Jeremiah 2:29

"Wherefore will ye contend with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith Jehovah. In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured the prophets, like a destroying lion. O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? wherefore say my people, We are broken loose; we will come no more unto thee? Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women hast thou taught thy ways. Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor. Thou didst not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things. Yet thou saidst, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. From thence also shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thy head: for Jehovah hath rejected those in whom thou trustest, and thou shalt not prosper with them."

"Wherefore will ye contend with me ..." (Jeremiah 2:29)? "Here again we have the legal terminology of a lawsuit, this time a suit of Israel against God; but no grounds are specified."[24] God's answer to such a ridiculous lawsuit is given in the same breath, "Ye all have transgressed against me."

"Your own sword hath devoured the prophets ..." (Jeremiah 2:30). The constant description of Israel throughout her history was cited by Jesus when he wept over the city, saying, "O Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee!" It seems that only an unqualified miracle spared Jeremiah for such a long ministry; and even in the end he was (as tradition affirms) stoned to death in Egypt.

"Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire ..." (Jeremiah 2:32)? Cook tells us that ancient Hebrew women always treasured the particular girdle that indicated her status as a married woman, "just as brides now cherish their wedding ring."[25] Nevertheless, Israel treasured no fond memories of their God, but simply forgot him "days without number!"

"How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women thou hast taught thy ways ..." (Jeremiah 2:33). Seeking love in this verse is a reference to erotic love and refers to the embellishments and refinements that the Chosen People had learned through their countless adulteries, which they are here said to have taught even to prostitutes regarding how to make their services more tempting, seductive and satisfying. Feinberg pointed out that:

"Israel could even teach wicked women new methods of seduction, and that she used all kinds of artifices to make herself desirable to her lovers and that she cared nothing at all for the love of God."[26]

Harrison also had a word on this: "The immoral pursuit of Baal worship by Israel enabled them to become thoroughly proficient in iniquitous ways; and now they had become so skilled that they could instruct experienced professional prostitutes in the techniques of their nefarious trade.[27]

"The blood of the souls of the innocent poor ..." (Jeremiah 2:34). Had the Jews murdered the poor for "breaking in?" No, "It was not for any crime, but because of this thy lust after idolatry."[28] The text does not explain exactly how such murders contributed to the gratification of their passion for idolatry.

"I am innocent ..." (Jeremiah 2:35). It appears from this that the most aggravated element of the Chosen People's wickedness was simply that of their stubborn protestations of innocence in spite of the wretched profusion of their sins. This verse states categorically that it was because of this that God hailed them into the severe judgment about to fall upon them.

"From thence also shalt thou go forth ..." (Jeremiah 2:37). This was a final sentence, The judgment was captivity at the hands of the Babylonians; and the meaning of it is that just as the Northern Israel had gone away into captivity, so also would Judah, there being also this difference, that in the case of Judah a "righteous remnant" would return.

These last words regarding "whom thou trustest" "apply equally to Egypt and to Assyria,"[29] and to any other earthly power upon whom Israel might seek to rely. Her only hope was in God, and that she had stubbornly refused to seek.