Discovery BoxJeremiah 2:7-8
Context2:7 I brought you 1 into a fertile land
so you could enjoy 2 its fruits and its rich bounty.
But when you entered my land, you defiled it; 3
you made the land I call my own 4 loathsome to me.
2:8 Your priests 5 did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ 6
Those responsible for teaching my law 7 did not really know me. 8
Your rulers rebelled against me.
Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. 9
They all worshiped idols that could not help them. 10
[2:7] 1 sn Note how contemporary Israel is again identified with her early ancestors. See the study note on 2:2.
[2:7] 3 sn I.e., made it ceremonially unclean. See Lev 18:19-30; Num 35:34; Deut 21:23.
[2:7] 4 tn Heb “my inheritance.” Or “the land [i.e., inheritance] I gave you,” reading the pronoun as indicating source rather than possession. The parallelism and the common use in Jeremiah of the term to refer to the land or people as the
[2:8] 5 tn Heb “The priests…the ones who grasp my law…the shepherds…the prophets…they…”
[2:8] 6 sn See the study note on 2:6.
[2:8] 7 tn Heb “those who handle my law.”
[2:8] 8 tn Or “were not committed to me.” The Hebrew verb rendered “know” refers to more than mere intellectual knowledge. It carries also the ideas of emotional and volitional commitment as well intimacy. See for example its use in contexts like Hos 4:1; 6:6.
[2:8] 10 tn Heb “and they followed after those things [the word is plural] which do not profit.” The poetic structure of the verse, four lines in which a distinct subject appears at the beginning followed by a fifth line beginning with a prepositional phrase and no distinct subject, argues that this line is climactic and refers to all four classes enumerated in the preceding lines. See W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah (Hermeneia), 1:88-89. There may be a play or pun in the Hebrew text on the name for the god Baal (בַּעַל, ba’al) and the verb “cannot help you” (Heb “do not profit”) which is spelled יַעַל (ya’al).
