29 Why do ye strive with Me? All of you have transgressed against Me, An affirmation of Jehovah. 30 In vain I have smitten your sons, Instruction they have not accepted, Devoured hath your sword your prophets, As a destroying lion. 31 O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah: A wilderness have I been to Israel? A land of thick darkness? Wherefore have My people said, 'We mourned, We come not in again unto Thee.' 32 Doth a virgin forget her ornaments? A bride her bands? And My people have forgotten Me days without number. 33 What—dost thou make pleasing thy ways to seek love? Therefore even the wicked thou hast taught thy ways. 34 Also in thy skirts hath been found the blood of innocent needy souls, Not by digging have I found them, but upon all these. 35 And thou sayest, 'Because I have been innocent, Surely turned back hath His anger from me?' Lo, I have been judged with thee, Because of thy saying, 'I have not sinned.' 36 What? thou art very vile to repeat thy way, Even of Egypt thou art ashamed, As thou hast been ashamed of Asshur, 37 Also from this thou goest out, And thy hands on thy head, For Jehovah hath kicked at thy confidences, And thou dost not give prosperity to them!
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 2:29-37
Commentary on Jeremiah 2:29-37
(Read Jeremiah 2:29-37)
The nation had not been wrought upon by the judgements of God, but sought to justify themselves. The world is, to those who make it their home and their portion, a wilderness and a land of darkness; but those who dwell in God, have the lines fallen to them in pleasant places. Here is the language of presumptuous sinners. The Jews had long thrown off serious thoughts of God. How many days of our lives pass without suitable remembrance of him! The Lord was displeased with their confidences, and would not prosper them therein. Men employ all their ingenuity, but cannot find happiness in the way of sin, or excuse for it. They may shift from one sin to another, but none ever hardened himself against God, or turned from him, and prospered.