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2. Israel Forsakes God

¹ The word of the LORD came to me: ² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:

“This is what the LORD says:

   “‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
   how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
   through a land not sown.
³ Israel was holy to the LORD,
   the firstfruits of his harvest;
all who devoured her were held guilty,
   and disaster overtook them,’” declares the LORD.

⁴ Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.

⁵ This is what the LORD says:

   “What fault did your ancestors find in me,
   that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
   and became worthless themselves.
⁶ They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD,
   who brought us up out of Egypt
and led us through the barren wilderness,
   through a land of deserts and ravines,
a land of drought and utter darkness,
   a land where no one travels and no one lives?’
⁷ I brought you into a fertile land
   to eat its fruit and rich produce.
But you came and defiled my land
   and made my inheritance detestable.
⁸ The priests did not ask,
   ‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
   the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
   following worthless idols.

    ⁹ “Therefore I bring charges against you again,” declares the LORD.
   “And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
¹⁰ Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
   send to Kedar In the Syro-Arabian desert and observe closely;
   see if there has ever been anything like this:
¹¹ Has a nation ever changed its gods?
   (Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
   for worthless idols.
¹² Be appalled at this, you heavens,
   and shudder with great horror,” declares the LORD.
¹³ “My people have committed two sins:
They have forsaken me,
   the spring of living water,
and have dug their own cisterns,
   broken cisterns that cannot hold water.
¹⁴ Is Israel a servant, a slave by birth?
   Why then has he become plunder?
¹⁵ Lions have roared;
   they have growled at him.
They have laid waste his land;
   his towns are burned and deserted.
¹⁶ Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
   have cracked your skull.
¹⁷ Have you not brought this on yourselves
   by forsaking the LORD your God
   when he led you in the way?
¹⁸ Now why go to Egypt
   to drink water from the Nile Hebrew Shihor; that is, a branch of the Nile?
And why go to Assyria
   to drink water from the Euphrates?
¹⁹ Your wickedness will punish you;
   your backsliding will rebuke you.
Consider then and realize
   how evil and bitter it is for you
when you forsake the LORD your God
   and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

    ²⁰ “Long ago you broke off your yoke
   and tore off your bonds;
   you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
   and under every spreading tree
   you lay down as a prostitute.
²¹ I had planted you like a choice vine
   of sound and reliable stock.
How then did you turn against me
   into a corrupt, wild vine?
²² Although you wash yourself with soap
   and use an abundance of cleansing powder,
   the stain of your guilt is still before me,” declares the Sovereign LORD.
²³ “How can you say, ‘I am not defiled;
   I have not run after the Baals’?
See how you behaved in the valley;
   consider what you have done.
You are a swift she-camel
   running here and there,
²⁴ a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,
   sniffing the wind in her craving—
   in her heat who can restrain her?
Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves;
   at mating time they will find her.
²⁵ Do not run until your feet are bare
   and your throat is dry.
But you said, ‘It’s no use!
   I love foreign gods,
   and I must go after them.’

    ²⁶ “As a thief is disgraced when he is caught,
   so the people of Israel are disgraced—
they, their kings and their officials,
   their priests and their prophets.
²⁷ They say to wood, ‘You are my father,’
   and to stone, ‘You gave me birth.’
They have turned their backs to me
   and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
   ‘Come and save us!’
²⁸ Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
   Let them come if they can save you
   when you are in trouble!
For you, Judah, have as many gods
   as you have towns.

    ²⁹ “Why do you bring charges against me?
   You have all rebelled against me,” declares the LORD.
³⁰ “In vain I punished your people;
   they did not respond to correction.
Your sword has devoured your prophets
   like a ravenous lion.

³¹ “You of this generation, consider the word of the LORD:

   “Have I been a desert to Israel
   or a land of great darkness?
Why do my people say, ‘We are free to roam;
   we will come to you no more’?
³² Does a young woman forget her jewelry,
   a bride her wedding ornaments?
Yet my people have forgotten me,
   days without number.
³³ How skilled you are at pursuing love!
   Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
³⁴ On your clothes is found
   the lifeblood of the innocent poor,
   though you did not catch them breaking in.
Yet in spite of all this
    ³⁵ you say, ‘I am innocent;
   he is not angry with me.’
But I will pass judgment on you
   because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
³⁶ Why do you go about so much,
   changing your ways?
You will be disappointed by Egypt
   as you were by Assyria.
³⁷ You will also leave that place
   with your hands on your head,
for the LORD has rejected those you trust;
   you will not be helped by them.

We have already seen, and the Prophet will often repeat the same thing, — that the people were become so refractory that they would not willingly give way to any reproofs; for they were almost all of such a hard front, and so obdurate in their wickedness, that they dared insolently to raise objections against the prophets; whenever they severely reproved them: “What! Are not we God’s holy people? Has he not chosen us? Are we not the holy seed of Abraham?” It was therefore necessary for the prophets to apply a hard wedge to a hard knot, as they commonly say. As, then, the Israelites were like a knotty wood, it was necessary to strike hard their obstinacy.

On this account Jeremiah now says, Even if thou wert to wash thyself with nitre, and multiply to thee borith, yet thine iniquity would be before me marked; that is, “Ye effect nothing when ye set forth various pretences for the sake of excusing your impiety: wash yourselves, but your iniquity remains marked before me.” The Prophet speaks in the person of God, that he might add more weight to the denunciation he pronounced on the Israelites, and by which he reduced to nothing their self — flatteries, according to what has been already stated.

By nitre and borith they removed stains in cloth; and hence borith is often mentioned in connection with fullers. But there is no need of a laborious inquiry, whether it was an herb or dust, or something of that kind; for as to what is meant, it is generally agreed that the Prophet teaches us by this metaphor, — that hypocrites gain nothing by setting up their pretences, that they may escape, when God condemns them. Hence he says, that all their attempts would be vain and fruitless. How so? Because their iniquity remained unwashed; that is, because they could not remove by washing what is imprinted. Spots or stains can indeed be cleansed or washed away by soap or other things; but when the stain is inward, and imprinted within, washing will avail nothing, for the marks are so deep that some more efficacious remedy must be adopted. So now the Prophet says, that the stains were imprinted, and therefore could not be washed away or cleansed by soap or borith. ⁵²⁵² What we call “nitre” is different from the “nitron” here mentioned. The verb, from which the noun is derived, means to loosen, to set free: and hence the article called nitron dissolves in water, and loosens and washes away spots and stains. Borith was an herb, which, being burnt, and its ashes dissolved in water, had a strong cleansing power. — Ed.

But the Prophet says, that the stains were marked, or stamped, before God; for it was a common thing with the Israelites to clear themselves from every blame; nay, so great was their audacity, that they openly opposed the prophets, as though some great wrong was done to them; and they called the prophets accusers and slanderers, Hence he says, Thine iniquity is stamped before me? ⁵³⁵³     The verb rendered “stamped” is only found here in Niphel, but, as a participial noun, it seems to mean gold stamped or marked to shew its genuineness. See Psalm 45:9; Proverbs 25:12. A stain or spot is not what it signifies, as given by the Septuagint and the Vulgate, nor “blot,” according to Blarney; but it refers to the stamp or mark imprinted on a hard metal, such as gold: and this idea alone corresponds with the other parts of the verse. A stain, a spot, or a blot, might be cleansed by abstergents, but not a mark stamped on a metal, —
   But thou washest thyself with nitron, And multipliest for thyself fuller’s ashes: Stamped is thine iniquity before me, Saith the Lord Jehovah.
   — Ed. that is, “However thou mayest by self — flatteries deceive thyself, and hidest thy sins before the world, yet thou gainest nothing; for in my sight thine iniquity ever remains stamped.” He afterwards adds —