Testimonia — Early Christian Bible Commentary
Jeremiah 2 · World English Bible
1The LORD’s word came to me, saying,
2“Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘The LORD says, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, your love as a bride, how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.
3Israel was holiness to the LORD, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him will be held guilty. Evil will come on them,”’ says the LORD.”
4Hear the LORD’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!
5The LORD says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless?
6They didn’t say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no one passed through, and where no man lived?’
7I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.
8The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed things that do not profit.
9“Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says the LORD, “and I will contend with your children’s children.
10For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing.
11Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit.
12“Be astonished, you heavens, at this and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate,” says the LORD.
13“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.
14Is Israel a slave? Is he born into slavery? Why has he become a captive?
15The young lions have roared at him and raised their voices. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.
16The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.
17“Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way?
18Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
19“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies.
20“For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.
21Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?
22For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord GOD.
23“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways,
24a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs the wind in her craving. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.
25“Keep your feet from being bare, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.’
26As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so the house of Israel is ashamed— they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets,
27who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face, but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’
28“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble, for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah.
29“Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me,” says the LORD.
30“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.
31Generation, consider the LORD’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more’?
32“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.
33How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways.
34Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things.
35“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
36Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.
37You will also leave that place with your hands on your head; for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you won’t prosper with them.
World English Bible · World English Bible; source eBible.org.
Notes on Jeremiah 2
1886 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Jer. ii. 30. [Compare Aug., City of God, passim.]
Editorial footnote · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: An Address to Demetrianus, editorial note cite_note-14 · Original source
1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Jer. ii. 13. Vid. infr. passim. All these titles, ‘Word, Wisdom, Light’ &c., serve to guard the title ‘Son’ from any notions of parts or dimensions, e.g. ‘He is not composed of parts, but being impassible and single, He is impassibly and indivisibly Father of the Son…for…the Word and Wisdom is neither creature, nor part of Him Whose Word He is, nor an offspring passibly begotten.’ Orat. i. §28.
Editorial footnote · Defence of the Nicene Definition, Chapter III.—Two senses of the word Son, 1. adoptive; 2. essential; attempts of Arians to find a third meaning between these; e.g. that our Lord only was created immediately by God (Asterius’s view), or that our Lord alone partakes the Father. The second and true sense; God begets as He makes, really; though His creation and generation are not like man’s; His generation independent of time; generation implies an internal, and therefore an eternal, act in God; explanation of Prov. viii. 22.; original source section: Chapter 3, editorial note cite_note-51 · Original source
1892 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Jer. ii. 18.
Editorial footnote · Festal Letters, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 7, editorial note cite_note-40 · Original source
1894 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Jer. ii. 18, 19.
Editorial footnote · Conferences of John Cassian, Part III, Chapter XXIV.; original source section: Chapter 24; original book/conference: XXIV. Conference of Abbot Abraham., editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
1895 (historical English edition; transcription printing date uncertain) | Historical editor/translator (individual note author unspecified)
Jer. ii. 13.
Editorial footnote · The Letters, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Letter 8, editorial note cite_note-6 · Original source
Date uncertain | Athanasius (historical Festal Letter attribution)
5. For sin has her own special bread, of her death, and calling to those who are lovers of pleasure and lack understanding, she saith, ‘Touch with delight secret bread, and sweet waters which are stolen;’ for he who merely touches them knows not that that which is born from the earth perishes with her. For even when the sinner thinks to find pleasure, the end of that food is not pleasant, as the Wisdom of God saith again, ‘Bread of deceit is pleasant to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.’ And, ‘Honey droppeth from the lips of a whorish woman, which for a time is sweet to thy palate; but at the last thou shalt find it more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.’ Thus then he eats and rejoices for a little time; afterwards he spurneth it when he hath removed his soul afar. For the fool knoweth not that those who depart far from God shall perish. And besides, there is the restraint of the prophetic admonition which says, ‘What hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Gihon? And what hast thou to do in the way of Asshur, to drink the waters of the rivers?’ And the Wisdom of God which loves mankind forbids these things, crying, ‘But depart quickly, tarry not in the place, neither fix thine eye upon it; for thus thou shalt pass over strange waters, and depart quickly from the strange river.’ She also calls them to herself, ‘For wisdom hath builded her house, and supported it on seven pillars; she hath killed her sacrifices, and mingled her wine in the goblets, and prepared her table; she hath sent forth her servants, inviting to the goblet with a loud proclamation, and saying, Whoso is foolish, let him turn in to me; and to them that lack understanding she saith, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine I have mingled for you.’ And what hope is there instead of these things? ‘Forsake folly that ye may live, and seek understanding that ye may abide.’ For the bread of Wisdom is living fruit, as the Lord said; ‘I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever.’ For when Israel ate of the manna, which was indeed pleasant and wonderful, yet he died, and he who ate it did not in consequence live for ever, but all that multitude died in the wilderness. The Lord teaches, saying, ‘I am the bread of life: your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which came down from heaven, that a man should eat thereof, and not die.’
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · Festal Letters, Chapter uncertain; original source section: Chapter 7, source paragraph 7 · Original source
Date uncertain | Cyprian of Carthage (historical edition attribution)
11. Against people of this kind the Lord cries; from these He restrains and recalls His erring people, saying, “Hearken not unto the words of the false prophets; for the visions of their hearts deceive them. They speak, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say to those who cast away the word of God, Ye shall have peace, and every one that walketh after his own will. Every one who walketh in the error of his heart, no evil shall come upon him. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. If they had stood on my foundation (substantia, ὑποστάσει), and had heard my words, and taught my people, I would have turned them from their evil thoughts.” Again, the Lord points out and designates these same, saying, “They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and have hewed them out broken cisterns which can hold no water.” Although there can be no other baptism but one, they think that they can baptize; although they forsake the fountain of life, they promise the grace of living and saving water. Men are not washed among them, but rather are made foul; nor are sins purged away, but are even accumulated. Such a nativity does not generate sons to God, but to the devil. By a falsehood they are born, and they do not receive the promises of truth. Begotten of perfidy, they lose the grace of faith. They cannot attain to the reward of peace, since they have broken the Lord’s peace with the madness of discord.
Source passage · edition’s verse reference · The Treatises of Cyprian, Chapter uncertain; original source section: On the Unity of the Church, source paragraph 16 · Original source