18:23. The fact that thou hast forsaken Jahveh thy God has brought this evil on thee. At the time when He led thee on the way. The participle is subordinated to in the stat. constr. as a partic. standing for the praeterit. durans; cf. Ew. 337, c. is understood by Ros. and Hitz. of the right way (Psa 25:8); but in this they forget that this acceptation is incompatible with the , which circumscribes the leading within a definite time. God will lead His people on the right way at all times. The way on which He led them at the particular time is the way through the Arabian desert, cf. Jer 2:6, and is to be understood as in Deu 1:33; Exo 18:8; Exo 23:20, etc. Even thus early their fathers forsook the Lord: At Sinai, by the worship of the golden calf; then when the people rose against Moses and Aaron in the desert of Paran, called a rejecting ( ) of Jahveh in Num 14:11; and at Shittim, where Israel joined himself to Baal Peor, Num 25:1-3. The forsaking of Jahveh is not to be limited to direct idolatry, but comprehends also the seeking of help from the heathen; this is shown by the following 18th verse, in which the reproaches are extended to the present bearing of the people. ‘ , lit., what is to thee in reference to the way of Egypt (for the expression, see Hos 14:9), i.e., what hast thou to do with the way of Egypt? Why dost thou arise to go into Egypt, to drink the water of the Nile? , the black, turbid stream, is a name for the Nile, taken from its dark-grey or black mud. The Nile is the life-giving artery of Egypt, on whose fertilizing waters the fruitfulness and the prosperity of the country depend. To drink the waters of the Nile is as much as to say to procure for oneself the sources of Egypt’s life, to make the power of Egypt useful to oneself. Analogous to this is the drinking the waters of the river, i.e., the Euphrates. What is meant is seeking help from Egyptians and Assyrians. The water of the Nile and of the Euphrates was to be made to furnish them with that which the fountain of living water, i.e., Jahveh (Jer 2:14), supplied to them. This is an old sin, and with it Israel of the ten tribes is upbraided by Hosea (Hos 7:11; Hos 12:2). From this we are not to infer “that here we have nothing to do with the present, since the existing Israel, Judah, was surely no longer a suitor for the assistance of Assyria, already grown powerless” (Hitz.). The limitation of the reproach solely to the past is irreconcilable with the terms of the verse and with the context (Jer 2:19). cannot grammatically be translated: What hadst thou to do with the way; just as little can we make hath chastised thee, since the following: know and see, is then utterly unsuitable to it. and are not futures, but imperfects, i.e., expressing what is wont to happen over again in each similar case; and so to be expressed in English by the present: thy wickedness, i.e., thy wicked work, chastises thee. The wickedness was shown in forsaking Jahveh, in the , backslidings, the repeated defection from the living God; cf. Jer 3:22; Jer 5:6; Jer 14:7. As to the fact, we have no historical evidence that under Josiah political alliance with Egypt or Assyria was compassed; but even if no formal negotiations took place, the country was certainly even then not without a party to build its hopes on one or other of the great powers between which Judah lay, whenever a conflict arose with either of them. – , with the Vav of consecution (see Ew. 347, a): Know then, and at last comprehend, that forsaking the Lord thy God is evil and bitter, i.e., bears evil and bitter fruit, prepares bitter misery for thee. “To have no fear of me” corresponds “to forsake,” lit., thy forsaking, as second subject; lit.,: and the no fear of me in thee, i.e., the fact that thou hast no awe of me. , awe of me, like in Deu 2:25.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Expostulations with Israel. | B. C. 629. |
14 Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he spoiled? 15 The young lions roared upon him, and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. 16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. 17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? 18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? 19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
The prophet, further to evince the folly of their forsaking God, shows them what mischiefs they had already brought upon themselves by so doing; it had already cost them dear, for to this were owing all the calamities their country was now groaning under, which were but an earnest of more and greater if they repented not. See how they smarted for their folly.
I. Their neighbours, who were their professed enemies, prevailed against them, and this was owing to their sin. 1. They were enslaved and lost their liberty (v. 14): Is Israel a servant? No; Israel is my son, my first-born, Exod. iv. 22. They are children; they are heirs. Nay, their extraction is noble; they are the seed of Abraham, God’s friend, and of Jacob his chosen. Is he a home-born slave? No; he is not the son of the bond-woman, but of the free. They were designed for dominion, not for servitude. Every thing in their constitution carried about it the marks of freedom and honour. Why then is he spoiled of his liberty? Why is he used as a servant, as a home-born slave? Why does he make himself a slave to his lusts, to his idols, to that which does not profit? v. 11. What a thing is this, that such a birthright should be sold for a mess of pottage, such a crown profaned and laid in the dust! Why is he made a slave to the oppressor? God provided that a Hebrew servant should be free the seventh year, and that their slaves should be of the heathen, not of their brethren,Lev 25:44; Lev 25:46. But, notwithstanding this, the princes made slaves of their subjects, and masters made slaves of their servants (ch. xxxiv. 11), and so made their country mean and miserable, which God had made happy and honourable. The neighbouring princes and powers broke in upon them, and made some of them slaves even in their own country, and perhaps sold others for slaves into foreign countries. And how came they thus to lose their liberties? For their iniquities they sold themselves, Isa. l. 1. We may apply this spiritually. Is the soul of man a servant? Is it a home-born slave? No, it is not. Why then is it spoiled? It is because it has sold its own liberty and enslaved itself to divers lusts and passions, which is a lamentation, and should be for a lamentation. 2. They were impoverished and had lost their wealth. God brought them into a plentiful country (v. 7), but all their neighbours made a prey of it (v. 15): Young lions roar aloud over him and yell; they are a continual terror to him. Sometimes one potent enemy, and sometimes another, and sometimes many in confederacy, fall upon him, and triumph over him. They carry off the fruits of his land, and make that waste, and burn his cities, when first they have plundered them, so that they remain without inhabitant, either because there are no houses to dwell in or because those that should dwell in them are carried into captivity. 3. They were abused, and insulted over, and beaten by every body (v. 16): “Even the children of Noph and Tahapanes, despicable people, not famed for military courage nor strength, have broken the crown of thy head, or fed upon it. In all their struggles with thee they have been too hard for thee, and thou hast always come off with a broken head. The principal part of thy country, that which lay next Jerusalem, has been and is a prey to them.” How calamitous the condition of Judah had been of late in the reign of Manasseh we find, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 11, and perhaps it had not now much recovered itself. 4. All this was owing to their sin (v. 17): Hast thou not procured this unto thyself? By their sinful confederacies with the nations, and especially their conformity to them in their idolatrous customs and usages, they had made themselves very mean and contemptible, as all those do that have made a profession of religion and afterwards throw it off. Nothing now appeared of that which, by their constitution, made them both honourable and formidable, and therefore nobody either respected them or feared them. But this was not all; they had provoked God to give them up into the hands of their enemies, and to make them a scourge to them and give them success against them; and “thus thou hast procured it to thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, revolted from thy allegiance to him and so thrown thyself out of his protection; for protection and allegiance go together.” Whatever trouble we are in at any time we may thank ourselves for it; for we bring it upon our own head by our forsaking God: “Thou hast forsaken thy God at the time that he was leading thee by the way” (so it should be read); “Then when he was leading thee on to a happy peace and settlement, and thou wast within a step of it, then thou forsookest him, and so didst put a bar in thy own door.”
II. Their neighbours, that were their pretended friends, deceived them, distressed them, and helped them not, and this also was owing to their sin. 1. They did in vain seek to Egypt and Assyria for help (v. 18): “What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt? When thou art under apprehensions of danger thou art running to Egypt for help, Isa 30:1; Isa 30:2; Isa 31:1. Thou art for drinking the waters of Sihor,” that is, Nilus. “Thou reliest upon their multitude, and refreshest thy self with the fair promises they make thee. At other times thou art in the way of Assyria, sending or going with all speed to fetch recruits thence, and thinkest to satisfy thyself with the waters of the river Euphrates; what hast thou to do there? What wilt thou get by applying to them? They shall help in vain, shall be broken reeds to thee, and what thou thoughtest would be to thee as a river will be but a broken cistern.” 2. This also was because of their sin. The judgment shall unavoidably come upon them which their sin has deserved; and then to what purpose is it to call in help against it? v. 19. “Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and then it is impossible for them to save thee; know and see therefore, upon the whole matter, that it is an evil thing that thou hast forsaken God, for it is that which makes thy enemies enemies indeed, and thy friends friends in vain.” Observe here, (1.) The nature of sin; it is forsaking the Lord as our God; it is the soul’s alienation from him and aversion to him. Cleaving to sin is leaving God. (2.) The cause of sin; it is because his fear is not in us. It is for want of a good principle in us, particularly for want of the fear of God; this is at the bottom of our apostasy from him; men forsake their duty to God because they stand in no awe of him nor have any dread of his displeasure. (3.) The malignity of sin; it is an evil thing and a bitter. Sin is an evil thing, only evil, an evil that has no good in it, an evil that is the root and cause of all other evil; it is evil indeed, for it is not only the greatest contrariety to the divine nature, but the greatest corruption of the human nature. It is bitter; a state of sin is the gall of bitterness, and every sinful way will be bitterness in the latter end; the wages of it is death, and death is bitter. (4.) The fatal consequences of sin; as it is in itself evil and bitter, so it has a direct tendency to make us miserable: “Thy own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee, not only destroy and ruin thee hereafter, but correct and reprove thee now; they will certainly bring trouble upon thee; and punishment will so inevitably follow the sin that the sin shall itself be said to punish thee. Nay, the punishment, in its kind and circumstances, shall so directly answer to the sin, that thou mayest read the sin in the punishment; and the justice of the punishment shall be so plain that thou shalt not have a word to say for thyself; thy own wickedness shall convince thee and stop thy mouth for ever and thou shalt be forced to own that the Lord is righteous.” (5.) The use and application of all this: “Know therefore, and see it, and repent of thy sin, that so the iniquity which is thy correction may not be thy ruin.“
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 14-19: THE BITTER FRUIT OF JUDAH’S UNFAITHFULLNESS
1. In ancient times a person could become a slave: 1) through defeat in battle, 2) by purchase, 3) by indebtedness or, 4) by being born of slave-parents; but none of this covers Israel’s situation, (vs.14-17).
a. He has become a prey to “young lions” whose voices have been lifted against him – laying his land waste, and burning his cities with fire, (vs. 15; comp. Jer 4:7).
b. The Egyptians also have broken (or, “fed on”) the crown of his head, (vs. 16; comp. Jer 48:45); Noph and Tahapanes recall an earlier humiliation of the covenant-nation before Egypt.
c. The present servitude is a self-inflicted bondage – brought on by a deliberate forsaking of the Lord and the way wherein He leads; when men forsake His “way” they must not expect the fellowship of His presence, or the protection of His mighty hand, (Vs. 17; Jer 4:18; comp. Deu 32:10).
2. Repudiating the way (and counsel) of the Lord, the people of God have committed themselves to “the way” of Egypt and Assyria – a deliberate, willfulness that has led to their humiliation and shame, (vs. 18-19).
a. What suicidal folly to distrust and reject the life-giving fountain, which flows from the Rock of Ages, while drinking from the dark waters of the Sihor and the treacherous waters of the Euphratesl (vs. 18).
b. By commitment to a life of wicked rebellion and backsliding, the people of the covenant (Exodus 20) have brought upon themselves the certainty of divine discipline and judgment -designed to turn back their hearts to Jehovah, their God, (vs. 19; Jer 4:18; Isa 3:9; Jer 5:23-25).
1) Sin always carries with it the seed of judgment.
2) The ancient warning, given to Israel, is still applicable today: “Be sure your sin will find you out!” (Num 32:23).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
These verses are to be read together; for the Prophet first shews that Israel was not as to his original condition miserable, but that this happened through a new cause, and then he mentions the cause. He then first asks, whether Israel was a servant or a slave? God had adopted them as his people, and had promised to be so bountiful to them as to render them in every way happy; and what was more, as a proof of their happiness, he said, In thee shall all nations be blessed. (Gen 12:3; Gen 22:18; Gen 26:4; Gen 28:14.) We then see what was the original condition of Israel; they excelled all other nations, because they were God’s peculiar people, they were his heritage, they were a royal priesthood.
Hence the Prophet, as though astonished at something new and strange, asks this question, Is Israel a servant? He was free beyond all nations; for he was the first — born son of God: it was therefore necessary to inquire for the cause why he was so miserable; for he says afterwards, that lions roared against him, and sent forth their voice; he says, that their cities were burnt, or destroyed; he says, that their land was reduced to desolation; and at length he adds, Has not this done these things to thee? This again is put as a question, but it is doubly affirmative, for it takes away every doubt: “What do you say is the cause why you are so miserable? for all are hostile to you, and you are exposed to the wrongs of all: whence can you say has all this proceeded, except from your own wickedness?” We now see what the Prophet means.
But that what he says may be more clear, we must remember that he reminds the people, by way of reproach, of the benefits which God had conferred on them. As then the children of Abraham had been honored with so many singular favors that they had the preeminence over all the world, this dignity is now referred to, but only for the purpose of exposing their base conduct, as though he had said, “God did not deceive you, when he promised to be bountiful to you; his adoption is not deceptive nor in vain: hence you would have been happier than all other nations, had not your own wickedness rendered you miserable.” We now see for what end the Prophet asked, Is Israel a servant or a slave? They were indeed on an equality with other people, as they were by nature; but as they had been chosen by God, and as he had favored them with that peculiar privilege, the Prophet asks, whether they were servants, as though he had said, “What is it that prevents that blessedness to appear among you, which God has promised? for it was not God’s design to disappoint you: it then follows that you are miserable through your own fault.” (41)
And by saying, Why is he become a prey, he intimates that except Israel had been deprived of God’s protection, they would not have been thus exposed to the caprice of their enemies. They were not then become a prey except for this reason, because God had forsaken them, according to what is said in the song of Moses,
“
How should one chase a thousand, and ten should put to flight as many thousands, except God had given us up as captives, except we had been shut up by his hand.” (Deu 32:30.)
For Moses in that passage does also in an indirect manner remind the people how often and how wonderfully God had given them victories over their enemies, and thus he leaves it to their posterity, when in distress, to consider how the change came that one should chase a thousand; that is, how could it be, that they, possessing great forces, should yet be put to flight by their enemies; for they were not wont to turn their backs, but to conquer their enemies: it then follows, that they were made captives by God, and not by the men who chased them. So also here the Prophet shews, that Israel would not have been made a prey, had they not been deprived of God’s assistance.
(41) The difficulty of understanding this passage has arisen from not considering the questions in a negative sense, as implying a strong denial-”Is Israel a servant (or, rather a slave)?” No, by no means. “Is he one begotten in the house,” that is, in a state of bondage? No, by no means. Then the following question comes naturally; since he is neither a purchased slave, nor a slave born in the house, “why has he become a prey?” That there were two sorts of slaves of this kind is evident from many parts of Scripture. See Gen 17:12, Gen 17:23, Gen 17:27; Exo 21:4; Lev 22:11. This is the view taken evidently in our version, by Jun and Trem. , Piscator, Gataker, Grotius, Henry, and Scott.
Blarney renders the two first lines thus, —
Is Israel a slave? or if a child of the household, Wherefore is he exposed to spoil?
He considers “the child of the household” to be the son and the heir, as Isaac was, and refers to Gal 4:7. Horsley coincides with him. But the usus loquendi gives no countenance to this view, while it confirms the other. To refer to filiusfamilias in Latin is to no purpose. “The child of the house,” as the expression literally is, and similar phrases, ever mean in Scripture those who were born slaves in a family. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(14) Is Israel a servant?The word servant, we must remember, had become, through its frequent use in Isaiah (Isa. 20:3; Isa. 41:8, et al.), a word not of shame, but honour; and of all servants, he who was born in the houseas in the case of Eleazar (Gen. 15:3)occupied the most honourable place, nearest to a son. The point of the question is accordingly not Is Israel become a slave, kidnapped, as it were, and spoiled, but rather this: Is Israel the servant of Jehovah, as one born in His house? Why, then, is he treated as one with no master to protect him?
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
ISRAEL’S PUNISHMENT, Jer 2:14-19.
14. Is Israel a servant a home-born Some, as Nagelsbach, make the interrogator in this place to be the prophet, but it is better to regard this as a continuation of the word of God. “Servant” and “homeborn” ( slave) are used in a bad sense, and not, as R. Payne Smith and others hold, to call attention to his membership in Jehovah’s family, though in a low sense, which would involve a claim to protection and safety. The meaning is, Is Israel a servant? If not, why is he treated as though he were? Why is he spoiled?
It Is Pointed Out That It Is Because Of Their Incredible Behaviour That They Have Undergone, And Are Undergoing, Their Present Distresses ( Jer 2:14-19 ).
It is apparent from the words that follow that at the time when Jeremiah was speaking Judah had already suffered problems from invasions by their enemies, including Egypt. It may well therefore have in mind the period immediately following the death of Josiah when the Egyptians were rampant. And YHWH now brings home to them that these distresses were all due to their having forsaken Him. When He had delivered them from Egypt His intention had been to watch over them and protect them from all their enemies (Jer 2:3 b), because they were His holy people, but by their behaviour they had made that impossible, and that was why, by their own choice, they were now being subjected to their enemies.
YHWH proceeded to ask three questions. The first questioned whether Israel, His firstborn (Exo 4:22), should really be a servant and a prey to their enemies (Jer 2:14). That had not originally been His intention for them. The second was rhetorical and questioned whether or not they had brought their predicament on themselves by forsaking YHWH (Jer 2:17). And the third was as to why they were looking to Egypt and Assyria for help when they should have been looking to YHWH. The whole emphasis is on what they have lost by not looking to YHWH from the beginning.
Jer 2:14
“Is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave?
Why is he become a prey?”
Israel were the people who had been delivered by YHWH out of the house of bondage. They were His firstborn (Exo 4:22). He had meant them to be a free people, freely worshipping their God, enjoying His bounty and living under His protection. Why then had they now become a servant, yes, a home-born slave, having no rights and bound to serve others in what should have been their own home? Why indeed had they become a prey to the roaming wild beasts, both human and beastly? (At this time there were still many savage beasts around in wilderness areas quite willing to take possession of land that became unoccupied, just as there were many human enemies only too eager to seize spoil). It was all because they had forsaken the living God, and replaced Him with useless nothings who were helpless to save them.
Others see the question as asking why the one who was YHWH’s servant, one, as it were, born in His house (see Gen 15:3), had now lost YHWH’s protection and become a prey. Either way the thought is of honour and distinction lost.
Jer 2:15-16
“The young lions have roared on him, and yelled,
And they have made his land waste,
His cities are burned up,
Without inhabitant.”
The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes,
Have broken the crown of your head.”
That was why the young lions (especially the Egyptians) had roared at them and entered their land, and had made their land waste and burned their cities leaving them deserted. That was why soldiers from Memphis and Tahpanhes (two leading cities in Egypt) had broken the crown of their head. The breaking of the crown of their head may refer to the death of Josiah. Alternatively it may indicate that they had rendered them bald and in mourning, or had acted like a slave-owner with a slave by shaving their heads. In other words, that the Egyptians had cropped Israel’s glory. Among the people of Judah a good head of hair was seen as an evidence of well-being and blessing. To be shorn was to be shamed.
It is intended to be ironic that the very people from whom YHWH had originally delivered them (Jer 2:6), were now the ones who could play fast and loose with them. Memphis (Noph) was situated on the Nile about twenty four kilometres (seventeen miles) from the apex of the Delta, in Lower (Northern) Egypt. Tahpanhes (Daphnai) was in the eastern Delta. It was where Jeremiah and the other refugees would later settle (Jer 43:7-9).
Jer 2:17
“Have you not procured this for yourself,
In that you have forsaken YHWH your God,
When he led you by the way?”
And who was to blame for all this? Had they not brought it on themselves? It was because they had forsaken YHWH as He led them in the way, YHWH Who was THEIR God, but Whom they had put aside. There is a warning in this for all that if we cease walking with Him in His way we too will soon encounter pitfalls.
Jer 2:18
“And now what have you to do in the way to Egypt,
To drink the waters of the Shihor?
Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria,
To drink the waters of the River?”
He then asks them what they were doing by drinking of the waters of Shihor, in Egypt, or by drinking of the waters of the Euphrates, in Assyria? What had these rivers to do with them? What they should have been doing was drinking of the wellspring of living waters, partaking of YHWH Himself. The reference is to their vacillations between Egypt and Assyria (shortly to be replaced by Babylon), as they looked for their security first to one and then to the other, and always at tremendous cost. These rivers did not come cheap.
Here the reference to Shihor indicates the Nile, as also in Isa 23:3, but in Jos 13:3 it is the border river between Palestine and Egypt. It is a case of the part most familiar to Judah being used to indicate the whole.
Jer 2:19
“Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your backslidings will reprove you,
Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter,
That you have forsaken YHWH your God,
And that my fear is not in you,
The word of the Lord,
YHWH of hosts.”
But they could be sure that they would inevitably learn their lesson from the results of their own wickedness and from their own backslidings. The consequences of them would correct and reprove them. And they would soon learn what an evil and bitter thing it was to have forsaken YHWH their God, and to have ceased to fear Him (worship and obey Him in reverent awe). And this was the sure and certain prophetic word of ‘the Sovereign Lord, YHWH of Hosts’. Here God emphasises just Whom they have forsaken, the One Who could have been their Protector and who could have delivered them, because He was sovereign over all things and God of the hosts of heaven and earth, but Who would now bring judgment on them because He was the Lord of all the hosts of men.
The description YHWH of hosts was regularly used by Isaiah, and once by Micah, is found eighty two times in Jeremiah, a number of times in Samuel and Kings, and regularly in the later prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. It also appears in the Psalms, Nahum and Habakkuk.
Israel’s Punishment and its Cause
v. 14. Is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave? Why is he spoiled? v. 15. The young lions roared upon him and yelled, v. 16. Also the children of Noph, v. 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, v. 18. And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor? v. 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, Jer 2:14. Is Israel a servant? “Is he of a condition to be delivered as a prey to his enemies? Is he of those people whom God regards as slaves and strangers? Is he not the son, the chosen and peculiar people of God? Why then hath the Lord treated him as a common slave?” &c. See Joh 8:33 and Calmet.
I include all these verses under one view, as the doctrine is one and the same, though varied with several similitudes. But the whole is intended to show, to what a degenerate state the Church was reduced; how the rebellion of the people naturally became their own correction; and yet, in the midst of all, the Lord still watched over Israel for good, and although suffering them to be cast down, would not cast them off. Isa 27:2-5 .
Jer 2:14 [Is] Israel a servant? [is] he a homeborn [slave]? why is he spoiled?
Ver. 14. Is Israel a servant? ] sc., Bought with money. a
Is he a homeborn slave? a Servus empticius, purchased slave.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 2:14-19
14Is Israel a slave? Or is he a homeborn servant?
Why has he become a prey?
15The young lions have roared at him,
They have roared loudly.
And they have made his land a waste;
His cities have been destroyed, without inhabitant.
16Also the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
Have shaved the crown of your head.
17Have you not done this to yourself
By your forsaking the LORD your God
When He led you in the way?
18But now what are you doing on the road to Egypt,
To drink the waters of the Nile?
Or what are you doing on the road to Assyria,
To drink the waters of the Euphrates?
19Your own wickedness will correct you,
And your apostasies will reprove you;
Know therefore and see that it is evil and bitter
For you to forsake the LORD your God,
And the dread of Me is not in you, declares the LORD God of hosts.
Jer 2:14 Another question starts a new strophe. This question is answered by another rhetorical question in Jer 2:17. Israel is reaping what she sowed (cf. Jer 17:10; Jer 32:19). She is no longer what she was when she was formed (i.e., Jer 2:2-3, devoted, loving, holy to the Lord, the first of His harvest). Now she is a slave who has become a prey (i.e., of other nations and their false gods).
Jer 2:15 young lions This is a metaphor of power and strength used of the nations. Young lions were well known top predators. Here it symbolized Israel’s invading enemies. Without her God, she was vulnerable and weak! The false gods who could not see or hear, could not help!
NASBdestroyed
NKJV, NRSVburned
TEV, NJBin ruins
JPSOAdesolate
REBrazed to the ground
The MT has burned (, Niphal PERFECT, BDB 428, KB 429, but the Masoretic scholars suggested ), which would be translated are in ruins. Both options fit the context (see above line which is in synonymous parallelism).
Jer 2:16 Memphis and Tahpanhes These were ancient capitals of Egypt (cf. Jer 44:1). Each city in Egypt had its own patron deity.
NASB, NRSVshaved
NKJV, NJBbroken
TEV, NETcracked
JPSOAlay bare
REBwill break
The VERB break, , BDB 949, KB 1270, is from root II. The other option, shave, , from , BDB 944, KB 1258, meaning to graze (cf. Jer 47:5; Jer 48:37; Isa 7:20), would denote a sign of slavery. The UBS Text Project gives option #1 a B rating (p. 176).
Jer 2:17 See note at Jer 2:13 d. Line 3 of the MT is printed in the NASB. The Septuagint has a totally different line. It is not a textual corruption, but a separate tradition. The DSS have Hebrew copies of both the MT form of Jeremiah and the radically shorter LXX version.
Here is the LXX:
‘Has not your abandoning of Me brought about these things for you?’ says the Lord GOD.
Jer 2:18 on the road to Egypt. . .Assyria Israel tried to find security themselves by political alliances against Babylon instead of with faith in YHWH. These alliances included involvement (ceremonies) with their national idols!
To drink the water This repeated VERBAL (Qal INFINITIVE CONSTRUCT, BDB 1059, KB 1667) is a metaphor used as voluntary service of another. In a sense this was self-imposed exile!
Jer 2:19 Like Jer 2:13 d and 17, this verse emphasizes the terrible results of Israel’s choices (cf. Jer 4:18)! Notice how wickedness (BDB 948) and apostasies (BDB 1000, cf. Jer 3:6; Jer 3:8; Jer 3:11; Jer 3:14) will reprove and correct.
YHWH responds with two Qal IMPERATIVES (i.e., know and see). They will realize the consequences of their choices.
1. left YHWH
2. embraced idolatry
SPECIAL TOPIC: APOSTASY (APHISTMI)
God of hosts See Special Topic: Lord of Hosts .
servant? . . . slave? They were treated as such by Assyria, and afterward by Egypt.
spoiled = become a spoil.
Jer 2:14-19
Jer 2:14-19
“Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a slave? The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts.”
“Why is he become a slave …” (Jer 2:14)? There are two ways of looking at this. One is to suppose that Israel is here depicted as a home-born slave of Jehovah; and the question, according to Cook, means: “How does it happen that the member of so powerful a family is spoiled?” The other view considers the first two of the three questions here as stressing the fact that Israel is not a slave, but the wife of God; and how, then, is it possible for him to be mined?
“The young lions have roared upon him …” (Jer 2:15). These words make it certain that the passage applies to the Northern Israel particularly, because since 722 B.C., when the Samaritan Israel had fallen to Assyria, the young lions (definitely identifying Assyria. See Nah 2:11-13), had indeed been feeding upon the rains of the Northern Israel. The significance of “the young lions” is that they remained in the den where they fed upon the prey brought to them by the adult lions. What an appropriate picture, because the Northern Israel had already been taken as a prey to Assyria.
“They have made his land waste … etc.” (Jer 2:15). “Not only had Israel been wasted, till the multiplication of wild beasts rendered human life unsafe (2Ki 17:25), but the Assyrian invasions had also reduced Judaea to a state almost as sad. The argument here is: Israel, look at what has already happened to your sister nation because of her apostasy!
“Egypt … and Assyria …” (Jer 2:16). The mention of Egypt here is surprising; but it is due to the fact of their fighting against Jerusalem, taking it, and murdering the good king Josiah. Jeremiah, being familiar (from history) with the fall of Samaria and personally with the events around the death of Josiah mentioned both together as Judea’s suffering from the nation’s apostasy.
“Tahpanhes …” (Jer 2:16). “This is the Greek Daphnae, modern Tell Defennch, on the eastern border of the Egyptian Delta.
“Hast thou not procured this unto thyself …” (Jer 2:17)? This through Jer 2:19 stresses the lesson that Judaea should be willing to learn: “Know therefore, and see that it is an evil thing, and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God!” As the subsequent verses of the chapter reveal, Judaea would not learn, having fallen completely in love with the Baalim and their licentious worship. These words do not take account of the “righteous remnant,” of whom, of course, was Jeremiah.
“What hast thou to do in the way to Egypt… or in the way to Assyria …” (Jer 2:18)?. In full keeping with Jeremiah’s constant opposition to all kinds of alliances and intrigues with foreign nations, these words stress the warning that traversing such ways by Israel will lead only to disaster. “To lean on Egypt, or any foreign power, was a violation of the principles of the theocracy, which required God’s people to be an independent power, firmly closed against all foreign influences.
Israel: Exo 4:22, Isa 50:1
he a homeborn: Gen 15:3, Ecc 2:7
spoiled: Heb. become a spoil
Reciprocal: Exo 21:4 – shall be her Jer 9:19 – we are
Jer 2:14. This verse is a prediction in question form of the calamity that was to come upon Israel in a few years. The passage means to humiliate the people by speaking as if they were no better off than a servant or slave. Spoiled is rendered “become a spoil in the margin which is correct. In a few years the Babylonian army will come against the capital and spoil or dispossess its people of their goods. The fulfillment of this prediction is recorded in 2Ki 24:13.
Jer 2:14. Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? Is he of a condition to be delivered as a prey to his enemies? Is he of those people whom God regards as slaves and strangers? These interrogations imply, and have the force of, a negative. As if he had said, Is not Israel the son, the chosen and peculiar people of God? Why then hath the Lord treated him as a common slave, and given him up into the power of tyrannical lords and masters? The sense is, God redeemed Israel from the bondage of Egypt, and adopted him to be his son, Exo 4:22. So that the servitude he now undergoes, and his being made a prey to so many foreign enemies, cannot be owing to his birth, or primitive condition, but must be imputed to his sins, of which his slavery is the consequence. Compare Isa 50:1; Isa 52:3.
Jer 2:14-28. Israels False Religion.Israel has forfeited the privileges of a son, and incurred disaster by forsaking Yahweh for the sensuous worship of the Baalim (cf. Jer 2:20; Jer 2:28). Jer 2:14-17 may be a later insertion, as it seems to break the connexion between Jer 2:13 and Jer 2:18; Jer 2:15 apparently refers to the devastation of the northern kingdom by Assyria, Jer 2:16 to the defeat of Judah by Pharaoh Necho (pp. 60, 72) at Megiddo in 608 (Noph (Isa 19:13*) is Memphis, Tahpanhes is Daphne, these being taken as representative cities of Egypt). In Jer 2:16, the Hebrew reads as mg. The last clause of Jer 2:17, when he led thee by the way, should be omitted with LXX. Jer 2:18 resumes the figure of Jer 2:13, and remonstrates against the pro-Egyptian policy, which was the chief alternative to subjection to Assyria. In Jer 2:20, read as mg., with Jer 2:21 employs the familiar figure of Israel as a vine, which might be called the national emblem (Jer 12:10 ff., Hos 10:1, Isa 5:1-7, Eze 17:5 ff.). In Jer 2:22, lye and soap denote a vegetable and a mineral alkali respectively; marked should be ingrained. Israel protests (cf. Jer 2:27; Jer 2:35) that she has not abandoned Yahweh, in worshipping Him according to the manner of the Baalim (Jer 2:23); she is answered by a reference to the valley (Hinnom; Jer 7:31*, Mar 9:43*), and the sensuality of her worship (so repugnant to the God of righteousness) is suggested by the figures of the young camel (Jer 2:23 mg.), and the ass (Jer 2:24) when in heat. Reference is made in Jer 2:25 to the eager pursuit of strange gods, in Jer 2:27 to the Asherah (p. 100, 1Ki 15:13*) and Mazzebah (p. 98) employed in their worship (Deu 16:21 f.*), in each locality (Jer 11:13).
2:14 [Is] Israel a {u} servant? [is] he a homeborn [slave]? why is he laid waste?
(u) Have I ordered them like servants and not like dearly beloved children? Exo 4:22 therefore it is their fault only, if the enemy spoil them.
Israel’s perverse conduct 2:14-19
Perverse conduct was the consequence of Israel’s apostasy and infidelity, and it led to slavery.
Israel was Yahweh’s "firstborn son," not a slave or even a homeborn servant. People paid to purchase slaves for a period of service in Israel, but homeborn servants belonged to their masters as personal possessions (Exo 21:1-6). [Note: See The New Bible Dictionary, 1962 ed., s.v. "Slave, Slavery," by Kenneth A. Kitchen.] As a firstborn son, Israel enjoyed the special care and provisions of the Lord. Then why had he become a prey to enemies? Enemy rulers, like young lions, had threatened and devoured Israel’s land and destroyed its cities. The lion was a symbol of both Assyria and Babylonia. The Northern Kingdom had gone into captivity in 722 B.C. After that captivity, lions multiplied in the land and became a threat to the people who lived there (cf. 2Ki 17:25). The Assyrians attacked the Israelites like voracious lions many times.
"Israel, in the metaphor, had not only become a slave, but after a generation or more had become a household servant, one for whom even the memory of freedom had been lost. But the statement of Israel’s slavery in the form of two questions implies that slavery should never have come to pass. Israel, in its covenant, had been granted freedom." [Note: Craigie, p. 32.]
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)