Jeremiah 2:37

From Jerusalem (cf. Jeremiah 2:2) God’s people would depart in grief and captivity, with their hands on their heads, because Yahweh had rejected the nations in whom Israel trusted, and by whom she hoped to prosper (cf. 2 Samuel 13:19). He wanted them to trust and prosper in Him.

"It is perfectly possibly [sic] that the taking of Manasseh a captive to Babylon by Assyrian generals may have shaken the confidence in Assyria of the idolatrous people of Judah, and that, their thoughts turning to Egypt, steps may have been taken for paving the way towards an alliance with this great power, even although the godly king Josiah took no part in these proceedings." [Note: Keil, 1:76.]

Throughout this oracle, Jeremiah presented Israel’s covenant unfaithfulness to God from two perspectives: religious and political. Yahweh’s people had abandoned exclusive faith in their covenant God, and had committed spiritual adultery by participating in the Baal fertility cult. Nationally, they had ceased to recognize Yahweh’s sovereignty over them, and had turned to Egypt and Assyria for security. [Note: Craigie, p. 45.]