YHWH Challenges His People To Explain Why They Are Behaving As They Are (Jeremiah 2:29-37).
YHWH now asks them why they are troubling Him with arguments in their favour when all they had previously done was turn away from Him and reject His admonitions and kill His prophets. In spite of His being a supplier of plenty and a giver of light to them (He has not been a desert to them or a land of gloom) they have dismissed Him and forgotten Him, seeking after lovers so assiduously that they have even taught prostitutes new ways of how to go about it, while all the time their garments were stained with innocent blood, both the blood of innocent children offered up as sacrifices (Jeremiah 19:5), and the blood of those who offended them or got in their way. And now they have come back to Him claiming to be innocent, and declaring their hope that His anger has gone away (compare Jeremiah 10:24-25), while at the same time gadding about to outsiders for help, a help which will only fail them in the end. They are totally inconsistent, and as a consequence they will be carried away as prisoners, with their hands on their heads.
“Why will you contend with me?
You have all transgressed against me,
The word of YHWH.”
YHWH now asks them why they have ludicrously come to argue their case, requiring Him to defend His position, when all that they had in reality ever done was continually transgress against His covenant by ignoring their covenant obligations. And it was true of every one of them. He wants them therefore to know that this position is ‘the fixed resolve of YHWH' (neum YHWH). We do well to remember that we have no claim on God if we are not following Him with all our hearts. He is not there simply for our convenience.
“In vain have I smitten your children,
They received no correction,
Your own sword has devoured your prophets,
Like a destroying lion.”
He points out that in the past He had chastened them, but that it had been in vain, for their children had not accepted His correction any more than they had, but had obstinately gone on in their own ways. Indeed like a destroying lion they had risen up against His prophets and slain them with the sword. This probably mainly has reference to the death of Uriah the prophet (Jeremiah 26:23), but also brings out that it has been their behaviour towards all His prophets past and present, including Jeremiah (compare 1 Kings 19:10). No one except the wise love the one who disturbs their conscience.
“O generation, see you the word of YHWH,
Have I been a wilderness to Israel?
Or a land of thick darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We are broken loose,
We will come to you no more?' ”
YHWH then calls on that generation to see and consider His word. He asks in what way He had failed them that they should ‘break loose' from Him. Had He been like a desert to them (unfruitful and unproductive)? Had He been like a land of gloom or thick darkness (leaving them in the dark and fearful)? Had He not rather provided fruitfulness in their land and fed them spiritually through the prophets, and given them light through His word and through His covenant? Why then had His people said that they ‘had broken loose from Him and would come to Him no more'? What good reason had they had for their desertion?
“Can a virgin forget her ornaments,
Or a bride her attire?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
Days without number.
Indeed their attitude was folly. What virgin would forget to wear and treasure the ornaments that added to her beauty? What bride would forget her wedding dress and jewellery, the things that made her look so delightful? Yet they had overlooked the fact that Judah's true glory was YHWH (Jeremiah 2:11), and that their decoration was His covenant. Thus they had foolishly and incredibly forgotten Him days without number.
The bride's ‘attire' (headband, girdle) may refer to the treasured marital girdle given to her by her husband on her marriage, something which would be especially treasured.
How you trim your way,
To seek love!
Therefore even the wicked women,
You have taught your ways.”
For instead of wearing His beautiful ornaments, portraying to the world His glory, they had dressed themselves up revealingly, ‘trimming their ways' to seek ‘love' (which was really lust). Why, they were so depraved that by their ways they had even demonstrated to prostitutes how to go about their loathsome trade.
“Also in your skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor. You did not find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things.”
And they had not only demonstrated by their attire how far they had fallen into degeneracy, but had also drawn attention through it to their sinfulness in other ways. For the truth was that their skirts were stained with the blood of the innocent poor. These were not excusable killings, like the slaying of a thief who had broken into their homes, but were inexcusable violence shown towards the weak and helpless. (It would appear that violence had become rife in the days of Jehoiakim, probably largely due to his weak control, and the forced labour building activity which required violence to keep it operative. For once the government is weak all take advantage of it). So their idolatry had inevitably resulted in the ignoring of covenant requirements, and the destabilisation of normal life, that is, of life as it should have been lived, in accordance with His Law.
“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent,
Surely his anger is turned away from me.'
Behold, I will enter into judgment with you,
Because you say, ‘I have not sinned.' ”
Yet Judah still approached YHWH in wide-eyed innocency (compare Jeremiah 2:23), not believing that YHWH could hold their ways against them. He had accused them of shedding the blood of the innocent poor, but did He not recognise that they too were innocent? Each of them cried, ‘I am innocent, surely His anger is turned away from me.' But this was so hypocritical that it constituted a main grounds for His judgment. It demonstrated the depths to which they had fallen, in that they did not even recognise the truth about their own sin. That is why their case was almost hopeless. God could help sinners, but it was not possible to help those who were blind to their own sinfulness.
This is very like so many today who, when it is suggested that they have no claim on God are full of wide-eyed innocence because they believe that they have done nothing really wrong, and that God owes it to them to help them when they need Him (in spite of their having mainly ignored Him when things were going well). This is a reminder that God has no time for such people unless they truly repent.
“Why do you gad about so much,
To change your way?
You will be ashamed of Egypt also,
As you were ashamed of Assyria.”
He then points out that instead of genuinely coming to Him they are rather constantly changing their loyalties, first by going to Egypt and then by going to Assyria. They are incorrigible. They gad about from one to the other, and do not realise that both will let them down. For Egypt cannot cope with Babylon, and Assyria is broken. They will thus in the end be ashamed for trusting in either of them. This would appear especially to apply to the days of Jehoiakim.
“From there also will you go forth,
With your hands on your head,
For YHWH has rejected those in whom you trust,
And you will not prosper with them.”
Indeed as a result of this trust they will go from their places where they were, as prisoners (of Babylon), with their hands on their head, because YHWH has rejected both Egypt and Assyria with the result that their case will not prosper. They will be totally let down by both nations.
The hands on the head may have been in order to prevent any violent reaction by prisoners, but in 2 Samuel 13:19 the hands on the head indicated rather great distress, which may be the case here.