Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:28

But where [are] thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for [according to] the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

28. Jehovah’s sarcastic answer to the people’s appeal. Do you cry to Me? Cry to the gods of your choice.

for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods ] It cannot be through any scarcity in number that the gods whom thou hast chosen come not to thine aid. LXX add here, as they do in the parallel passage Jer 11:13 (where MT. gives them a general support), “and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem they sacrifice to the Baal.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

A question of bitter irony. Things are made for some use. Now is the time for thy deities to prove themselves real by being useful. When every city has its special deity, surely among so many there might be found one able to help his worshippers.

O Judah – Hereto the argument had been addressed to Israel: suddenly the prophet charges Judah with the habitual practice of idolatry, and points to the conclusion, that as Jerusalem has been guilty of Samarias sin, it must suffer Samarias punishment.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 28. According to the number of thy cities are thy gods] Among heathen nations every city had its tutelary deity. Judah, far sunk in idolatry, had adopted this custom. The Church of Rome has refined it a little: every city has its tutelary saint, and this saint has a procession and worship peculiar to himself. So here; not much of the old idolatry is lost.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Thy gods; thy idols, viz. gods of thy own making; what do they do for thee? Isa 31:3.

Let them arise: either by way of challenge, let them produce their idols now, to help them, if they can, whom they call their fathers and their makers; or by way of scoff, as Elijah to Baals priests: see Jdg 10:14. Besides, in this word arise there is an insinuation of their lifelessness and deadness, Isa 46:7; Jer 10:15. And further, there may be a secret reply couched in it: q.d. In your trouble you will say to me, Arise, save us; now say so to them, and see if they can arise, and save you.

According to the number of thy cities are thy gods: q.d. Thou hast them near to thee, and enough of them, imitating the heathens, who had according to Varro above thirty thousand deities; no marvel if I, who am but one, be slighted, when thou hast in every city at least one, 2Ki 17:29-31, and in Jerusalem one in every street, Jer 11:13. It is a hard case if none nor all these thy tutelar gods can help thee: see Deu 32:37-39. Make trial if any, or all of them together, can help thee.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

28. ButGod sends them to thegods for whom they forsook Him, to see if they can help them(Deu 32:37; Deu 32:38;Jdg 10:14).

according to the number ofthy citiesBesides national deities, each city had its tutelarygod (Jer 11:13).

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee?…. This is, or would be, the Lord’s answer to them, what is become of your gods? why do not you apply to them for help in time of trouble? the gods that you have chosen for yourselves and worshipped; the gods, not that made you, but whom you yourselves have made:

let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble; call upon them to arise, those statues of wood and stone, those lifeless and senseless images; let them rise off their seats, and move out of their places, if they can, and see whether they can save in a time of trouble and distress; for there is enough of them, if numbers will do:

for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah; in imitation of the Heathens, who had not only in every country, but in every city and town, a different god, the patron and tutelar deity of the place; see 2Ki 17:29. The Septuagint and Arabic versions “add, according to the number of the ways, or streets, of Jerusalem”, they sacrificed to Baal; see Jer 11:13.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

And hence he adds, Where are your gods? Here God laughs to scorn the false confidence by which the Jews deceived themselves: Where are your gods, which you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, let us see whether they will help you in the time of your distress. We now understand what the Prophet means: for he shews that the people acted in a most strange manner; for they worshipped idols when they were in safety, and afterwards would have God to be bound to them; and yet they denied the true God when they fell away unto idols. He then shews that they could expect no aid from God; for they robbed him of his own power when they devised idols for themselves. But we must ever remember what he said, that false gods were counted as fathers and authors of salvation by the people.

The same thing is, no doubt, done at this day under the Papacy; for the Papists have their patrons; and when they find that their foolish superstitions can do nothing for them, they would have God to help them, and yet they leave nothing to him: after having taken away all his glory, and divided it as a spoil among dead saints, they would then have God to be their helper. But we see what God’s answer to them is, “Where are your gods?” etc.

Now this truth is of use to us; and we hence learn, that we are not to wait until we are really, and in the last state of despair, compelled to acknowledge that our labors have been useless, while we hoped and prayed for help from idols; but that we ought to come directly to God himself for aid in our distress.

God proceeds farther with the sarcasm or the derision which he has employed, Where are thy gods? Let them now arise that they may help thee; that is, — let them try their utmost whether they can aid thee. According to the number of thy cities have been thy gods, O Judah As the people were not satisfied with one God, every city chose a patron for itself. “Since, then, innumerable gods are invoked by you, how comes it that they do not help you?” We hence see that the unbelief of the people is here sharply reproved; for they did not acquiesce in God alone, but sought to procure for themselves gods without number: there were many cities in the tribe of Judah, and there were as many patrons. The one true God would have been fully sufficient for them, and would have brought them complete deliverance whenever needed; but the one true God they despised, and every city devised a god for itself. “Since ye trust,” he says, “in such a multitude, let them now arise, that they may succor you; for I, who am one, am despised by you.” We now understand what the Prophet means also in this part. It afterwards follows —

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(28) Where are thy gods . . .?The question is asked in indignant scorn. Thou madest the gods, and yet they cannot profit thee. Though every city had its tutelary deity, there was none found to deliver. The LXX. adds, as in Jer. 11:13, the words according to the number of the streets in Jerusalem they sacrificed to Baal.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

28. Where are thy gods “I also will laugh at your calamity: I will mock when your fear cometh.” This passage of bitter irony is double-barbed. It contains a taunt of their many gods and of their powerlessness.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Jer 2:28. For according to the number of thy cities, &c. The Israelites had now contracted all the fashionable habits of Egypt. We are assured, that it had been long peculiar to the Egyptian superstition, for every city of that empire to have its own tutelary god, besides those which were worshipped in common. And now Jeremiah tells us in this verse, that the people of Judah bore a part with them in this extravagance. See Div. Leg. vol. 3: Eze 16:24-25 and Hos 10:1.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Jer 2:28 But where [are] thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for [according to] the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah.

Ver. 28. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? ] Thou hast sure no need of my help. Quasi tu huius indigeas patris. See the like, Jdg 10:14 . See Trapp on “ Jdg 10:14 “

For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods. ] Enough of them thou hast, and near enough. The Papists also have their tutelar saints, to whom they seek more than to God himself. And when the Ave Mary bell rings, which is at sunrise, noon, and sunset, all men, in whatever place, house, field, street, or market, do presently kneel down and send up their united devotions to heaven by an Ave Maria. a

a Spec. Europ.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)