Jeremiah 50:7 - Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Bible Comments

All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.

All that have found them have devoured them - (Psalms 79:7, "They (the pagan) have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his dwelling-place"). "Found them" implies that they were exposed to the attacks of those whoever happened to meet them.

Their adversaries said - for instance, Nebuzar-adan said so (Jeremiah 40:2-3; cf. Zechariah 11:5).

We offend not, because they have sinned against the Lord. The Gentiles acknowledged some supreme divinity. The Jews' guilt was so palpable that they were condemned even in the judgment of pagans. Some knowledge of God's special relation to Judea reached its pagan invaders from the prophets (Jeremiah 2:3; Daniel 9:16); hence, the strong language they use of Yahweh here, not as worshippers of Him themselves, but as believing Him to be the tutelary God of Judah ("the hope of their fathers," Psalms 22:4; they do not say our hope), as each country was thought to have its local god, whose power extended no further than the locality under its tutelage.

The habitation - (Psalms 90:1; Psalms 91:1). Alluding to the tabernacle, or else, as in Ezekiel 34:14, fold, which carries out the image in Jeremiah 50:6, "resting-place" of the "sheep." But it can only mean habitation (Jeremiah 31:23), which confirms the English version here.

The hope of their fathers. This especially condemned the Jews, that their apostasy was from that God whose faithfulness their fathers had experienced. At the same time these "adversaries" unconsciously use language which corrects their own notions. The covenant with the Jews' "fathers" is not utterly set aside by their sin, as their adversaries thought; there is still "a habitation" or refuge for them with the God of their fathers.

Jeremiah 50:7

7 All that found them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD, the hope of their fathers.