Jeremiah 2:31

O generation, see ye the word of the Lord,.... Take notice of it, consider it; or, hear it, as the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.

O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

O generation; or, O ye men of this generation, a note of admiration; or rather, O generation, a note of compellation: it is to you I speak, see ye the word of the Lord, i.e. look well to it, consider it; as the rod is to teach, and therefore ought to be heard, , so the word is to be considered of, and therefore ought to be looked into, . He speaketh here not so much of the doctrine of the word as of the thing itself: q.d. You shall see the thing with your eyes, because you give the doctrine the hearing only, as we use to say, i.e. your ears are shut against it. Have I been a wilderness? here God challengeth them again to tell him what unkindness he had showed them, as before, . Have I been like the wilderness of Arabia? have not I accommodated you with all necessaries at all times? ,14 Ezekiel 34:13-15; nay, in the wilderness itself I was not a wilderness unto you: an account whereof Nehemiah gives, . And you have the story of it Psalms 78. A land of darkness: divers interpreters derive this word from a different root, and accordingly render the sense variously. Some from a root that signifies to fade or fall, as a land where fruits fall off before they be ripe, bringing nothing to perfection; and so Tremelius and Junius translate it, ,4: q.d. Have you found me to fail your expectations in any thing that I have promised you? 23:14. Others derive it from a word that signifies late, as a land that brings forth its fruit late in the year, which either ripeneth not, or ripeneth unkindly: q.d. Have you found me backward in any thing to do you good? have I not fed you to the full? Others from darkness, properly thick darkness, . And it is the more significant, because Jah, the name of God, is added to it; q.d. the darkness of God; as a sleep of God, for a deep sleep, ; flame of God, for a vehement flame, ; as if it were a land uninhabitable, because of the total want of light: q.d. Have I been a God of no use or comfort to them, that they thus leave me? Have they had nothing from me but misery and affliction? as this notion of darkness may import, . Hence the LXX. express it by a land bringing forth thorns. Or this expression, a land of darkness, may be put by apposition to the former. Say, i.e. in their heart. We are lords; words of pride and boasting: God had endeavoured to make them sensible that all their happiness they owed to him, and now, q.d. you rule as lords without us; see ; now you cast me off: or rather, We are well enough established in our government by foreign aids, and compacts with the Egyptians, and Assyrians, &c., and have rulers of our own; we have no such great need of thee. Hence the LXX.

Jeremiah 2:31 O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?Ver. 31. O generation, see ye the word of the Lord,] q.d., O generation, rather leonine than human! as Jeremiah 2:30. "See ye the word"; I say not to you, Hear; no more than I would to a savage beast; for ye have no ears to hear reason; but see with your eyes, for so even beasts can do. See now, and say sooth. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?] Such as is described before. Or, Have I not rather been a paradise unto you, and a storehouse of all accommodations and comforts? It well appeareth that they have wanted nothing but thankful hearts, by this, that fulness hath bred forgetfulness; for so stout they are grown by reason of their great wealth, that they will not come at me, nor acknowledge my sovereignty over them, but will needs be petty gods within themselves. We are lords, say they, and will not now take it as we have done. The ancient Greek rendereth it, We will not be ruled.

(31) O generation, see ye.—The pronoun occupies a different position in the Hebrew, “O generation, you, I mean, see ye.” The prophet speaks to the men who are actually his contemporaries. They are to look to the word of the Lord. Has He been to them as a waste land, a land of thick darkness (literally, according to one interpretation, darkness of Jah, in the sense of intensity), that they are thus unmindful of Him? So in Son 8:6 we have “flame of Jah,” as representing the Hebrew, in the margin, and “very vehement flame” in the text, of the Authorised version. We are lords.—Better, We rove at will, as in Genesis 27:40, where, however, the Authorised version gives “when thou shalt have the dominion.” The sense is practically the same. Israel claims the power to do as she likes.

Verse 31. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?] Have I ever withheld from you any of the blessings necessary for your support? A land of darkness] Have you, since you passed through the wilderness, and came out of the darkness of Egypt, ever been brought into similar circumstances? You have had food and all the necessaries of life for your bodies; and my ordinances and word to enlighten and cheer your souls. I have neither been a wilderness nor a land of darkness to you. We are lords] We wish to be our own masters; we will neither brook religious nor civil restraint; we will regard no laws, human or Divine. It was this disposition that caused them to fall in so fully with the whole system of idolatry.

31–37. Israel’s disregard of Jehovah’s past favours 31. O generation, see ye] O generation that ye are, see. a wilderness] Have I been like a place where ye lacked sustenance? Not so. Cp. Hosea 2:8. thick darkness] On the contrary ye have had the light of prophetic teaching. The mg. darkness from Jah (i.e. Jehovah) is a less likely expression to put into the Divine mouth. We are broken loose] Cp. Genesis 27:40 (R.V.) “shalt break loose.” The notion of having power to carry out one’s own will, is at the bottom in each case.

Or, “O generation” that ye are! An exclamation Of indignation at their hardened resistance to God.

31. O generation, see ye — Rather, O generation that ye are. The pronoun belongs with the appellative, and not, as in the English, with the verb, and so emphasizes God’s sorrow and indignation.