Israel’s sin and ingratitude
2
📚Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, 2 📚“Go and cry out in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus says the LORD:“I remember you,
the kindness of your youth,
the love of your bridal days 📖,
when you went after me in the wilderness 📖,
in a land that was not sown.
3 📚Israel was holiness 📖 to the LORD,
and the firstfruits of his increase.
All who devoured him were guilty;
disaster 📖 came on them, says the LORD”.
4 📚Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel.
5 📚Thus says the LORD:
“What evil did your fathers find in me,
that they went away far from me,
and walked after emptiness 📖,
and became empty?
2:5 God asks this as a faithful husband would ask an unfaithful wife who runs after other men. Israel ran after other gods and thus showed their lack of love for the true God and a contempt for His word (Ex 20:2-6). God’s jealousy was aroused just as He said it would be.⚜
6 📚And they did not say,
‘Where is the LORD who brought us
up out of the land of Egypt,
who led us through the wilderness,
through a land of deserts and pits,
through a land of drought and the shadow
of death,
through a land that no man passed through,
and where no one lived?’
2:6 In spite of God's repeated warnings, they forgot about Him. See note at Deut 8:1-5.⚜
7 📚And I brought you into a land of plenty 📖,
to eat its fruit 📖 and its goodness.
But when you entered, you defiled 📖 my land,
and made an abomination of my inheritance.
8 📚The priests did not say,
‘Where is the LORD?’
And those who dealt with the law
did not know me.
The leaders also transgressed against me,
and the prophets prophesied by Baal,
and followed after worthless things.
2:8 There was complete failure by all the leaders of Israel – priests, rulers, prophets. Those who knew God’s law did not know God. Those who were raised up to rule for God rebelled against Him. Those who should have prophesied for God spoke for the false god Baal. Note on Baal at Jud 2:11.⚜
9 📚Therefore I will bring charges against
you again”, says the LORD,
“and I will bring charges against
your children’s children.
10 📚For cross over the coasts of Kittim
and see;
and send to Kedar, and consider carefully,
and see if there is such a thing as this.
11 📚Has a nation changed its gods,
which are not gods?
But my people have exchanged 📖 their glory
for what is worthless.
2:10-11 Israel acted in a more perverted and strange way than any nation to the east (Kedar was the home of nomadic tribes in the Syro-Arabian desert), or to the west (Kittim is Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea). Though the gods of those peoples were false and worthless they remained faithful to them.⚜
12 📚Be astonished, O heavens,
at this, and be horribly afraid;
be very desolate”, says the LORD.
13 📚“For my people have committed two evils;
they have forsaken me,
the fountain of living waters,
and dug out cisterns for themselves,
broken cisterns that can hold no water.
2:13 This two-fold sin is the sin of all humanity. Only God has the eternally satisfying water of spiritual life – in fact, He Himself is the “spring” of it (Jer 17:13; Ps 36:9; John 4:13-14; 7:37-38; Rev 22:17). To turn from Him and try to create some other source of satisfaction is wickedness, folly, madness.⚜
14 📚“Is Israel a servant?
Is he a home born slave?
Why is he plundered?
15 📚The young lions roared over him,
and growled,
and they laid his land waste.
His cities are burned, without inhabitant.
16 📚Also the people of Noph and
Tahpanhes have broken the crown
of your head.
17 📚Have you not brought this on yourself,
by your forsaking the LORD your God,
when he led you in the way?
2:14-17 The nation Israel was like a son to God, not a slave (Jer 31:9; Ex 4:22); like a wife, not a servant. Then why did disasters come on them? Why were their enemies able to destroy them? Why had Egypt (Memphis, Tahpanhes) been able to humiliate them? The answer is in v 17. They brought all their trouble on themselves by forsaking God (Jer 4:18). “Noph” is ancient “Memphis”.⚜
18 📚And now why should you go on the way
to Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor?
Or why should you go on the way to Assyria 📖
to drink the waters of the Euphrates river?
2:18 They will find there is no satisfaction, no safety, no enjoyment anywhere apart from God (Jer 2:36).⚜
19 📚Your own wickedness will chasten you,
and your backslidings will rebuke you.
Therefore know and see that it is
an evil and bitter thing,
that you have forsaken the LORD your God,
and that my fear is not in you”,
says the Lord God of hosts 📖.
2:19 Wickedness itself will be a rod on the sinner’s back, a knife in his heart, and his own backsliding will be a terrible teacher. God has arranged matters that sin will be shown to be an evil and bitter thing (Jer 4:18). Observe here the importance of the fear of God (notes at Gen 20:11; Job 28:28; Ps 34:11-14; 111:10; 130:3-4).⚜
20 📚“For long ago I broke your yoke,
and tore off your bands;
and you said, ‘I will not transgress’,
when on every high hill and under
every green tree you wandered,
acting like a prostitute 📖.
21 📚Yet I had planted you a choice vine,
a fully right seed.
How then have you turned against me
into the degenerate plant of a
strange vine to me?
22 📚For though you wash yourself with lye,
and use much soap,
yet your iniquity is marked before me”,
says the Lord God.
2:22 No effort of sinners to cleanse themselves will be successful. But God can do what man cannot – Ps 51:2; Zech 13:1; Heb 9:14; 1 John 1:9.⚜
23 📚“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled,
I have not gone after the Baals?’
See your way in the valley,
know what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel rushing
here and there,
24 📚A wild donkey used to the wilderness,
that sniffs at the wind in her desire;
in her heat who can turn her away?
Those pursuing her will not
tire themselves out;
in her month they will find her.
25 📚“Keep your foot from being unshod,
and your throat from thirst.
But you say, ‘There is no hope;
no, for I have loved foreigners,
and after them I will go.’
26 📚As the thief is disgraced when
he is found out, so is the house
of Israel disgraced,
they, their kings, their princes,
and their priests, and their prophets,
27 📚Saying to a piece of wood,
‘You are my father’,
and to a stone,
‘You have given me birth’;
for they have turned their backs
on me, and not their face.
But in the time of their trouble
they will say, ‘Arise, and save us.’
28 📚But where are your gods
that you have made for yourselves?
Let them arise, if they can save you
in the time of your trouble;
for according to the number
of your cities are your gods,
O Judah.
2:27-28 People of each town turned their backs on the God Who made them, and they made their own favorite gods from wood or stone. But in times of trouble they wanted God’s help. Compare Jud 2:10-19. Such is the sad nature of man. People want God to rescue them from danger, but then forget God and do all that God hates after the danger is removed.⚜
29 📚“Why do you bring charges against me?
You have all transgressed against me,
says the LORD.
2:29 As all other people the people of Israel, instead of confessing their great wickedness, wanted to argue with God (v 35).⚜
30 📚In vain have I struck your children;
they received no correction.
Your own sword has devoured your prophets,
like a destroying lion.
2:30 Isa 1:4-9; Lev 26:18-35. God’s punishments were sent in love to correct the people. And all God’s words here are in the language of pleading love.⚜
31 📚O you of this generation,
see the word of the LORD.
Have I been a wilderness to Israel?
A land of darkness? Why do my people say,
‘We are lords;
we will not come to you any more?’
2:31 What fault did they find in God that they decided to wander away from Him?⚜
32 📚Can a maiden forget her jewels,
or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me days
without number.
33 📚How gladly you prepare your way
to seek love!
Therefore you have taught even
the wicked women your ways.
34 📚Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood
of the poor innocents.
I have not found it by secret search,
but on all these.
35 📚Yet you say, ‘Because I am innocent,
surely his anger will turn from me.’
See, I will bring charges against you
because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
2:32-35 Four of the grievous sins of Israel – forgetting God, spiritual adultery, cruelty to the poor, and self-righteousness. They were utterly corrupted by their sins and yet thought and said they were innocent. Such is the spiritual blindness of men in general (Prov 30:12; Luke 18:9-12; Isa 65:5; Rev 3:17).⚜
36 📚Why do you go around so much
to change your way?
You will also be ashamed of Egypt,
as you were ashamed of Assyria.
37 📚Yes, you will go away from him
with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust,
and you will not prosper by them.