Jeremiah 2:19

2:14-19 Is Israel a servant? No, they are the seed of Abraham. We may apply this spiritually: Is the soul of man a slave? No, it is not; but has sold its own liberty, and enslaved itself to divers lusts and passions. The Assyrian princes, like lions, prevailed against Israel. People from Egypt destroyed their glory and strength. They brought these calamities on themselves by departing from the Lord. The use and application of this is, Repent of thy sin, that thy correction may not be thy ruin. What has a Christian to do in the ways of forbidden pleasure or vain sinful mirth, or with the pursuits of covetousness and ambition?

Jeremiah FORSAKING JEHOVAHJeremiah 2:19 . Of course the original reference is to national apostasy, which was aggravated by the national covenant, and avenged by national disasters, which are interpreted and urged by the prophet as God’s merciful pleading with men. But the text is true in reference to individuals. I. The universal indictment. This is not so much a charge of isolated overt acts, as of departure from God. That departure, itself a sin, is the fountain of all other sins. Every act which is morally wrong is religiously a departure from God; it could not be done, unless heart and will had moved away from their allegiance to Him. So the solemn mystery of right and wrong becomes yet more solemn, when our personal relation to the personal God is brought in. Then-consider what this forsaking is-at bottom aversion of will, or rather of the whole nature, from Him. How strange and awful is that power which a creature possesses of closing his heart against God, and setting up a quasi-independence! How universal it is-appeal to each man’s own consciousness. II. The special aggravation. ‘ Thy God ‘-the original reference is to Israel, whom God had taken for His and to whom He had given Himself as theirs, by His choice from of old, by redemption from Egypt, by covenant, and by centuries of blessings. But the designation is true in regard to God and each of us.

It points to the personal relation which we each sustain to Him, and so is a pathetic appeal to affection and gratitude. III. The bitter fruit. 6 Evil’ may express rather the moral character of forsaking God, while ‘bitter’ expresses rather the consequences of it, which are sorrows. So the prophet appeals to experience. As the Psalmist confidently invites to ‘taste and see that God is good,’ so Jeremiah boldly bids the apostates know and see that departing is bitter. It is so, for it leaves the soul unsatisfied. It leads to remorse. It drags after it manifold bitter fruits. ‘The wages of sin is death.’ Sin without consequent sorrow is an impossibility if there is a God. IV. The loving appeal. The text is not denunciation, but tender, though indignant, pleading, in hope of winning back the wanderers. The prophet has just been pointing to the sorrowful results which necessarily follow on the nation’s apostasy, and tells Israel that its own wickedness shall correct it, and then, in the text, he beseeches them not to be blind to the meaning of their miseries, but to let these teach them how sinful and how sorrowful their apostasy is. Men’s sorrows are a mystery, but that sinners should not have sorrows were a sadder mystery still. And God pleads with us all not to lose the good of our experiences of the bitterness of sin by our levity or our blindness to their meaning.

Jeremiah 2:19 . Thy own wickedness shall correct thee — The miseries that your own sins have brought upon you, one would suppose, might be sufficient to reclaim you from your evil courses, and induce you to return to God, by a sincere repentance, Hosea 2:7 . Know therefore — Upon the whole matter; and see that it is an evil thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God — For that is the thing that makes thine enemies, enemies indeed, and thy friends, friends in vain. The sense of the clause is, Call to mind what thou hast found by experience, and reflect seriously upon it, and thou canst not but be convinced how dear the forsaking of God hath cost thee. And that my fear — Or, the fear of me; or, that thou hast not my fear in thee, saith the Lord — Consider this well, for it is the ground of all thy sin and suffering, in order that thy correction may not end in thy utter ruin. This whole discourse of Jeremiah is a kind of pleading, wherein the prophet maintains the cause of God against his people.

19 . Thine own wickedness shall correct thee ] Thy misdeeds shall bring their own punishment with them. Correct in the sense (now growing obsolete) of chastise . Cp. Jeremiah 10:24 , Jeremiah 30:11 , Jeremiah 46:28 . So in Proverbs 29:17 . backslidings ] lit. backturnings , apostasy. The Hebrew word with the exception of its occurrence in Prov. ( Proverbs 1:32 ) and a doubtful use in Ezek. ( Ezekiel 37:23 , R.V. mg.) is confined to Hos. ( Hosea 11:7 , Hosea 14:4 ) and Jer., with whom it is a favourite ( Jeremiah 3:22 , Jeremiah 5:6 , etc.). and that my fear ] depending on “it is an evil thing and a bitter.” In other words the evil and bitterness are twofold; ( a ) desertion, ( b ) indifference. my fear ] The fear of Me.

Thy own wickedness shall {e} correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts. (e) Meaning, that the wicked are insensible, till the punishment for their sin waken them as in Jer 2:26, Isa 3:9.

(19) Thine own wickedness. —The strain is now of a higher mood, and rises from what is local and temporary to the eternal law of retribution. Punishment comes as the natural consequence of sins. Our “pleasant vices” become “whips to scourge us.” The “backslidings” of Israel, in courting the favour of foreign states by adopting their creed and worship, shall involve her in ever fresh calamities.

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee: the meaning is either, 1. There need no further evidence against thee than thine own evil courses, Hosea 5:5 . Or rather, might correct thee, i.e. one would think should be sufficient to reclaim thee: see Hosea 2:7 . Or, 2. Thy own wickedness is the cause of thy correction. Or, 3. Thy wickedness will be an evidence that whatever thou sufferest is just. Thy backslidings shall reprove thee; the same with the former, but in other words, after the manner of the Hebrews, or a metonymy of the effect for the cause; Thou wilt not be persuaded fill thou come to suffer, thou wilt not be instructed until corrected: or rather, as before, Thy many backslidings might teach thee more wisdom, and convince thee of thy folly: so doth the word reprove signify, Job 6 25 . Know, i.e. call to mind thy experiences, and consider well with thyself, and thou canst not but be convinced of those things, what forsaking of God hath cost thee. An evil thing and bitter, viz. of punishment principally; so Isaiah 45:7 ; though it be true also of sin: therefore he calls it bitter, because the effect of it will be so; it will be unpleasing and bitterness in the latter end. The Lord thy God, i.e. me. My fear is not in thee; or, the fear of me; or, thou hast not my fear in thee; this being the ground of all thy sin and suffering, Psalm 36:1 Romans 3:16,18 .

19. correct … reprove—rather, in the severer sense, "chastise … punish" [Maurer]. backslidings—"apostasies"; plural, to express the number and variety of their defections. The very confederacies they entered into were the occasion of their overthrow (Pr 1:31; Isa 3:9; Ho 5:5). know … see—imperative for futures: Thou shalt know and see to thy cost. my fear—rather, "the fear of Me."