Jeremiah 2:14

"Is Israel a servant? is he a home-born slave? why is he become a slave? The young lions have roared upon him, and yelled; and they have made his land waste: his cities are burned up, without inhabitant. The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of thy head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way? And now what hast thou to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? or what hast thou to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord, Jehovah of hosts."

"Why is he become a slave ..." (Jeremiah 2:14)? There are two ways of looking at this. One is to suppose that Israel is here depicted as a home-born slave of Jehovah; and the question, according to Cook, means: "How does it happen that the member of so powerful a family is spoiled?"[11] The other view considers the first two of the three questions here as stressing the fact that Israel is not a slave, but the wife of God; and how, then, is it possible for him to be mined?

"The young lions have roared upon him ..." (Jeremiah 2:15). These words make it certain that the passage applies to the Northern Israel particularly, because since 722 B.C., when the Samaritan Israel had fallen to Assyria, the young lions (definitely identifying Assyria. See Nahum 2:11-13), had indeed been feeding upon the rains of the Northern Israel. The significance of "the young lions" is that they remained in the den where they fed upon the prey brought to them by the adult lions. What an appropriate picture, because the Northern Israel had already been taken as a prey to Assyria.

"They have made his land waste ... etc." (Jeremiah 2:15). "Not only had Israel been wasted, till the multiplication of wild beasts rendered human life unsafe (2 Kings 17:25), but the Assyrian invasions had also reduced Judaea to a state almost as sad."[12] The argument here is: Israel, look at what has already happened to your sister nation because of her apostasy!

"Egypt ... and Assyria ..." (Jeremiah 2:16). The mention of Egypt here is surprising; but it is due to the fact of their fighting against Jerusalem, taking it, and murdering the good king Josiah. Jeremiah, being familiar (from history) with the fall of Samaria and personally with the events around the death of Josiah mentioned both together as Judea's suffering from the nation's apostasy.

"Tahpanhes ..." (Jeremiah 2:16). "This is the Greek Daphnae, modern Tell Defennch, on the eastern border of the Egyptian Delta."[13]

"Hast thou not procured this unto thyself ..." (Jeremiah 2:17)? This through Jeremiah 2:19 stresses the lesson that Judaea should be willing to learn: "Know therefore, and see that it is an evil thing, and a bitter, that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God!" As the subsequent verses of the chapter reveal, Judaea would not learn, having fallen completely in love with the Baalim and their licentious worship. These words do not take account of the "righteous remnant," of whom, of course, was Jeremiah.

"What hast thou to do in the way to Egypt... or in the way to Assyria ..." (Jeremiah 2:18)?. In full keeping with Jeremiah's constant opposition to all kinds of alliances and intrigues with foreign nations, these words stress the warning that traversing such ways by Israel will lead only to disaster. "To lean on Egypt, or any foreign power, was a violation of the principles of the theocracy, which required God's people to be an independent power, firmly closed against all foreign influences."[14]