Jeremiah 2:1

2:1-8 Those who begin well, but do not persevere, will justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings. Those who desert religion, commonly oppose it more than those who never knew it. For this they could have no excuse. God's spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for safe conduct through the wilderness of this world, so dangerous to the soul. Alas, that many, who once appeared devoted to the Lord, so live that their professions aggravate their crimes! Let us be careful that we do not lose in zeal and fervency, as we gain knowledge.

Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying. Here begins the book, and Jeremiah's first sermon; and the following contains the message he was sent with, to which the preceding chapter is only a preface or introduction. The Targum calls it, "the word of the prophecy from before the Lord.''

Jeremiah 2:1 . Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me — The discourse begun here is continued to the end of the fifth verse of the next chapter. In it God professes to retain the same kind and merciful disposition toward his people which he had manifested in their earlier days. He expostulates with them on their ungrateful returns for his past goodness, and shows that it was not want of love in him, but their own extreme and unparalleled wickedness, which had already subjected, and would still subject them, to calamities and misery. He concludes with a pathetic address, exhorting them to return to him, with an implied promise of acceptance; and laments the necessity he was under, through their continued obstinacy, of giving them further proofs of his displeasure. See Blaney.

2 . the kindness of thy youths the love of thine espousals ] This has been taken as meaning, the kindness and love ( a ) of Israel towards God, or ( b ) of God towards Israel. In favour of ( a ) is urged (i) the sense of the rest of the v ., (ii) that the ‘kindness’ and ‘love’ spoken of evidently refer to the past, while God’s attitude of grace towards Israel is still the same that it has ever been. On the other hand for ( b ) it may be said (i) that the original word ( חֶסֶד ) is ordinarily used of God’s attitude to man (but see Isaiah 57:1 ; Hosea 6:4 ; Hosea 6:6 ), (ii) that even in the wilderness Israel was often unfaithful (cp. Jeremiah 7:25 ; Ezekiel 2:3 ; Ezekiel 20:13 ff.), (iii) that the whole tone of Deut., to which these prophecies (see Intr. iii. § 16) are so closely related in language, indicates God’s free choice of Israel and her ingratitude. In this latter case the sense will be (using a bold metaphor), “I have not forgotten my love for my young bride,” i.e. Israel’s consecration and my promise to defend her. For this metaphorical application of the thought of a marriage union between Jehovah and Israel, cp. Isaiah 54:1 ; Isaiah 54:4 ff., Isaiah 62:4 f. Jeremiah 2:1

II. (1) The first chapter had given the narrative of the call which had impressed itself indelibly on the prophet’s mind. The next five run on as one continuous whole, and, looking to the fact that the original record of his prophetic work during the reign of Josiah had been destroyed by Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 36:23), and was afterwards re-written from memory, it is probable that we have a kind of précis of what was then destroyed, with some additions (Jeremiah 36:32), and possibly some omissions. In Jeremiah 3:6 we have the name of Josiah definitely mentioned.

CHAPTER 2 Jer 2:1-37. Expostulation with the Jews, Reminding Them of Their Former Devotedness, and God's Consequent Favor, and a Denunciation of God's Coming Judgments for Their Idolatry. Probably in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah (Jer 1:2; compare Jer 3:6, "also … in … days of Josiah"). The warning not to rely as they did on Egypt (Jer 2:18), was in accordance with Josiah's policy, who took part with Assyria and Babylon against Egypt (2Ki 23:29). Jeremiah, doubtless, supported the reformation begun by Josiah, in the previous year (the twelfth of his reign), and fully carried out in the eighteenth.God’s numerous and continued mercies render the Jews in their idolatry inexcusable, and unparalleled in any nation; and themselves the causes of their calamities, Jeremiah 2:1-19. Their gross idolatry, Jeremiah 2:20-28; incorrigibleness, blood-shedding, and hypocrisy, Jeremiah 2:29-37. Now God begins by Jeremiah to deal with the Jews, and to put him upon his work, having fitted him for it: this seeming to be his first sermon, it notes speed, and quick despatch about his business. No text from Poole on this verse.

"And then came to me the word of Jahveh, saying: Go and publish in the ears of Jerusalem, saying: I have remembered to thy account the love of thy youth, the lovingness of thy courtship time, thy going after me in the wilderness, in a land unsown. Holy was Israel to the Lord, his first-fruits of the produce: all who would have devoured him brought guilt upon themselves: evil came upon him, is the saying of Jahveh." The Jeremiah 2:2 and Jeremiah 2:3 are not "in a certain sense the text of the following reproof" (Graf), but contain "the main idea which shows the cause of the following rebuke" (Hitz.): The Lord has rewarded the people of Israel with blessings for its love to Him. זכר with ל pers. and accus. rei means: to remember to one's account that it may stand him in good stead afterwards - cf. Nehemiah 5:19 ; Nehemiah 13:22 , Nehemiah 13:31 ; Psalm 98:3 ; Psalm 106:45 , etc. - that it may be repaid with evil, Nehemiah 6:14 ; Nehemiah 13:29 ; Psalm 79:8 , etc. The perfect זכרתּי is to be noted, and not inverted into the present. It is a thing completed that is spoken of; what the Lord has done, not what He is going on with. He remembered to the people Israel the love of its youth. חסד, ordinarily, condescending love, graciousness and favour; here, the self-devoting, nestling love of Israel to its God.

The youth of Israel is the time of the sojourn in Egypt and of the exodus thence ( Hosea 2:17 ; Hosea 11:1 ); here the latter, as is shown by the following: lovingness of the courtship. The courtship comprises the time from the exodus out of Egypt till the concluding of the covenant at Sinai ( Exodus 19:8 ). When the Lord redeemed Israel with a strong hand out of the power of Egypt, He chose it to be His spouse, whom He bare on eagles' wings and brought unto Himself, Exodus 19:4 . The love of the bride to her Lord and Husband, Israel proved by its following Him as He went before in the wilderness, the land where it is not sown, i.e., followed Him gladly into the parched, barren wilderness. "Thy going after me" is decisive for the question so much debated by commentators, whether חסד and אהבה stand for the love of Israel to its God, or God's love to Israel. The latter view we find so early as Chrysostom, and still in Rosenm. and Graf; but it is entirely overthrown by the לכתּך אחרי, which Chrysost. transforms into ποιῆσας ἐξακολουθῆσαι μου, while Graf takes no notice of it. The reasons, too, which Graf, after the example of Rosenm. and Dathe, brings in support of this and against the only feasible exposition, are altogether valueless.