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Jeremiah 2:f. Hands Up, Israel!

  • Writer: Michael Rynkiewich
    Michael Rynkiewich
  • 3 hours ago
  • 3 min read

The cross-examination of the defendant, Israel and Judah, continues. God asks questions that make Judah think about why they are doing what they are doing. Why do they treat God with disrespect and instead chase after idols and ideologies that will not profit them?


2: 31-32.   And you, O generation,

behold the word of the LORD!

Have I been a wilderness to Israel   

or a land of thick darkness?

Why then do my people say,

“We are free;   

we will come to you no more”?

Can a young woman forget her ornaments   

or a bride her attire?

Yet my people have forgotten me,   

days without number.


God switches metaphors again, now comparing himself to an inanimate object: the barren trackless wilderness of the Sinai Peninsula. Then he quickly switches to a second comparison. Has God been oblique so that people cannot see him clearly or understand?


These are rhetorical questions and the obvious answer is, “No, God has been a bountiful plain not a wilderness, and God has been transparent about what he is working to accomplish through their relationship.” After all, that is what revelation is about; God has come down to reveal something about himself. 


 So, if God has not been difficult to work with, the next question comes: “Then why do my people say, ‘We are free; we will come to you no more?’” The point is that they do not have a reasonable excuse. 


 More metaphors. You, Israel and Judah, have forgotten me, which seems impossible since young women do not forget their ornaments nor do brides forget what they have planned to wear. God should come to mind easier than that, yet day after day Israel goes on without a thought of God. 


2: 33-35. How well you direct your course   

to seek lovers!

So that even to wicked women   

you have taught your ways.

Also on your skirts is found   

the lifeblood of the innocent poor,

though you did not catch them breaking in.   

Yet in spite of all these things you say,

“I am innocent;   

surely his anger has turned from me.”

Now I am bringing you to judgment   

for saying, “I have not sinned.”


 More metaphors. From young women and brides to lovers and wicked women. Judah, your behavior would be a scandal to brides, and you would even be able to teach prostitutes a thing or two about going astray. 


 The problem is that your sinning does not hurt just yourself. How shall we interpret this phrase: “Also on your skirt is found the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in”?


 Point? The innocent poor did you no harm, but you threw them under the bus anyway, just to profit yourself through ill-gotten gain. Yet you say that you have not sinned. Shame on you. 


 Christopher Wright summarizes this section:


“Social injustice always follows corrupted religion. Since covetousness is idolatry, the idolatry of greed quickly marginalizes the poor and tears society apart. …underlying the whole charge sheet is the fundamental sin of covenant unfaithfulness, of going after other gods, whether through the temptations of political and military power games, or the seduction of the cults of fertility, health, wealth and sexual promiscuity” (The Message of Jeremiah, 2014. Page 61). 


2: 36-37. Why do you go about so much   

to change your way?

You shall be put to shame by Egypt   

as you were put to shame by Assyria.

From there also you will come away   

with your hands on your head,

for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust,   

and you will not prosper through them.


 Hands up, Israel!



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I'm Mike Rynkiewich, and I have spent a lifetime studying anthropology, missiology, and scripture. Join my mailing list to receive updates and exclusive content.

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