Jeremiah 2:30

Jer 2:30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

Ver. 30. In vain have I smitten your children.] My hammers have but beaten cold iron; ye are incorrigible, irreformable. See Isa 1:5. {See Trapp on "Isa 1:5"}

Your own sword hath devoured your prophets.] As it did in the days of Ahaz, Joash, Manasseh, of whom Josephus {a} saith, that he slew some prophet of God every day.

Like a destroying lion.] Cum saevitia summa, exuta omni humanitate. Ye have pulled them limb meal, and caused them to die piece meal.

{a} Lib. x. cap. 4.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:30 killed your prophets: See 26:20-23.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

That is, you have killed your Prophets, that exhorted you to repentance, as Zechariah, Isaiah, etc.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

(Jer 5:3; Jer 6:29; Isa 1:5; Isa 9:13).

your children--that is, your people, you.

your . . . sword . . . devoured . . . prophets-- (Ch2 36:16; Neh 9:26; Mat 23:29, Mat 23:31).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Some expound the beginning of this verse as though the meaning were, — that God chastised the Jews on account of their folly, because they habituated themselves to falsehoods: but the latter clause does not correspond. There is therefore no doubt but that God here expostulates with the Jews, because he had tried to bring them to the right way and found them wholly irreclaimable. A similar expostulation is found in Isaiah,

“In vain,” he says, “have I chastised you; for from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is no soundness.” (Isaiah 1:6)

There God shews that he had tried every remedy, but that the Jews, being wholly refractory in their spirit, were wholly incurable. Jeremiah speaks now on the same subject: and God thus exaggerates the wickedness of the people; for he testifies that he had tried whether they would be taught, not only by words, but also by scourges and chastisements, but that his labor in both instances had been in vain. He spoke before of teaching, “Keep thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst.” The Prophets, then, had exhorted the Jews by God’s command to rest quietly. This teaching had been useless and unfruitful. God now adds, that he had tried in another way to bring them back to a right mind; but this effort had been also useless and in vain: In vain have I chastised you; for ye have not received correction

But he speaks of children, in order to shew that the whole people were unteachable: for though lusts boil more in youth, yet their obduracy is not so great as in the old; as he who has through his whole life hardened himself in the contempt of God, can hardly be ever healed and be amended by correction; for old age is of itself morose and difficult to be pleased, and the old also think, that wrong is in a manner done them when they are reproved: but when the insolence and obduracy of the young are so great that they reject all correction, it is more strange and monstrous. The Prophet then shews that there was nothing sound or right in that people, since their very children refused correction.

We now perceive his object, — that, as God had sent his prophets, and as their labor availed nothing, he now shews, that not only the ears of the people had been deaf to wholesome teaching, but that they were hard — necked and untamable; for he had tried to correct them by scourges, but effected nothing. It follows, their sword has devoured the prophets But I cannot finish now.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(30) Your own sword hath devoured your prophets.—So in the long reign of Manasseh, the prophets who rebuked him had to do so at the risk of their lives. Isaiah, as the tradition ran, had been foremost among the sufferers. Much innocent blood had been shed from one end to another of Jerusalem (2Ki_21:11-16).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30. your children] not literally such, nor yet young men slain in battle, but equivalent to the frequent expression “children of thy people” (e.g. Eze_3:11; Eze_33:2; Eze_33:12; Eze_33:17; Eze_33:30), i.e. the people considered individually, as contrasted with the aggregate.

your prophets] Some commentators make the reference to be to such events as those recorded in 1Ki_18:4-13, or to some unknown outbreak of violence. But the passage may well point to the comparatively recent massacres by Manasseh, traditionally including Isaiah (Isa_21:16).

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

O generation, see ye the word of the Lord,.... Take notice of it, consider it; or, hear it, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions. Jarchi and Kimchi think (i) the pot of manna was brought out, and shown them, to be looked at by them, for the conviction of them, and confirmation of what follows:

have I been a wilderness unto Israel? no: the Israelites were plentifully supplied by him when in the wilderness, and since they were brought into a land flowing with milk and honey; so that they stood in need of nothing; they had a constant supply of all good things:

or a land of darkness? of misery, distress, and poverty; where no light of joy, comfort, and prosperity, is; a land that never sees the light, or enjoys the benefit of the sun, and so is barren and unfruitful; "a land of thorns", as the Septuagint version; or, "a desert and uncultivated land", as the Targum, and Syriac and Arabic versions. It may be rendered, "a land of the darkness of God" (k); that is, of the greatest darkness, of thick and gross darkness, alluding to that in Egypt; as the flame of God, and mountains of God, Sol 8:6, as Ben Melech and Kimchi observe:

wherefore say my people, we are lords; and can reign without thee; or we have kings and princes, and have no need of thee, so Kimchi; but the word used seems to have another meaning, and to require another sense. The Targum is, "we are removed"; and the Vulgate Latin version, "we have gone back"; to which agrees the Jewish Midrash (l), mentioned by Jarchi, and confirmed with a passage out of the Misna (m), "we are separated from thee"; we have departed from thee, turned our backs on thee, have forsaken thee, and left thy ways and worship; and to do so was very ungrateful, when the Lord had so richly supplied them, that they had not lacked any good thing; and this sense agrees with what follows:

we will come no more unto thee? some render it, "we have determined" (n); as having the same sense with the Arabic word, which signifies to "will" or determine anything; and then the meaning is, we are determined, we are resolved to come no more to thee, to attend thy worship and service any more; and so the Targum,

"we will not return any more to thy worship.''

(i) So Mechilta apud Yalkut in loc. (k) "terra caliginis Dei", Gataker, Gussetius; "caliginis Jah", Montanus. (l) Midrash R. Tanchuma, apud Jarchi in loc. Vid. Yalkut Simeoni, in Ioc. (m) Misn. Trumot, c. 10. sect. 3. & Machshirin, c. 3. sect. 3. (n) "voluimus non veniemus", &c, De Dieu; "decrevimus non veniemus", Cocceius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Your own sword hath detoured your prophets - An allusion probably to Manasseh 2Ki 21:16. Death was the usual fate of the true prophet Neh 9:26; Mat 23:37.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Prophets; Zacharias, (2 Paralipomenon xxiv. 21.) Isaias, &c., Matthew xxiii. 34. (Calmet) --- Punishment is designed by God to cause people to repent. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Your children; either your posterity, that you breed up like yourselves; or rather, your inhabitants in every city, they being frequently called the children of such a city, or such a place: children of Seir, 2Ch 25:14, children, of the province, Ezr 2:1, and children of thy people, Lev 19:18, and abundance more the like; and thus it is comprehensive both of parents and children.

Correction, i.e. The fruit of correction, viz. instruction. The same word is rendered correction, Pro 23:13, which signifies instruction, Pro 5:12, and in other places; and so to be taken here: it notes their refractoriness, that though they were corrected, yet they would not be instructed; though God did smite them, yet the rod prevailed as little with them as the word.

Your own sword hath devoured your prophets; either the sword that I have sent to destroy you hath destroyed your false prophets together with you, Hos 4:5, and so it is both a prophecy and a threatening; or rather, you have been so far from receiving counsel and instruction, that you have, by the sword, and other ways of destruction, (which is to be understood by the sword,) murdered those that I sent to reprove your follies in the days of Asa, Joash, Manasseh, &c., Neh 9:26. See Mat 23:34,35.

Devoured; or, eaten up; a metaphor. Hence we read of the edge of the sword, which both in Hebrew and Greek is called the mouth of the sword, Jer 21:7; Luk 21:24. Like a destroying lion; without respect or pity; with all manner of savage usage; see Psa 7:2; laying aside all humanity.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

ISRAEL’S GUILT AND PUNISHMENT, Jer_2:29-35.

30. Sword hath devoured — See 1Ki_18:4; 1Ki_18:13; 1Ki_19:10; 2Ki_21:16, etc.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Have I smitten your children. The cities and towns of Judah are represented as so many mothers, and the populations as their children. It would, no doubt, be more natural to take "children" literally; but then we must read the verb in the next clause, "Ye have received," as the Septuagint actually renders. In the former case the "smiting" will refer to all God"s "sore judgments sword, drought, famine, pestilence; in the latter, to the loss of life in battle. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets. (comp. 2Ch_24:21 2Ki_21:16) Manasseh"s persecution (which extended, according to Josephus, especially to the prophets) may account for the preponderance of "false prophets" referred to in ver. 8. (cf. Mat_23:29)

Rejecting the chastisements of God.

The spiritual benefits of pain, calamity, etc., are contingent for the most part upon their being received in a right way as from God, and not by accident. They are intended to discover our sins to us, and to lead us to the love and righteousness of God. Where this result is not effected, "chastisement is not accepted.

I THE POSSIBILITY OF REFUSING CHASTISEMENT.

II MISERY AND PAIN ARE NOT OF THEMSELVES MINISTERS OF GRACE.

III RIGHTLY RECEIVED, OUR GREATEST GRIEFS MAY BECOME OUR GREATEST MERCIES.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Children - Your inhabitants in every city, they being frequently called the children of such a city. Correction - Instruction: though they were corrected, yet they would not be instructed. Your sword - You have been so far from receiving instruction, that you have, by the sword, and other ways of destruction, murdered those that I have sent to reprove you.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

In vain have I smitten For no purpose, for it did not avail that they should receive correction.

Your sword devoured your prophets, Zechariah and Isaiah.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.