Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 2:31
O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
31 37. Israel’s disregard of Jehovah’s past favours
31. O generation, see ye ] O generation that ye are, see.
a wilderness ] Have I been like a place where ye lacked sustenance? Not so. Cp. Hos 2:8.
thick darkness ] On the contrary ye have had the light of prophetic teaching. The mg. darkness from Jah (i.e. Jehovah) is a less likely expression to put into the Divine mouth.
We are broken loose ] Cp. Gen 27:40 (R.V.) “shalt break loose.” The notion of having power to carry out one’s own will, is at the bottom in each case.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Or, O generation that ye are! An exclamation Of indignation at their hardened resistance to God.
A land of darkness – This word is written in Hebrew with two accents, as being a compound, signifying not merely darkness, but the darkness of Yahweh, i. e., very great darkness.
We are lords – Others render it: We rove about, wander about at our will, go where we like.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 2:31-37
Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?
Divine questions
The people were required to answer two questions: Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? have I been a land of darkness unto Israel? Speak out. If you have an impeachment to bring even against God, do not fear to bring it. He asks for it. A wondrous tenderness inspires the inquiry. It seems, indeed, to bring its own answer with it. So the father might plead with his child, Have I been a wilderness unto thee, or a land of darkness? have I been deaf to entreaty? have I been without sympathy in the time of affliction? have I but half-opened the door when you have sought to return to my love and my confidence? The very inquiry is a defence; the very method of the inquiry means, It is impossible to answer this but in one way. Having answered a question respecting God, they have next to answer a question respecting themselves: Wherefore say My people, We are lords; we will come no more unto Thee? Literally, Why do My people say, We will rove at will? That is licence, not liberty. They have lost the centre, and are plunging evermore in chaos, without being able to give an account of themselves or to use what benefit might lie within their power. Why this new cry, namely, We will do as we like? Why this so-called free thought? why this progress which means running round and round and never advancing by one measurable inch? How very early men begin to be free-thinkers! How soon sin says to a man, Rove at will; do what you like: you are a man! Then the poor fool thinks he is a man, and begins to play fantastic tricks before high heaven. He forgets that we have only, liberty to obey. Then the Lord seems to adopt a kind of taunting tone: Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? When did either of them forget a pin, a jewel, a toy, a feather? What, a memory for little things, for dressing, for adornment, for outgoing, for public excitement! What a recollection for dates, when the date is filled up with an amusement, a new sensation! But no memory for sacrifice, for prayer, for holy sacrament, for consecrated day, for revelations from heaven,–a memory that will hold all the fiction that ever was written, but a memory like a sieve in respect of everything that is written in the Bible! What a voice is the Lords! How strident, how mocking! how tender, beseeching, importunate, full of lamentation! My people have forgotten Me days without number. Could the complaint have been stated more pensively? The very voice in which it is uttered adds to the poignancy of the distress. Who likes to be forgotten? Who likes to be the one member of the family for whom no flower is brought, for whose birthday no provision is made, for whose little wants, or great, no one cares? Now the voice changes, and the element of accusation enters into it very sharply (Jer 2:33): Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? –why this continual invention in incidental reforms? why not go to the root of the matter? A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit. It is useless to paint the branches, or hang bird cages upon them, or tie to them fruit gathered from other orchards. Down with the tree, up with the roots, burn them, and in its place let there be a tree of the Lords right-hand planting. But all this trimming and adaptation and partial reform indicates a species of ingenuity and cleverness–therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. The substantive is feminine–therefore hast thou also taught wicked women thy ways: you have been inventive, you have issued new programmes of evil; you have said in effect: See how clever we are: here is a new method of profanity, here a novelty in blasphemy, here a cloak that baffles scrutiny, here an impervious garment–waterproof and fireproof, deluge and lightning cannot get through this covering. No doubt there is a great deal of ingenuity in wickedness. Bad men have wonderful sagacity in some cases, great mental penetration, and quite a striking method of doing their own work in their own way; they are inventive, mentally fertile; as to their fecundity in the way of devising evil methods and evil practices, it is immeasurable. But God knows it, and founds a charge upon it. Mark the hardening process of sin in the thirty-fourth verse: 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. The blood of the prophets was found in the skirts of those who had slain the good men. But in thy skirts,–is not that a term which indicates concealment? God says, I have not found out this blood, or the sin with which it is connected, by secret search–by digging down and finding a hole in the wall, as the prophet Ezekiel found a hole in the wall and entered into the chamber of imagery; this is not a cellarful of blood; this sin is not confined to the basement of the life house: you have advanced beyond that. Cain, who introduced social sin into the world, performed his murder in secret, wiped his lips, and stood before God as an innocent man. We have made advances upon that infantile crime. Now our crime is public. The sin which you are half afraid of today, you will make a boon companion of before very long. The words you now use with blushing and trembling of voice, you will use familiarly by continued practice. We cannot rest at a certain point, saying, I will go no farther than this. Such may be our intention at the time being, but we subtly and imperceptibly advance until we become adept in evil. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria (verse 36). Literally, Why all these shifting policies? why all these new alliances? why be performing a kind of moral conjuring? Are there not many people who are all things by turns and nothing long–men who are wanting in conviction and thorough persuasion of soul, incapable of enthusiasm, driven about by every wind of doctrine; men who have called at all the hovels of heresy, and have, never settled in the sanctuary of truth? We need not alter the terms; they are simple as our best-known mother tongue, and they will stand for the purposes of scrutiny all the while, not needing change or modification. Be something. Belong to somebody. Do not mistake roving at will for a safe dwelling at home. What was the result of this trimming and gadding about, this changing between Assyria and Egypt? Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head, etc. (verse 37). Observe the expression, Thine hands upon thine head. It was the Oriental sign of dejection and despair. Seeing a man in that attitude, the meaning was: He has no more hope; his spirit is full of chagrin; he has been utterly disappointed, and his soul is dead within him; and his confidences are all battered down; the day of prosperity, even nominal and superficial, is gone forever. There are many confidences, and they look well. What can look better from the outside than golden wealth: the foundations silver, the gates made of precious stones, the front of the house gleaming white marble, the roof of the house one sheet of gold; and behind horses and chariots, and man servants and maid servants, and a retinue endless? What can look better as a confidence than health–rude health, rosy-cheeked health, bright-eyed health: the voice as sound as a bell, the arm as strong as iron, a strength that never knew what it was to be weary–real genuine health of blood and bone and sinew and skin; a man whom death dare not touch? Or the confidence of invention–that fertility of mind which always has a new shift, which can always see a back door out of every difficulty? Or pleasure–sunny, merry, dancing pleasure, with a tune for every hour of the day, and as happy in the night season as in the daytime; bells ringing the whole four-and-twenty hours round; and as for laughter and joke and all kinds of mirthfulness, why here they are? The Lord hath rejected thy confidences. One bolt of lightning, and the whole gold house has gone down. One chill some damp night, and the health house is ruined from attic to basement. One touch by the invisible hand, and the brain that had in it a thousand inventions trembles, and cannot remember. One keen disappointment, and pleasure is struck dead; its face is an annoyance, its rattle is an insult, its invitations are blasphemies, in face of a woe so terrible. There is but one abiding confidence–Rock of Ages, cleft for me. There is but one refuge from the storm–Jesus, refuge of my soul, (J. Parker, D. D.)
An unjust imputation repelled by Jehovah
To an ingenuous mind God never appears so irresistible, so overpowering, as when He addresses His creatures in the language of tender expostulation. Did all men possess such a disposition, He would seldom address them in any other language, and even now, destitute of it as they naturally are, He condescends occasionally to employ it one instance of its use we have in our text.
I. Show when professed Christians treat their God and Redeemer as if he were to them a wilderness, a land of darkness. The mention of a wilderness, especially of a wilderness as it appears at night, when darkness prevails, suggests to us ideas of dreariness, solitude, and gloom; of a place where there is nothing to cheer, to nourish, or shelter us, where numberless obstacles impede the wanderers progress, and through which is no discoverable path. Every declining professor of religion, every one who serves God with reluctance, who does not find pleasure in His service, regards Him precisely in this light, and treats Him as if He were a wilderness, a land of darkness. When a professor becomes slack and remiss in waiting upon God, careless in walking with Him, and negligent in seeking communion with Him, does he not practically say, God is, to me, a wilderness? In the same manner does every one regard it, who in any place of worship, whether private, social, or public, feels as if he were detained there, and as if he would prefer some other situation or employment. Still more loudly does the professing Christian declare that he regards God as a wilderness, when he repairs, in search of happiness, to the scenes of worldly pleasure, or to the society of worldly-minded men. He then says to them in effect, the ways of wisdom are not ways of pleasantness; a religious life is a life of constraint and melancholy; I should die with hunger and thirst, did I not occasionally forsake the wilderness in which I am doomed to live, and refresh myself with the fruits on which you are feasting.
II. Apply to all, who have treated him in this manner, the pathetic, melting expostulation in our text.
1. The temporal blessings which you enjoy. Look at your comforts, your possessions, your children, your friends, your liberty, your security. Did you find all these blessings in a wilderness, or did they come to you out of a land of darkness?
2. The religious privileges with which you have been favoured. Did you find the Bible, the sanctuary of God, and the Gospel of salvation, in a wilderness? Surely, a wilderness, where such blessings are to be found, must be preferable to the most fertile spot on earth!
3. Those who are professors of religion, we may remind of the spiritual blessings which they have, or profess to have enjoyed.
(1) You have found the table of Christ spread for your refreshment. You have enjoyed precious seasons of communion with Him. You have tasted the first-fruits of the heavenly inheritance, celestial fruits, the food of angels, such as earth does not produce. Was it a wilderness which produced the celestial fruits, on which you have feasted?
(2) Has God been a wilderness, a land of darkness to this Church, considered as a body? Look back and see what it was twenty years since. Consider how it has been preserved, blessed, increased, during the intervening period.
4. Yet, notwithstanding all that has been said, there are probably some who feel as if, in one respect at least, God has been to them no better than a dark and dreary wilderness. We allude to those who, though they have professedly paid some attention to religious subjects, and have perhaps enrolled themselves among the visible followers of Christ, have found no happiness in religion. Such persons often say in their hearts, We have spent much time in religious pursuits, and have made many endeavours to find that rest and peace and consolation which Christ promises to His disciples, and of which many Christians talk so much. But all our endeavours have been in vain; and we must say, if we speak the truth, that our way has been like that of a man travelling through a wilderness, where he finds no path, no refreshment, but meets with thorns and briars and obstacles at every step. In reply to such complaints, we remark, that the persons who make them compose several different classes, and that the complaints of each of these classes are wholly unreasonable and without foundation.
(1) The first class we shall mention, is composed of those who, to use the apostles language, go about to establish their own righteousness, and do not submit to the righteousness of God. That such persons find no happiness in God, in religion, is not wonderful; for to God, and to religion, they are entire strangers. It is only by believing in Jesus Christ, that men are filled with joy and peace.
(2) The second class we shall mention, is composed of the slothful. That they should find no happiness in religion, is not surprising; for inspiration declares, that the way of the slothful man is a hedge of thorns.
(3) A third class of complainers is composed of such as an apostle calls double-minded men, who are unstable in all their ways. They are engaged in a vain attempt to reconcile the service of God and that of mammon. In making this attempt they wander from God, and lose themselves in a wilderness; and then inconsistently complain, that wisdoms ways are not paths of peace, that God is to them a land of darkness. But their complaints are as unreasonable as those of a man, who should bury himself in a dungeon, and then complain that the sun gave no light. Permit me now to improve the subject–
1. By applying it to the members of this Church, and to all the professed disciples of Christ before me. Let me say to each of them, Have you never treated your God and Redeemer as if He were a wilderness, a land of darkness?
2. In the second place, let me apply this subject to impenitent sinners. (E. Payson, D. D.)
God no barren wilderness
I. A demand.
1. It has the force of a remonstrance or protestation. Men are wrongly opinionated respecting God.
(1) Because God is pleased sometimes to suspend and delay the expressions of His goodness to them.
(2) Because God does not always reward them as they desire and expect.
2. It has the force of a remembrance or seasonable intimation; i.e., I have been the contrary, I have in reality been a paradise.
3. It has the force of a reproach; i.e., Israel hath rather been a wilderness to Me! And so it represents to us the unfruitfulness of Gods people. Three things aggravate this.
(1) The mercies they enjoy.
(2) The means (of improvement, advantages) they partake of.
(3) The expectations which are upon them.
4. It has the force of an appeal or provocation to them; i.e., let Israel speak what they know of Me.
II. An expostulation.
1. The charge is two fold.
(1) Their assertion: We are lords, whereby they hold forth their own greatness, self-sufficiency, and independence.
(2) Their resolution: We will come no more, etc.
2. The censure, wherefore? signifies that–
(1) It was without reason.
(2) Against reason. Consider–
(a) Their relation. My people.
(b) Their indebtedness.
III. An invitation. By generation He meant the people of the time. There is a reflection in the phrase upon the sinfulness and wretchedness of the age, as if to say, Into what a time and age are we fallen!
1. Unto what this generation is invited. To see the Word of the Lord, i.e., mind it and attend to it.
2. The weightiness and seriousness of it.
(1) As it respects Gods own justification.
(2) As it respects Israels condemnation. (T. Horton, D. D.)
A just challenge
You cannot hear such a text as this without feeling greatly solemnised. I do not suppose they said this literally, but practically they said, We are lords; we will come no more unto Thee. Also, how the words impress us with the necessity of a better dispensation,–in other words, of a better covenant, of a better religion, that should take a saving hold of the people, and make them all that which the Lord Himself would approve.
I. The just challenge.
1. What the Lord was to them. Salvation. Those among them who were spiritually minded, and were taught of God, saw in the Paschal lamb, Christ Jesus; saw in the salvation from Egypt, Christ Jesus; saw in the victory that was wrought for them, Christ Jesus.
2. How it was they failed. They defiled the land.
II. The self-exaltation. We are lords. What does it mean? It means that they set their authority above the truth of God. Now it becomes us to see that all the parts of our religion are of Divine authority. So far from the Christian as he goes on finding that he is lord over his own self, and lord over this, and that, and the other, he finds out, as he goes along, more and more of his poverty; he decreases more and more. Ah! he says, If I were black in my own eyes a few years ago, I am blacker now: if vile in my own estimation a few years ago, I am viler now. And thus as we sink the Saviour rises, grace reigns, and we glory in being poor sinners at the feet of Jesus, indebted to God from first to last for our eternal salvation.
III. The blind decision. We will come no more unto Thee. I do not apprehend that this means that they would give up the supreme God, but that they would come no more unto Him in that representation of Him which His truth gave, in that representation of Him which His prophets gave. We will thus come no more unto Thee–not in that way. In Isa 29:1-24 you have these instructive words, This people draw near Me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour Me, but have removed their heart far from Me. They are not conscious of that, You say to the Pharisee in the Saviours day, Do you love God? Of course I do. But is not your heart removed from Him? No;–they were not conscious of it. Every erroneous seeker says he loves God; what, then, is the sense in which their hearts were removed from God? what is the sense in which they would come no more to Him? Their fear, saith Isaiah (29), toward Me is taught by the precept of men. The Saviour comes to the same point when He says, Ye will not come unto Me that ye might have life. And when He had opened up the beauties of the everlasting Gospel in Joh 6:1-71, it was not the supreme God abstractedly, but it was God in His own way of saving a sinner that they hated, and they went back and walked no more with Him. (J. Wells.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 31. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?] Have I ever withheld from you any of the blessings necessary for your support?
A land of darkness] Have you, since you passed through the wilderness, and came out of the darkness of Egypt, ever been brought into similar circumstances? You have had food and all the necessaries of life for your bodies; and my ordinances and word to enlighten and cheer your souls. I have neither been a wilderness nor a land of darkness to you.
We are lords] We wish to be our own masters; we will neither brook religious nor civil restraint; we will regard no laws, human or Divine. It was this disposition that caused them to fall in so fully with the whole system of idolatry.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
O generation; or, O ye men of this generation, a note of admiration; or rather, O generation, a note of compellation: it is to you I speak,
see ye the word of the Lord, i.e. look well to it, consider it; as the rod is to teach, and therefore ought to be heard, Mic 6:9, so the word is to be considered of, and therefore ought to be looked into, Jer 2:19. He speaketh here not so much of the doctrine of the word as of the thing itself: q.d. You shall see the thing with your eyes, because you give the doctrine the hearing only, as we use to say, i.e. your ears are shut against it.
Have I been a wilderness? here God challengeth them again to tell him what unkindness he had showed them, as before, Jer 2:5. Have I been like the wilderness of Arabia? have not I accommodated you with all necessaries at all times? Deu 32:13,14; Eze 34:13-15; nay, in the wilderness itself I was not a wilderness unto you: an account whereof Nehemiah gives, Neh 9:15-23. And you have the story of it Psa 78.
A land of darkness: divers interpreters derive this word from a different root, and accordingly render the sense variously. Some from a root that signifies to fade or fall, as a land where fruits fall off before they be ripe, bringing nothing to perfection; and so Tremelius and Junius translate it, Isa 28:1,4; q.d. Have you found me to fail your expectations in any thing that I have promised you? Jos 21:45; 23:14. Others derive it from a word that signifies late, as a land that brings forth its fruit late in the year, which either ripeneth not, or ripeneth unkindly: q.d. Have you found me backward in any thing to do you good? have I not fed you to the full? Others from darkness, properly thick darkness, Exo 10:22; Joe 2:2. And it is the more significant, because Jah, the name of God, is added to it; q.d. the darkness of God; as a sleep of God, for a deep sleep, 1Sa 26:12; flame of God, for a vehement flame, Son 8:6; as if it were a land uninhabitable, because of the total want of light: q.d. Have I been a God of no use or comfort to them, that they thus leave me? Have they had nothing from me but misery and affliction? as this notion of darkness may import, Isa 8:22 Lam 3:2. Hence the LXX. express it by a land bringing forth thorns. Or this expression, a land of darkness, may be put by apposition to the former.
Say, i.e. in their heart.
We are lords; words of pride and boasting: God had endeavoured to make them sensible that all their happiness they owed to him, and now, q.d. you rule as lords without us; see 1Co 4:8; now you cast me off: or rather, We are well enough established in our government by foreign aids, and compacts with the Egyptians, and Assyrians, &c., and have rulers of our own; we have no such great need of thee. Hence the LXX. render it in the passive voice, We will not be ruled; which agrees with the text words of the verse, Deu 32:15,16. Something of this appeared in Uzziah, 2Ch 26:15,16, and Hezekiah, 2Ch 32:25; neither was David wholly clear, Psa 30:6.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
31. The Hebrewcollocation is, “O, the generation, ye,” that is, “Oye who now live.” The generation needed only to be named, tocall its degeneracy to view, so palpable was it.
wildernessin which allthe necessaries of life are wanting. On the contrary, Jehovah was anever-failing source of supply for all Israel’s wants in thewilderness, and afterwards in Canaan.
darknessliterally,”darkness of Jehovah,” the strongest Hebrew term for”darkness; the densest darkness”; compare “land of theshadow of death” (Jer 2:6).
We are lordsthat is,We are our own masters. We will worship what gods we like (Psa 12:4;Psa 82:6). But it is better totranslate from a different Hebrew root: “We ramble atlarge,” without restraint pursuing our idolatrous lusts.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
O generation, see ye the word of the Lord,…. Take notice of it, consider it; or, hear it, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions. Jarchi and Kimchi think i the pot of manna was brought out, and shown them, to be looked at by them, for the conviction of them, and confirmation of what follows:
have I been a wilderness unto Israel? no: the Israelites were plentifully supplied by him when in the wilderness, and since they were brought into a land flowing with milk and honey; so that they stood in need of nothing; they had a constant supply of all good things:
or a land of darkness? of misery, distress, and poverty; where no light of joy, comfort, and prosperity, is; a land that never sees the light, or enjoys the benefit of the sun, and so is barren and unfruitful; “a land of thorns”, as the Septuagint version; or, “a desert and uncultivated land”, as the Targum, and Syriac and Arabic versions. It may be rendered, “a land of the darkness of God” k; that is, of the greatest darkness, of thick and gross darkness, alluding to that in Egypt; as the flame of God, and mountains of God, So 8:6, as Ben Melech and Kimchi observe:
wherefore say my people, we are lords; and can reign without thee; or we have kings and princes, and have no need of thee, so Kimchi; but the word used seems to have another meaning, and to require another sense. The Targum is, “we are removed”; and the Vulgate Latin version, “we have gone back”; to which agrees the Jewish Midrash l, mentioned by Jarchi, and confirmed with a passage out of the Misna m, “we are separated from thee”; we have departed from thee, turned our backs on thee, have forsaken thee, and left thy ways and worship; and to do so was very ungrateful, when the Lord had so richly supplied them, that they had not lacked any good thing; and this sense agrees with what follows:
we will come no more unto thee? some render it, “we have determined” n; as having the same sense with the Arabic word, which signifies to “will” or determine anything; and then the meaning is, we are determined, we are resolved to come no more to thee, to attend thy worship and service any more; and so the Targum,
“we will not return any more to thy worship.”
i So Mechilta apud Yalkut in loc. k “terra caliginis Dei”, Gataker, Gussetius; “caliginis Jah”, Montanus. l Midrash R. Tanchuma, apud Jarchi in loc. Vid. Yalkut Simeoni, in Ioc. m Misn. Trumot, c. 10. sect. 3. Machshirin, c. 3. sect. 3. n “voluimus non veniemus”, &c, De Dieu “decrevimus non veniemus”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The prophet assumes the character, no doubt, of one in astonishment, that he might render the sin of the people more detestable: for he speaks as one astonished, generation! The word, דור, dur; as it is well known, means an age. It is then the same as if he had said, “On what time are we fallen? or in what an age do we now live?” We now then perceive the import of the word. Then he adds, See ye the word of Jehovah The word, see, seems not to be suitable; for he ought to have said, “Attend to, “or “hear.” But he bids them to see, and most appropriate is the term; for he does not require the people to hear, but, on the contrary, to know, as though he had said, “See ye yourselves what this is which the Lord declares.” And he emphatically says, אתם at e m, “ ye yourselves.” For the Jews might have been deservedly condemned by all nations, were they brought into judgment. But the Prophet shews, that however blind they were, they might see with their own eyes what the Lord now says. He does not refer to instruction, but to a fact, as though he had said, “The Lord by me expostulates with you; and though there should not be present any witnesses or a judge or an umpire, ye yourselves are able to understand and know the whole matter.” We hence see how fitly the Prophet speaks, when he bids them to see the word of Jehovah (63)
For he immediately adds, Have I been a desert to Israel? He makes the Jews themselves the umpires and judges of the cause, whether they had not experienced the bounty of God and had forsaken him, according to his former complaint, when he said that God was the fountain of living waters, and that they had dug for themselves broken cisterns. Hence he says, “How has it happened that ye have departed from me? Have I in vain promised to be bountiful and kind to you? Did I disappoint you or your expectation, while ye served me? Since then I had not been to you a dark and a gloomy land, a land without the light of the sun; but as abundance of blessings had ever been found in me, how has it been that you have departed from me?”
He afterwards mentions another crime, Why has my people said, We are lords The verb רדנו, r e d e nu, is variously explained by interpreters. Some derive it from ידר, ir e d, to descend, and think that the י, iod, is supplied by a point. But these differ in their views: some refer to the calamities with which the Jews had been visited, and others to their apostasy. The first give this explanation, “We have descended;” that is, “We have been oppressed with calamities, what then can we gain by calling on God, since our affairs are in so hopeless a state?” The second draw forth another meaning, “We have gone back;” that is, “There is no reason for the prophets to stun our ears by their clamors, for we have once for all resolved never to return to God; we have wholly renounced him; away with him, let him begone together with his exhortations, for we will not attend to them.” Both these expounders think it to be the language of despair: but we perceive how they differ; the first apply “descend” to the calamities of the people, and the second to their perfidy, because they had bidden adieu, as it were, to God, and wished not to have any farther intercourse with him.
But there are others who take the word more grammatically: for רדה, r e de, and רוד, rud, signifies to be lord, or to rule. I therefore prefer the view of those who render the word, We are lords Some take the verb in a passive sense, but I know not for what reason: and the comment of others is very diluted, “We have kings and counselors.” I consider it to be the language of pride and of vain boasting: for the Jews thought themselves to be kings, according to what Paul says of the Corinthians,
“
Ye are rich, ye have reigned without us, and I would ye did reign.” (1Co 4:8.)
The Corinthians, being inflated with pride on account of the opulence of their city, despised the simplicity of the Gospel; they looked for refined things, and were much addicted to novelties. Hence Paul, seeing that they despised the grace of God, ironically reproved them, and said, that they wished to be rich and to be kings without him, to whom yet as an instrument they owed everything. The same vice is what Jeremiah now condemns in that people, We are lords, we will not come to thee; as though he had said, “Your happiness has hitherto proceeded from me; for whatever you have been, and whatever has been given you, ought to be ascribed to me and to my bounty: but now without me (for God himself speaks) ye are kings, but by what right and by what title? What have you as your own? Why then has my people said, We will come no more to thee?” We now understand the real meaning of the Prophet.
As to the subject itself, he in the first place, as I have already said, is in a manner astonished at the wickedness of the people, as at something monstrous. Hence he exclaims, O generation! as though he had said, that what he saw was incredible. Then he immediately adds, see ye yourselves the word of Jehovah, This was much more severe, than if he had summoned them before God’s tribunal; for he thus proved that their wickedness was extremely gross; for they had, without any cause, nay, without any pretext, and without shame, renounced God, who had been so bountiful towards them. He also in an indirect manner reproved them, because they refused to be instructed; for he commanded them to look on the fact itself, inasmuch as they were deaf, or having ears they closed them against all instruction; for, as we have said, he calls away their attention from the word to the fact itself, and this is what interpreters have not observed.
Then follows an upbraiding, — that God had not been a desert to them; but, as the Prophet had before shewed, abundance of all blessings had flowed to them so as fully to satisfy them. Since then God had enriched them through his blessing, their sin in departing from him was thereby more increased.
In the last part of the verse God expostulates with them on their ingratitude, because they thought themselves to be lords. They were indeed a royal priesthood, but it was through God’s favor. They did not reign through their own right, they did not reign because they had attained power through their own valor or efforts, or through their own merits or their own good fortune; how then? only through the favor of another. Though then they were kings only on the condition of being subject to the supreme King, yet they wished to reign alone, that is, according to their own pleasure; and thus trod under their feet the favor of God. It is with this wickedness then that the Prophet charges them. And the end of the verse is of the same import, we will come no more to thee; as though they stood in no need of God’s aid; for they thought that they could supply themselves with whatever was necessary to support them. As then they were inflated with much pride, they despised the favor of God, as though they stood in no need of the aid of another. It follows —
(63) The beginning of this verse literally is “The age, ye,” that is, “Ye of this age,” or generation. He was speaking before more especially of the preceding age. He now appeals to the people of that generation, —
Ye of this age, see, spoken hath Jehovah, — Have I been a wilderness to Israel, Or a land of darkness? Why have they said, even my people, “We have ruled, we will no more come to thee?”
The above rendering of the latter part of the first line is favored by the Septuagint, “ Hear ye the word of the Lord; thus saith the Lord.” The Arabic is the same. The Vulgate has, “See the word of the Lord,” — and the Syriac, “ Hear the word of the Lord.” Blayney renders thus, “Behold ye the cause of Jehovah.” Gataker takes “see” in the sense of considering, “See,“ or seriously consider, “the word of the Lord.” The particle אם after ה, may be rendered “or,” as in the Syriac See Jos 5:13. The word מאפליה is found in two MSS., מאפילה, which seems to be the true reading, countenanced by the Targum, and all the early versions, except the Vulgate, which has “ serotina — lateward.” Darkness is a common metaphor for wretchedness and misery “We have ruled” is the literal rendering of רדנו, and there is no other reading. The Septuagint gives the same meaning, though the form is different, “We shall not be lorded over — οὐ κυριευθησόμεθα.” The Arabic is the same. It is the language of proud independence. The Targum, the Vulgate, and the Syriac have mistaken the verb for ירדנו, which means, to descend, to come down, to bring down. Blayney gives the correct idea, “We are our own masters, “which Horsley approves. The preterite in Hebrew often includes the present; so the full meaning is, “We have ruled and do rule.” — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(31) O generation, see ye.The pronoun occupies a different position in the Hebrew, O generation, you, I mean, see ye. The prophet speaks to the men who are actually his contemporaries. They are to look to the word of the Lord. Has He been to them as a waste land, a land of thick darkness (literally, according to one interpretation, darkness of Jah, in the sense of intensity), that they are thus unmindful of Him? So in Son. 8:6 we have flame of Jah, as representing the Hebrew, in the margin, and very vehement flame in the text, of the Authorised version.
We are lords.Better, We rove at will, as in Gen. 27:40, where, however, the Authorised version gives when thou shalt have the dominion. The sense is practically the same. Israel claims the power to do as she likes.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
31. O generation, see ye Rather, O generation that ye are. The pronoun belongs with the appellative, and not, as in the English, with the verb, and so emphasizes God’s sorrow and indignation.
Have I been a wilderness a land of darkness There is a mingled sternness and tenderness in this passage which the Authorized Version does not adequately convey.
We are lords Better, with the Chaldee, Syriac, and Vulgate, We will wander at will, that is, we will not be held in restraint.
This verb is also used in Gen 27:40; Hos 11:12; and Psa 55:2; in each of which places the sense is missed in the Anglican Version.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
DISCOURSE: 1031
GODS COMPLAINT AGAINST THE REBELLIOUS
Jer 2:31-32. O generation, see ye the word of the Lord; Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? Wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee? Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number.
I AM perfectly astonished. I can scarcely believe my own eyes. Who is it that thus addresses us; and vindicates his own character against the accusations which, by our lives at least, we bring against him? It is none other than Jehovah himself, calling upon us to prove, if we can, that he merits at our hands the treatment he has received from us. Often does he call on heaven and earth to judge betwixt him and his people [Note: Mic 6:2-3.] But in the chapter before us, he supposes himself to be charged with having acted unkindly, not to say injuriously, towards them: Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: thus saith the Lord; What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and have become vain [Note: ver. 4, 5.]? And again in the text, Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? Behold, Brethren, I am now to you in Gods stead: and I call upon you, in Gods name, to answer to the challenge given you, and to the charge that is brought against you. Hear at my mouth,
I.
His appeal, in answer to your charges against him
Was he to the Jews a wilderness or a land of darkness?
[The Jews, from their own history, could not but know what a terrible wilderness, and what a land of darkness, their ancestors had been brought into, when they came out of the land of Egypt: it was a land of deserts and of pits, a land of drought and of the shadow of death, a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt [Note: ver. 6.]. In a word, it was a land where they could find no sustenance, and where, but for the Divine interposition, they must all have perished. And had God been to them in any respect like that? Had he left them to perish? Had he not, on the contrary, administered to their every want, going before them in a pillar of fire, and supplying them with food, and miraculously preserving their very clothes from wearing out for the space of forty years; and, at last, putting them into a full and peaceful possession of the promised land [Note: Cite Deu 32:10-14 and Neh 9:21-25.]? ]
Has he, in his conduct to us, deserved any such humiliating imputation?
[We, also, have been passing through a dreary wilderness, in our way to the promised land: and has he been inattentive to our wants? Has he not given us his only dear Son to be our Saviour? Has he not also given his Holy Spirit, to guide, preserve, and sanctify us, and to make us meet for our destined inheritance? Tell me so much as one thing which you have ever lacked, provided you sought it humbly at his hands? I hesitate not to affirm, that if there be any one thing that you have ever lacked, it has been, not from want of care in him, but from your own negligence in asking it: for he never said at any time to any human being, Seek ye my face in vain. I say, then, that your charges against him, as defective in kindness or care or liberality, are altogether false; and that there is no one thing that you could reasonably hope to be done for you, which he has not freely and effectually done [Note: Isa 5:3-4.].]
But not satisfied with vindicating God, I call you to hear,
II.
His charge against you
He complains, and justly too, of two things;
1.
The flagrancy of your rebellion
[His people of old said, We are lords: we will come no more unto thee. And such has been the language both of your hearts and lives. You have affected independence. Satans temptation to our first parents was, Ye shall be as gods: and ye have affected to be as gods, even from that very hour; and have felt no disposition to come to Jehovah for any thing. In truth, independence is the very essence of the Fall: it is that which characterizes every living man. Every man trusts in his own wisdom and righteousness and strength; and follows his own will, and walks after the imaginations of his own heart. Let any one ask himself, Whether, during his whole life, this have not been his state? Can any of us say with truth, that we have been from the beginning so deeply sensible of our own utter destitution of all good, that we have cried day and night to God for every thing which our souls needed, and have cleaved to Christ alone as our wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption? Have we, even this very day, come to God for these blessings, as persons who felt their need of them, and their entire dependence on him for a supply of them? Have we not rather imagined that we were rich, and increased in goods, and in need of nothing; instead of feeling ourselves wretched and miserable, and poor and blind and naked? Then you must confess that Gods charge against you is true; and that, in refusing to come to him as the only source of all good, you have shewn yourselves proud, daring, impious, self-sufficient rebels, and have deserved to be visited with his heaviest judgments.]
2.
The contemptuousness of your neglect
[One would have supposed that, after all the mercies which God had vouchsafed to his ancient people, they could not but have borne him in constant and most affectionate remembrance. Yet had they in reality forgotten him. Of this he complains, with just indignation: Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? No, worthless and contemptible as such vanities are, the minds of young people, and of females especially, are so set upon them, as scarcely, for any length of time, to have them absent from their minds. But, though God had given himself as a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to his people [Note: Isa 28:5.], and his relation to them elevated them above all the people of the world, yet did they forget him, days without number. And has he given to us less occasion to remember him, than to them? Yet have we forgotten him, even as they did. We have forgotten our obligations to him; so that he receives few, if any, acknowledgments at our hands. We have forgotten our dependence on him; so that he hears but few and faint petitions for the blessings we stand in need of. We have forgotten the great account which we have to give to him; so that, to obtain an interest in Christ, is not the great labour of our lives; nor is it our daily serious endeavour to approve ourselves to God us his devoted servants. Let any one only look back for a single week, and see how much greater interest a young female takes in the adorning of her person, than we have done in providing the ornaments of divine grace for our souls, to prepare us for our union with our heavenly Bridegroom [Note: Rev 21:2.]. Say, then, whether God is not justly incensed against us, and whether we have not need to humble ourselves before him, for provoking him thus to jealousy? Behold then, whilst on Gods part I repel with indignation the charges which you bring against him, I call your very consciences to witness against you, that the charges, which I have in his name exhibited against you, are not only true, but heinous in the extreme.]
Application
1.
Are there now any of you disposed to vindicate yourselves?
[Yes: the Jews denied their criminality, whilst yet their iniquities testified against them to their face [Note: Hos 5:5.]. And thus it is with you. You have even wearied God by your transgression; and yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him [Note: Mal 2:17.]? But in this you only aggravate your guilt, and augment your eternal condemnation. For thus saith the Lord: Thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn away from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest I have not sinned [Note: ver. 35.]. Know ye this, every one of you, ere it be too late, that, he who covereth his sins, shall not prosper; and that he only who confesseth and forsaketh them, shall find mercy [Note: Pro 28:13.] ]
2.
Are any of you humbled under a sense of your guilt?
[To you then I say, that He who chose Israel, not for any goodness that was in them, but purely because he would choose them [Note: Deu 7:7-8.], is ready to exercise his sovereign love and mercy towards you. See how, after taking them from the most helpless and degraded state, he beautified and adorned that people for himself [Note: Cite at length Eze 16:8-14.]! Thus will he also cleanse you from your iniquities, and transform you into his own most blessed image, and render you meet for an everlasting union with himself. This I am commissioned by him to declare: Go, and proclaim these words unto them; and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep anger for ever. Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God [Note: Jer 3:12-13.]. Yes, in the sacred name of Him whom you have offended, I declare, that though your iniquities have been red like crimson, they shall be as wool; and though they have been as scarlet, they shall be white as snow [Note: Isa 1:18.].]
Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)
Never surely, was there afforded a more lively instance of the gracious purpose of God’s unalterable love to his people, than what this Chapter affords, from beginning to end. The Lord sends the Prophet in the opening, to tell the people of God’s remembrance of Israel’s first-love: and in the close of the Chapter, the Lord tells them, that though they shall not prosper in their confidence, yet he thereby intimates, that grace shall at length prevail. Through the whole, and every part of the prophet’s sermon, we discern, with clear marks all along, that the Lord hath mercy in store, and will not cast away his people whom he foreknew, Rom 11:1-5 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Divine Questions
Jer 2:31-37
This appeal was addressed to the men who were immediately round about the prophet. It was therefore direct, personal, and was to be answered by the living voice. This is the kind of preaching we do not like. This preaching would empty any church in the world! Yet it is the only preaching that is worthy of attention. It is in vain that we refer to ancient history if we cannot apply it to modern instances. We are trifling with ourselves that is to say, with our souls if we think only of truths that are abstract and without immediate application to our own condition. The prophets thus spake to the men that were near at hand. In a sense, they seemed to arrest those; men, and put questions to them. Surely, if we will not allow others to arrest us, we ought to arrest ourselves, and put down plain answers to plain questions, without hurry, or din, or noise; and we ought to take both plain question and plain answer into religious solitude, and look at them until we burn with shame, renouncing every plea of self-excuse, and accepting the divine judgment as divine righteousness: then will come healing, then we shall get at the bottom of things, and be real: the cure is not from without, it is from above, and goes immediately to the core and root of all human wrong.
The people were required to answer two questions: “Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? have I been a land of darkness unto Israel?” Speak out. If God is chargeable with wrong, say so. Put your finger directly upon his errors, and say in plain terms, God is responsible for this: these are not human slips trifling, petty mistakes, but the miscarriages of justice, the perversions of providence, the mistakes of God. Let us have plain language all round. We may lose ourselves if we begin to multiply words indefinitely. The question is “Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?” have I pinched and starved my people? have I led them amongst stony places? have I been inhospitable to the lives that looked to me for bread and security and nourishment? Say so, if it be so. “Have I been a land of darkness?” have I plunged Israel into night unlighted by a star? have I been cold, pitiless, cruel? If you have an impeachment to bring even against God, do not fear to bring it. He asks for it. Tell him when you have finished the infinite accusation that you have written at his bidding, and there is your indictment against his throne. A wondrous tenderness inspires the inquiry. It seems, indeed, to bring its own answer with it. There are some questions that are also replies: for the very tone in which they are put signifies the only possible answer that is correct. So the father might plead with his child “Have I been a wilderness unto thee, or a land of darkness? have I been deaf to entreaty? have I been without sympathy in the time of affliction? have I but half-opened the door when you have sought to return to my love and my confidence?” The very inquiry is a defence; the very method of the inquiry means, It is impossible to answer this but in one way. Why not put this question to ourselves? Why not answer it in our mother tongue? We should indeed be writing our own judgment, and sentencing ourselves to deserved penal servitude. But it is always well to be true, to come at the whole truth, in all its roundness: it is painful at the time, it seems to rend a man in twain when he has to tell all the truth; but it is a rending that means reconstruction, salvation, health, growth, and progress evermore. But who can tell the whole truth? It can be told in letters without always being told in spirit; or the words of confession can themselves be so pronounced as to take out of them all that is essential to true acknowledgment of sin. Why do we play the fool with ourselves, and by dividing ourselves cheat ourselves, by saying one thing to the understanding, and another to the imagination, a third thing to conscience, and a fourth to appetite and desire? Self-analysis, and telling the truth to oneself, may be said to be the beginning of reformation and the very pledge and seal of a lofty, noble life.
Having answered a question respecting God, they have next to answer a question respecting themselves: “Wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?” Literally, why do my people say, We will rove at will. That is licence, not liberty? They have lost the centre, and are plunging evermore in chaos, without being able to give an account of themselves or to use what benefit might lie within their power. Why this new cry namely, We will do as we like? Why this so-called freethought? why this progress which means running round and round and never advancing by one measurable inch? How very early men begin to be free thinkers! How soon sin. says to a man, Rove at will; do what you like: you are a man! Then the poor fool thinks he is a man, and begins to “play fantastic tricks before high heaven.” He forgets that we have only liberty to obey. He ignores the metaphysics of the case, and blunders day by day amid its bewildering accidents. The reality of the case as between man and God is simply this: God is Creator, man is creature, what is the duty of the creature to the Creator but to wait upon him, to ask his will, to say in his own tones, Father, teach me everything: the universe is very great, and I am very little: thy sea is very large, my body is very small: the darkness comes down quite suddenly, and I cannot make the most even of the light, because when it comes for a long time it dazzles and blinds me so that more than half my time is not at my disposal for high uses even if I could so employ it, Lord, father-mother, gentle One, guide me in every thought and word and action all the day, and take care of me when I cannot take care of myself, even pretendedly, during the hours of unconsciousness, and thus feed me, lead me, guide me, O thou great Jehovah!
Then the Lord seems to adopt a kind of taunting tone:
“Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number” ( Jer 2:32 ).
Now the voice changes, and the element of accusation enters into it very sharply:
“Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways” ( Jer 2:33 ).
Mark the hardening process of sin as referred to in the thirty-fourth verse:
“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.” ( Jer 2:34 )
“Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria” ( Jer 2:36 ).
Literally, Why all these shifting policies? why all these new alliances? why be performing a kind of moral conjuring? The bad man gads about, or walks about, from place to place, saying, “Where shall I settle next? what communion shall I take up with now? what novelty is there in the town today? Is there any new church built that I can go to, until I make the place too hot for myself by neglecting its institutions and turning my back upon its appeals? Is there anything new in Egypt? I am tired of Babylon: I lived a long time in Assyria, and now I have cast all that off, and I am looking in Egyptian directions for new alliances and new hopes.” Is this only an ancient experience? Is it not a clear and simple reading of today’s purpose and action? Are there not many people who are all things by turns and nothing long men who are wanting in conviction and thorough persuasion of soul, incapable of enthusiasm, driven about by every wind of doctrine; men who have called at all the hovels cf heresy, and have never settled in the sanctuary of truth? We need not alter the terms; they are simple as our best-known mother tongue, and they will stand for the purposes of scrutiny all the while, not needing change or modification. Be something. Belong to somebody. Do not mistake roving at will for a safe dwelling at home. No Christian teacher will say, You must be this rather than that, so far as ecclesiastical relations are concerned; but every Christian teacher will say, Take advice: consider: come to conclusions, and be steadfast: prove all things; hold fast that which is good; in understanding be no more children, but be men.
What was the result of this trimming and gadding about, this changing between Assyria and Egypt?
“Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head, for the Lord hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shall not prosper in them” ( Jer 2:37 ).
After all, having been in the houses we have mentioned, either as owners or as visitors the houses of wealth, health, invention, pleasure, we can now say soberly, with the quietness of unalterable conviction, There is only one altar that can be trusted the altar of the living God the Cross of God’s own Son. Let us renounce our false confidences, put away our new tricks, and come straight back to the eternal thought the love which was before the foundations of the earth. Men will continue to be betrayed by novelties; but at the last they will say, The novelties were in vain. There are those who are speaking from other books than the Bible; and they are intellectual men, able men; they are persons who are capable of treating great subjects in a great manner; they have turned away from Moses and the prophets, from the minstrels and the evangelists of the Bible, and have taken up with new sensations and new manners: but “the word of the Lord abideth for ever;” it says concerning these men, “‘They have forgotten me days without number;’ but in some night of storm, in some stress of weather, bitten by some tremendous wolf amid the snows of the new lands they have sought, they will come back to me; and I am a forgiving book, I will open on the page on which it is written, ‘Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.'”
Prayer
Almighty God, in the day of battle thou art a shield and buckler, in our great fear and in our last distress thou art as a shining light and a delivering hand; and when we come to the last river, broad and black and cold, thou dost speak to it, and the waters separate, and we pass through as on dry land. Thou hast not neglected our life either here or there; in its strongest hour thou hast taught it to pray, in its utmost weakness thou hast taught it to hope, and when the last scene of all has come, the farewell, thou hast then been near at hand to speak kind words, old gospels in new tones, reviving the heart, establishing and assuring the faith. When we were a-hungered thou didst find bread for us in unexpected places; under thy blessing flowers arise in the wilderness and great stretches of green pasture in the desert, yea, and water springs for us out of the rock, and honey is found where man never found it before. So then thou dost cover our whole life with thy care, thy Spirit provides for every want, answers every question, accompanies us through every step, nor leaves us until our weary wandering feet stand on the safe side of the river. All this knowledge comes to us in Christ, and through Christ, and for Christ’s sake. This is his sweet Gospel, his delivering word, his message of emancipation, his good tidings of great joy. Enable us now to find our sufficiency in God and not in ourselves, and under all stresses, perils, and agonies of life may we hear a word behind us and round about us, and in us, coming from every quarter of heaven itself, mighty as thunder, gentle as the breeze that injures not the weakest flower, full of music, full of strength, My grace is sufficient for thee. Amen.
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
Jer 2:31 O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?
Ver. 31. O generation, see ye the word of the Lord, ] q.d., O generation, rather leonine than human! as Jer 2:30 . “See ye the word”; I say not to you, Hear; no more than I would to a savage beast; for ye have no ears to hear reason; but see with your eyes, for so even beasts can do. See now, and say sooth.
Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
generation. Once a chosen generation (Psa 22:30; Psa 24:6; Psa 112:2. Isa 53:8); now a perverse generation (Jer 7:29. Deu 32:5. Psa 78:8). Compare Mat 3:7; Mat 11:16; Mat 12:34, Mat 12:39, Mat 12:41-45; Mat 16:4; Mat 17:17.
a land of darkness: or, Is the land the darkness of Jah?
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
see ye: Amo 1:1, Mic 6:9
Have I been: Jer 2:5, Jer 2:6, 2Sa 12:7-9, 2Ch 31:10, Neh 9:21-25, Hos 2:7, Hos 2:8, Mal 3:9-11
We are lords: Heb. We have dominion, Deu 8:12-14, Deu 31:20, Deu 32:15, Psa 10:4, Psa 12:4, Pro 30:9, Hos 13:6, 1Co 4:8, Rev 3:15-17
Reciprocal: Gen 4:6 – General Deu 6:11 – when thou Deu 8:14 – thine heart Jdg 2:2 – why have 1Ki 11:22 – But 2Ch 12:1 – he forsook Neh 9:16 – dealt Psa 103:2 – forget not Isa 1:4 – gone away backward Isa 5:4 – General Isa 43:22 – thou hast been Isa 48:6 – hast heard Jer 2:13 – For my Jer 5:7 – I had fed Jer 22:21 – I spake Eze 14:5 – estranged Hos 2:3 – as Amo 2:11 – Is it Mic 6:3 – what Mal 1:2 – Wherein Mat 25:24 – I knew Luk 15:13 – and took Luk 18:24 – How 1Ti 6:17 – that they Heb 11:6 – he that 2Pe 2:10 – despise Rev 3:17 – have need
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 2:31. A wilderness is a place without the products of life and the question asked of Israel is a reminder that God had supplied all of her needs. For that reason she had no right to say we are lords. That phrase means they had no right to claim a dominion of their own; that was what they had been claiming.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 2:31-32. O generation O wicked generation; see ye the word of the Lord Consider what I say to you from the mouth of God. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? Have ye not been plentifully provided for by me? Have I been backward in bestowing favours upon you? Have I not accommodated you with all necessaries? A land of darkness Hebrew, , rendered by the Vulgate, terra serotina, a land backward or late in producing its fruits. Our translation of the clause, however, a land of darkness, seems preferable, as darkness is often used to denote calamity and distress: see Jer 13:16; Isa 5:30; Isa 8:22. The meaning of the passage, says Blaney, is, Have I been wanting to you, while ye have been under my guidance, in providing you with good things, or have I brought you unto the gloom of trouble and distress? Wherefore say my people, We are lords, &c. We are our own masters, and will no more acknowledge thee as Lord over us, nor obey thy laws. This was the language, probably, not of the lips, but of the hearts and lives of the idolatrous Jews, who would not return to the worship and service of the true God. Can a maid forget her ornaments How seldom is it, and unlikely, that a maid should forget her ornaments? or a bride her attire? On which her thoughts and affections are placed? Yet my people have forgotten me Their chief glory and ornament, on whose favour and protection they were wont justly to value themselves, and whereby they were distinguished from all other nations. Such was the folly and wickedness of Gods ancient people, called by his name, rescued from bondage and misery by his power, enriched with all temporal and spiritual blessings by his bounty, and guarded as the apple of his eye. Strange infatuation and weakness this, we are ready to exclaim, of the Jews! But are not multitudes of persons called Christians equally weak and foolish? Do not things of very small worth, and short duration, frequently occupy their thoughts, and even possess their hearts; things of as little value as the ornaments which vain women delight in, while things of the highest excellence and greatest necessity, things far superior to every visible and temporal object, such as salvation, grace, and glory, God, and Christ, and heaven, are overlooked and neglected? Reader, is not this thy practice? does not thy conscience accuse thee of this wickedness and folly?
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2:31 O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a {s} wilderness to Israel? a land of darkness? why say my people, We are lords; {t} we will come no more to thee?
(s) Have I not given them abundance of all things?
(t) But will trust in our own power and policy.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The Lord called all the people then alive in Judah, to pay attention to, and to take to heart, His message to them (cf. Mat 3:7; Mat 21:43; Mat 23:33; Luk 3:7). He had not been as ungiving as a wilderness or as unenlightening as darkness to them. They had no reason to feel free to abandon Him.