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Jeremiah 2:36

Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Parallel Translations

  • WEB World English Bible

    Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

  • KJV King James Version

    Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.

  • JPS JPS Tanakh (1917)

    How greatly dost thou cheapen thyself to change thy way? Thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Asshur.

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Cross-references (18)

Passages linked to Jeremiah 2:36 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.

  • Jeremiah 31:22 How long will you go here and there, you backsliding daughter? For Yahweh has created a new thing in the earth: a woman will encompass a man.”
  • Hosea 5:13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.
  • 2 Chronicles 28:16 At that time king Ahaz sent to the kings of Assyria to help him.
  • 2 Chronicles 28:20-21 Tilgath Pilneser king of Assyria came to him, and gave him trouble, but didn’t strengthen him. For Ahaz took away a portion out of Yahweh’s house, and out of the house of the king and of the princes, and gave it to the king of Assyria; but it didn’t help him.
  • Jeremiah 2:23 “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,
  • Hosea 12:1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
  • Isaiah 20:5 They will be dismayed and confounded, because of Ethiopia their expectation, and of Egypt their glory.
  • Isaiah 30:1-7 “Woe to the rebellious children”, says Yahweh, “who take counsel, but not from me; and who make an alliance, but not with my Spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who set out to go down into Egypt, and have not asked my advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to take refuge in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the refuge in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. For their princes are at Zoan, and their ambassadors have come to Hanes. They shall all be ashamed because of a people that can’t profit them, that are not a help nor profit, but a shame, and also a reproach.” The burden of the animals of the South. Through the land of trouble and anguish, of the lioness and the lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they carry their riches on the shoulders of young donkeys, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to an unprofitable people. For Egypt helps in vain, and to no purpose; therefore I have called her Rahab who sits still.
  • Jeremiah 2:18 Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you to go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?
  • Jeremiah 2:33 How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways.
  • Jeremiah 37:7 “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘You shall tell the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, will return to Egypt into their own land.
  • Lamentations 4:17 Our eyes still fail, looking in vain for our help. In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
  • Lamentations 5:6 We have given our hands to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
  • Ezekiel 29:7 When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders. When they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.”
  • Hosea 7:11 “Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt. They go to Assyria.
  • Hosea 10:6 It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.
  • Hosea 14:3 Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.”
  • Isaiah 31:1-3 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, and trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but they don’t look to the Holy One of Israel, and they don’t seek Yahweh! Yet he also is wise, and will bring disaster, and will not call back his words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of those who work iniquity. Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When Yahweh stretches out his hand, both he who helps shall stumble, and he who is helped shall fall, and they all shall be consumed together.

Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)

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Explain this verse (15 sources)

Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.

John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain The Prophet goes on with the same subject. He…

The Prophet goes on with the same subject. He had said before that the people were like an unfaithful wife, who having left her husband rambles here and there to gratify her lusts. For this view he now gives the reason; for he might have appeared to treat the people too severely, had not the fact been pointed out as it were by the finger; and this he does now. He says, that they ran here and there, not in a common manner, but in a way to render evident their shameful levity, such as is seen in strumpets, who without any shame seek either adulterers or fornicators.

But I have already briefly shewn what the Prophet means: When any danger was nigh, the Jews sought aid, now in Egypt, then in Assyria. Yet they knew that this was forbidden them; not that it was in itself an evil or a bad thing to seek help from neighbors; but because it was God’s will that the safety and security of that people should be dependent on him only; for he had taken them under his safeguard. As then the Jews were God’s dependents, they ought to have acquiesced in his protection. When they wandered here and there, it was an evidence of unbelief; and what they attributed to the Egyptians or to Assyrians, they took away from their own God, who had promised that their safety would be the object of his care. Hence he compares these movements to wanton levity; they were like those of strumpets, who ramble in all directions. Now a strumpet must be wholly shameless, when she thus seeks the gratification of her lust: for harlots often wait for the coming of lovers; but when they ramble everywhere, they are altogether abominable. This then is what the Prophet now means, that is, that the Jews ran here and there; and thus it was, that they changed their ways

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There remains indeed often in harlots some natural love; but it is a proof of a brutish, shameless, and monstrous lust, when a woman seeks the company of any one she may see, or when a man lusts after any woman he may meet with. When there is such a shamelessness as this, it appears that no modesty remains, nor even what is natural; for as I have already said, it ought to be deemed monstrous, when a woman is inflamed with lust at the sight of any one. And yet this lewdness is what the Prophet reprobates in the Jews when he says, that they ran here and there to change their ways: so that their love never continued, but they lusted after any they met with; nay, they went here and there to allure them. This subject is spoken of oftener and more at large by Ezekiel; and we shall find this comparison used also in other parts of this book. But it is enough for me to mention briefly the design of the Prophet.

He then adds, Ashamed shalt thou also be of the Egyptians, as ashamed thou hast been of the Assyrians Before the time of Hezekiah, the Jews had made a treaty with the Assyrians against the Syrians and the Israelites, as it is well known; and then against the Egyptians; for soon after a war arose between them and the Egyptians, who had been their confederates, and changing their policy, they went for help to Assyria. They afterwards reconciled themselves to their ancient enemies; but this second treaty also turned out unhappily. Hence the Prophet says, that the end would be the same with what they had before experienced. God had indeed chastised their ungodly defection when they went to Assyria. He now says, that no better success would attend the help of the Egyptians than what attended the help of the Assyrians. The Jews, we know, were ever subjected to plunder, and suffered more loss from their associates than from their open enemies. It was the just reward of their impiety and defection. God then declares that he would be the avenger of this second defection, as he had been of the former. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain For the Assyrians had taken away the ten tribes…
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 2:36 Why gaddest thou about so much to…
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Thy way, i.e. thy actions; a metaphor. See Poole…
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Yea, thou shalt go forth from him,.... From the…
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Why - Why dost thou seek auxiliaries anywhere, rather…
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 36. Why gaddest thou about] When they had…
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain To change thy way - The rival parties at…
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain gaddest--runnest to and fro, now seeking help from Assyria…
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 36. Why gaddest thou — What restlessness and inconstancy…
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 36. to change thy way] to turn from Assyria…
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (36) Why gaddest thou . . .?—The vigorous English…
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Why gaddest thou about so much many render, Why…
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy…
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:36 Judah, in its unfaithfulness to the Lord, chose…

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