Jeremiah 2:37 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Yea, thou shalt go forth from him The ambassadors thou sendest to Egypt shall return with disappointment and confusion; and their hands on their heads Condoling the desperate condition of their people. Or, Thou shalt go forth from hence, namely, into captivity, in a strange land. And thy hands upon thy head As Tamar went forth from her brother Amnon, her garments torn, and her hands upon her head, insulted and despised, and in the greatest grief and misery; and Egypt, on which thou reliedst, shall not be able to prevent it, or to rescue thee out of captivity. For the Lord hath rejected thy confidences Hath refused to give success to them, or hath rejected thee for thy confidences; or he disapproves thy confidences, namely, all thy dependances and refuges, which thou seekest out of him. And thou shalt not prosper in them They shall not stand thee in any stead, nor give thee any satisfaction. As there is no counsel or wisdom that can prevail against the Lord, so there is none that can prevail without the Lord. Some read it, The Lord hath rejected thee for thy confidences; that is, because thou hast dealt so unfaithfully with him as to trust in his creatures, nay, in his enemies, when thou shouldest have trusted in him only, he has abandoned thee to that destruction from which thou thoughtest thus to have sheltered thyself; and then thou canst not prosper, for none ever either hardened himself against God, or estranged himself from God, and prospered.