Jeremiah 2
God takes Judah to divorce court
God compares Judah to a happy bride
1The LORD gave me another message to deliver. 2He told me to deliver this message to the people of Jerusalem. This is what he said:“I remember how you loved me at first.
You were as devoted [1] as a bride
When you lived in the desert. [2]
Of all the work I had done,
Israel was the best of it. [4]
Everyone who hurt you got hurt.
I saw to it.”
God: “Why did your ancestors leave me?”
4Listen to what I’m about to say. This is a message from the LORD to every descendant of Jacob—to all the people of Israel. 5Here’s what the LORD says to you.“What did your ancestors have against me?
Why did they trade me in for worthless gods?
All that did was make them worthless to me.
‘Where’d he go? Where’s the LORD
Who led us here from Egypt,
Through the deserts, past the pits,
Through the droughts, out of the darkness,
Into the badlands where no one lives,
And out the other side?’
7I brought you into a wonderful land
To enjoy it’s harvest
And all the good it had to offer.
But you contaminated my land.
And you trashed my name
And everything associated with me.
8Priests ignored me, too.
They didn’t ask,
‘Where’d he go?’
People who taught my laws
Didn’t know anything about me.
Rulers sinned against me.
My prophets became Baal’s [5] prophets.
Nothing good came of that.
God: “Why did you leave me, too?”
9I accused them back then
And I accuse you here and now.
I’m the LORD
And I accuse your descendants as well.
Go to the coast and sail to Cyprus.
Then go to the deserts of Kedar. [6]
11See if you can find any nation
That has traded in its gods for other gods,
Though you should know by now
There are no other gods.
Yet my people did just that.
They were a glorious people
Who gave it all away.
12Heaven above has witnessed [7] it all,
In stunned shock and complete despair.
13My people made two mistakes.
They stopped drinking fresh-flowing [8] water.
They drank from holes in the ground,
Cracked cisterns that can’t hold water.
What Israel got for all its sinning
14Is Israel [9] a captive—
A nation of slaves and servants?
Of course not.
Then why are nations treating you like one?
And it’ll get louder.
They’ve devastated the land,
Turned cities into ghost towns,
And homes into rockpiles.
16Egyptians from Memphis and Tahpanhes [10]
Have beat [11] you in the head.
17Can’t you see
It’s your own fault?
You turned your back
On the LORD your God.
He was leading you along your journey,
And you walked away from him.
18So what do you think you can gain
By drinking from Egypt’s Nile River
Or from the Euphrates of Assyria? [12]
19You’ve been unfaithful to me
And that charge will convict you.
You’ve been evil
And you’ll be punished.
Take a good, hard look at yourself.
You left me, your LORD and God.
See it and own it.
You have no respect for me,
The LORD God of everyone.
God: “You broke your vows.”
20Long ago you broke your vows.
You’re no longer tied to me.
You’re free, and you refuse me.
You’re not my bride. You’re a prostitute, [13]
Sprawled out under every green tree
And laying there at shrines on every hilltop,
Serving every god but me.
You were my chosen vine, from good stock.
What turned you wild and worthless?
Israel, a people stained with sin
22You’re stained
And there’s nothing you can do
To get rid of it.
Wash it all you want,
It’ll still be there,
And I’ll still see it.
To tell me you didn’t do anything wrong—
To say you haven’t serviced Baal?
Look at the shrines in the valley.
Admit it.
You chase Baal like you’re a camel in heat.
24You’re half-ass, [14] a wild donkey in heat.
You’re sniffing [15] the wind for a stallion.
Who could stop you after you’ve caught the scent?
No male needs to come looking for you.
You’ll sniff your way to them.
25Don’t wear out your sandals
Chasing those gods.
Don’t run until you’re dying of thirst.
But you don’t take that advice.
Instead, you say, “It’s no use.
I’m in love with these mysterious gods.
I’ve got to have them.”
26You’ll be ashamed of yourself,
Just like a thief is, when caught.
All of you will be ashamed:
Kings and their officials,
Priests and prophets.
God: “Now you’re asking me to help you? Why?”
27They call a tree their daddy.
They call a rock their momma.
They’re not looking at me.
They turned their backs on me.
But when trouble comes,
They say, “Save us.”
You have gods you made for yourselves.
So, if you’re in trouble,
Call on them.
You’ve got as many gods as Judah has cities.
29Why complain to me?
You revolted and left me.
This is the LORD talking.
30I killed your kids,
And you didn’t get the message. [16]
You killed your own prophets,
As viciously as lions attack.
31I’m talking to you now, this generation.
Have I abandoned you thirsty in the desert?
Have I led you into trouble,
In the pitch black of night?
Of course not. So why do you say,
‘We’re done with you. It’s over”?
32Does a woman forget her jewelry?
Does the bride forget her dress?
Well, my people forgot me
A long time ago.
33You plotted the route to your lovers.
You became so evil
That you taught wicked women
How to do “wicked” better. [17]
Israel in contempt of God’s court
35Yet you say, “Not guilty.
The LORD and I are on good terms.”
Here comes the judge.
I’m holding you in contempt for lying—
For saying, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Judah trusts allies, not God
36Why do you keep changing your mind?
You’re going to be disappointed by Egyptian support,
Just like you were by the Assyrians. [18]
You’ll bury your face in your hands.
You chose an ally God rejected.
Egypt won’t save you.
Footnotes
The Hebrew words for “love” and “devotion” seem tied to the covenant, or agreement, the Jewish people made with God in the days of Moses. They agreed to love him and to stay devoted and faithful to him. In turn, he agreed to protect and prosper them. The Hebrew words may have sounded to the Jews like the marriage vow “to love and to honor” sound to us. These were covenant words from a sacred vow. The Hebrew words were the same ones Moses used when he warned the people as they traveled through the desert, “It’s important for you to stay devoted to God” (Deuteronomy 8:2). Jeremiah was about to tell the people they broke their vows to God.
This is during the journey out of Egyptian slavery and toward the Promised Land of Canaan, now called Israel and Palestinian Territory.
More literally, “Israel was holy to God.” One meaning of holy is “devotion. Israel and God were devoted to each other. “You’ll become a nation of priests because you’ll all be devoted to me, which will make you holy in my eyes” (Exodus 19:6).
More literally, Israel was the “first fruits of the harvest,” the most cherished. Oldest sons were described that way. And they typically led the extended family after the father died. Also, they got a double share of the inheritance.
Baal was the top god in Canaan, which became known as the Holy Land, the territory of today’s Israel and Palestinian Territory. Baal was a god of fertility in family, fields, and flocks. Joshua led Hebrew ancestors of the Jews in killing many Canaanites while reclaiming the land that the Bible says God promised to the descendants of Abraham. But Jewish ancestors continued to worship Baal and other Middle Eastern gods off and on throughout Old Testament times.
Kedar is the name of a tribe of nomads from the deserts of what are now Syria and Saudi Arabia. God was telling the Jews to look from the oceans to the deserts.
This is courtroom language for a divorce proceeding. And the sky is a witness for the Prosecution.
“Living water” is the more common translation. But it means flowing water, like from a river or a spring—not stagnant water like from a pond. When Jews ritually cleansed themselves, the bathwater had to come from “living water.” Water was a common theme and symbol of life in the dry land where Jews lived.
“Israel.” In this case seems to mean the southern Jewish nation of Judah. The northern Jewish nation of Israel was gone—Assyrians defeated, dismantled, and deported the nation. It’s sometimes hard to tell which “Israel” the writer is talking about: the nation before it split, the northern tribes called Israel, or the southern Jewish nation of Judah, when it was all that was left of the original nation of Israel. We have to look for context clues, which aren’t always solid.
Tahpanhes and Memphis were towns near the northern end of the Nile River, where the river flows northward into the Mediterranean Sea. Tahpanhes was about 70 miles (110 km) northeast of Cairo. It was on a popular caravan route to Israel. This is where many Jews escaped to when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC—a destruction Jeremiah witnessed. Memphis was Egypt’s capital. It was 12 miles (20 km) south of Cairo.
“Beat,” could be translated “shaved,” which would suggest slavery. So it’s unclear what the Egyptians did to the people of Israel. But it wasn’t anything wonderful.
Instead of trusting God to keep them safe, they trusted in alliances they made with their enemies.
The metaphor is about spiritual unfaithfulness, at least. But it might be more than that. Some religions apparently involved sex with temple priests and prostitutes. “You have sex on the hilltops. Then you finish with a sacrifice” (Isaiah 57:7). That’s likely a euphemistic way of talking about fertility rituals that try to invoke Canaanite gods to provide fertility in family, fields, and flocks. Throughout the early centuries, Jews were constantly tempted to think of the LORD as the god of war with local Canaanite gods in charge of other aspects of life, such as farming and baby-making.
Literally, if not figuratively. A wild ass is only partly a donkey. It’s a distinct species: onager (Equus hermionus). In Bible times, people thought it was impossible to domesticate them. A donkey is an ass, too, but a different ass, one that’s domesticated: Equus africanus asinus or as yet another species, Equus asinus. Donkeys were domesticated in Africa several thousand years before Jeremiah, by at least 3,000-5,000 BC.
The attracting smell was the urine of a male wild ass.
It’s unclear what the writer is describing. Children and other innocent people, perhaps some prophets as well, died at the hands of their own Israelite kings. “Manasseh sacrificed his own son and burned the body on an altar” (2 Kings 21:6). King Jehoiakim personally killed a prophet named Uriah with a sword and buried him in an unmarked grave (Jeremiah 26:23).
If this metaphor is about God’s people involved in fertility rights, this could imply they taught cult prostitutes new tricks of the trade.
In Bible times, many empires emerged as international bullies, invading other countries and demanding tribute, a form of taxation or extortion. Assyria was the first of the superpowers. Judah called on Assyrians to save them from an attack by the combined armies of Israel and Syria. Those two nations tried to force Judah to join an anti-Assyria coalition. Assyria defeated Syria and Israel, eventually taking everything from the northern nation of Israel, deporting the survivors and erasing Israel from the political map. That was in 722 BC, a century or more before Jeremiah. Assyrians also imposed heavy tribute on the southern nation of Judah. Just as the Assyrian ally became a bitter disappointment for Judah, Egypt would fail them as well.