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CHAPTER 2
The Jews forsook the Lord, the fountain of living waters—They changed their gods, worshipped idols, and rejected the prophets. |
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1 MOREOVER the word of the LORD came to me, saying,
2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, awhen thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. 3 Israel was aholiness unto the LORD, and the firstfruits of his increase: all that devour him shall offend; evil shall come upon them, saith the LORD. 4 Hear ye the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel: |
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5 ¶ 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 are become vain?
6 Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, that aled us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt? |
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7 And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the
fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye entered, ye
adefiled my bland, and made mine
heritage an abomination.
8 The priestsa said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the lawa knew me not: the apastorsa also transgressed against me, and the aprophets prophesied by Baala, and walked after things that do not profit. |
8a The priests ... they that handle the law ... the pastors ... the prophets prophesied by Ball Israel, even Judah's kingdom, had a formalized structure. It was not just ran by 'the elders' at the city gate as some like to loosely define it. Since the time of Moses, it was so structured. He set apart 70 chief men, the princes if you will from among the people, to govern and 'handle the law', that being the Law of Moses. The 70 chief rulers were organized under the chief priest of the Temple. In the Savior day upon the earth that structure still prevailed as it did also in the days of Jeremiah. It was then called the Sanhedrin. Others of influence were also the 'pastors', that is the leader or 'pastor' of the Synagogne, the local meeting house or chapel of the people. There was also the recognized 'prophets'. Now here Jeremiah delivers the word of the LORD which specifically references and specifies these 'rulers' of Israel, 'the priests', 'the handlers of the law', 'the pastors' and 'the false prophets of Baal' or prophets who are not true prophets of God, all who 'walk after that which does not profit' them, as the target personnel which the LORD is fingering. They all are those who were more infuential than King Zedekiah, particularly the organization of the 70 of the 'church', those who governed suposedly according to the Law of Moses. And like in the days of Jesus, this 'church' governing body of rulers even had their own enforcement body, though small in number, they were most power full for they enacted the law and the word of the 'Sanhedrin', that is the governing princes or elders of the church. They held their own 'courts' of the law of Moses and in Jerusalem it was not merely at the city's gate, but in their specifically located council chambers as it was in the days of Christ. And in the time of Jeremiah and Lehi, in the first year of the riegn of King Zedekiah, the Captain of Fifty which headed the enforcement officers of the Princely Rulers was none other than Laban. Remember, when Jeremiah is taken into custody by the officer reviewing who was leaving the city gate there took Jeremiah into hand and brought him not to the King, because he was not an officer of the king, but to the 'Sanhedrin' and they put Lehi into their own separate prison, the prison of Jonathan, and not they king's jail. Certainly these leaders and rulers of the people according to the law of Moses were most powerful and organized to have their own officer ('Irijah, a captain of the ward ~ Jeremiah 37:12) and even their own prison apart from that of the king's prison of the court of the king (See Jeremiah 37:11-15 and Jeremiah 38:1-11). In fact there were at least three prisons or jails, (1) that of Jonathan's house and 'dungeon' which was the jail of the 'Sarim', (2) the public jail of the king's court the prison which people could visit, and (3) the dungeon under the treasury of the house of the king known also as 'the dungeon of Malchiah', perhaps the king's tresurer at the time. | |
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9 ¶ Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.
10 For pass aover the isles of Chittim, and see; and send unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. 11 Hath a nation changed their agods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. |
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12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
13 For my people have committed two aevils; they have forsaken me the fountain of bliving waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. |
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14 ¶ Is Israel a aservant?
is he a homeborn 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 aTahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. 17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast aforsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way? |
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18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of
aEgypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to
do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of athe river?
19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall areprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy Goda, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. |
19a thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God Only in respect to the first commandment can we come to appreciate what is happening in Israel as they have forsaken their God. Thou Shalt have no other Gods before me (Exodus 20:3). What false Gods did Israel forsake God for? It was the Baalim (plural Baals or gods) of every high hill and the Astorah of the worship under the green tree. These will be spoken of further at the note to verse 20 next. But for not there is that matter of all the 'male' image or imagined Gods anciently constucted of and represented in stone, metal and wood as the many multiple false gods other than Jehovah. Today man has gone beyond having actual phyical imaged idols to including gods of not only the workmanship of their hands but also those of their minds such as philosophy, science, technology and achademic studies or sophistry intellectualism including atheists (atheism) and humanists (humanism). Or even any other study of the mind of man that contrives intellectually from his own mind vain imginations and innovations that place such above and before that of God and God's pure ultimate truth and wisdom. | |
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20 ¶ For of old time I have broken thy yoke,
and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when
upon every high hill and under every green treea
thou wanderest, playing the aharlot.
21 Yet I had planted thee a noble avine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? |
20a upon every high hill and under every green tree The forsaking of God for other gods of the high hills and the green trees are who Israel had been and even today goes a whoring after. The gods of the high hills have been disgust afore and the false gods of the green trees are they of sexuallity often associated with the image of the women under various goddesses of love, Ashtaroth being the frequent name in the Bible. Yes indeed Israel had broken the first and the great commandment that they were to love the LORD their God with all their heart, might, mind and strength and to have no other gods before him. And the senual false gods of the flesh also have their many forms of modern man from food worship, drugs, and especially and perhaps the most often senual gods of sinfully based illicite love other of and within the boundries set out by God of a man and a women in the marriatal state of matramony and the context and framework of the family. (1 Samuel 12:10) | |
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22 For though thou awash thee with
bnitre, and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity
is marked before me, saith the Lord GOD.
23 How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways; 24 A wild ass used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. |
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25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat
from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no ahope: no; for I
have loved strangers, and after them will I go.
26 As the thief is aashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophetsa, 27 Saying to a astock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their bback unto me, and not their face: but in the ctime of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. |
26a their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets Again those who are the 'rulers' and leaders of the people are so set forth. They are the ruling members of the community of 'church and state'. The king is the head of state, and the princes, priest and 'false' prophets make up that body of 'the church' governing supposedly by the law of Moses and of God, yet they are but corrupt officials, false, wicked hypocrites, pretending to deal in the things of God, but having forsaken righteousness and followed but the 'gods' of the worldly. And once more it ought to be noted that 'the princes' here stipulated are not those of the royalty of state but those seventy chief elders of the people selected to rule and govern according to the law of Moses under the direction of the High Priest of the temple, the Sanhedrin, which had its own false prophets and enforcing agents/officers. | |
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28 But where are thy agods 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.
29 Wherefore will ye aplead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD. 30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no acorrection: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. |
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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?
32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have aforgotten me days without number. |
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33 Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore
hast thou also taught the wicked aones thy ways.
34 Also in thy skirts is found the ablood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all bthese. |
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35 Yet thou sayest, Because I am
ainnocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I
will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.
36 Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be aashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. 37 Yea, thou shalt go forth from him, and thine hands upon thine head: for the LORD hath rejected thy confidences, and thou shalt not prosper in them. |
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