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Jeremiah 2:30

in Jeremiah 2

“I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

KJV

In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

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This verse in Jeremiah 2

Commentary

3 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

(Verse 30) Without cause, I struck your sons: they did not receive discipline. For this reason, you did not receive the 70. And the sense in Hebrew is: Those who were struck did not want to receive discipline. But in the Septuagint: Therefore, I struck your sons so that you may be taught by their death. And lest you say: You did not want to correct sinners, learn from the blows inflicted upon your sons, because I desired to heal you with a more severe remedy. Your sword devoured your prophets.

This site's exposition

Wherefore will ye plead with me?

on Jeremiah 2:29-32

The Lord turns the plea back on the people, ye all have transgressed against me, and notes that correction itself has failed, in vain have I smitten your children, they received no correction, since even the sword that devoured their prophets taught them nothing. The question, have I been a wilderness unto Israel, a land of darkness, answers the complaint before it is voiced, since the desolation belongs to the people's choices rather than to God's provision. Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire, sets an absurdity beside the real fact it exposes, my people have forgotten me days without number, a devotion no woman would show her own jewelry withheld even from her own God.

The record, by era

The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Your own sword hath detoured your prophets - An allusion probably to Manasseh 2Ki 21:16. Death was the usual fate of the true prophet Neh 9:26; Mat 23:37.

The words behind it

12 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • לַשָּׁוְא֙for <the> vanity

    lashav'H7723 →53 times

  • הִכֵּ֣יתִיI struck

    hikeitiH5221 →499 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • בְּנֵיכֶ֔םsons your

    beneikhemH1121 →4930 times

  • מוּסָ֖רcorrection

    musarH4148 →50 times

  • לֹ֣אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • לָקָ֑חוּthey accepted

    lakachuH3947 →966 times

  • אָכְלָ֧הit devoured

    ʾakhelahH398 →810 times

  • חַרְבְּכֶ֛םsword your

    charbekhemH2719 →413 times

  • נְבִֽיאֵיכֶ֖םprophets your

    nevieikhemH5030 →314 times

  • כְּאַרְיֵ֥הlike a lion

    kearyehH738 →80 times

  • מַשְׁחִֽית׃destroying

    mashchitH7843 →146 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Nehemiah 9:26But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.7 worksJeremiah 13:23Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Neither are you able to do good—you who are accustomed to doing evil.6 worksActs 7:52Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—6 worksLeviticus 26:23And if in spite of these things you do not accept My discipline, but continue to walk in hostility toward Me,6 works1 Thessalonians 2:15who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,5 worksLuke 13:34O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!5 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Jeremiah 5:3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.5 worksDaniel 9:13Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the LORD our God by turning from our iniquities and giving attention to Your truth.5 worksJeremiah 26:20–24Now there was another man prophesying in the name of the LORD, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land the same things that Jeremiah did.4 worksIsaiah 1:5Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.4 worksRomans 11:3“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well”?4 worksIsaiah 59:3For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice.4 worksLuke 3:20Herod added this to them all: He locked John up in prison.4 worksJeremiah 26:23They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to the sword and his body thrown into the burial place of the common people.4 worksMatthew 23:37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!4 worksMatthew 5:12Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.4 worksIsaiah 9:13But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.3 worksJeremiah 7:28Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips.3 works

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    1 Thessalonians 2:15

    who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

    it leads to

    • Matthew 5:12

      Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets before you.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Luke 11:48–53

      So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.

    • Acts 7:52

      Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

    • Acts 2:23

      He was delivered up by God’s set plan and foreknowledge, and you, by the hands of the lawless, put Him to death by nailing Him to the cross.

  • Through

    Acts 7:52

    Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 19:10

      “I have been very zealous for the LORD, the God of Hosts,” he replied, “but the Israelites have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I am…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • 2 Chronicles 36:16

      But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

    • 1 Thessalonians 2:15

      who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets, and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,

  • Through

    Nehemiah 9:26

    But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they flung Your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them to return to You. They committed terrible blasphemies.

    it leads to

    • 1 Kings 14:9

      You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.

Where this verse is studied

No study on the site is anchored to this verse yet.

Also on Jeremiah 2: 3 studies that walk through this chapter ▾

About Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Jeremiah: the study guide →Read Jeremiah 2 →

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah and Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah.

Read on in Jeremiah 2 →