Yahweh 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?
Parallel Translations
-
Yahweh 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?
-
Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
-
Thus saith the LORD: What unrighteousness have your fathers found in Me, that they are gone far from Me, and have walked after things of nought, and are become nought?
Cross-references (20)
Passages linked to Jeremiah 2:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Kings 17:15 They rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified to them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and followed the nations that were around them, concerning whom Yahweh had commanded them that they should not do like them.
- Romans 1:21 Because knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, and didn’t give thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
- Psalms 115:8 Those who make them will be like them; yes, everyone who trusts in them.
- Jeremiah 10:14-15 Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation they will perish.
- Jonah 2:8 Those who regard lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
- Deuteronomy 32:21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
- 1 Samuel 12:21 Don’t turn away to go after vain things which can’t profit or deliver, for they are vain.
- Isaiah 44:9 Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that they may be disappointed.
- Jeremiah 51:17-18 “Every man has become brutish without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. They are vanity, a work of delusion. In the time of their visitation, they will perish.
- Acts 14:15 “Men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good news, that you should turn from these vain things to the living God, who made the sky, the earth, the sea, and all that is in them;
- Isaiah 5:3-4 “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to yield grapes, did it yield wild grapes?
- Jeremiah 2:31 Generation, consider Yahweh’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?’
- Micah 6:2-3 Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s controversy, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a controversy with his people, and he will contend with Israel. My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!
- Isaiah 29:13 The Lord said, “Because this people draws near with their mouth and honors me with their lips, but they have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which has been taught;
- Isaiah 43:22-23 Yet you have not called on me, Jacob; but you have been weary of me, Israel. You have not brought me any of your sheep for burnt offerings, neither have you honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings, nor wearied you with frankincense.
- Jeremiah 10:8 But they are together brutish and foolish, instructed by idols! It is just wood.
- Jeremiah 12:2 You have planted them. Yes, they have taken root. They grow. Yes, they produce fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their heart.
- Jeremiah 14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, Yahweh our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
- Ezekiel 11:15 “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, the men of your relatives, and all the house of Israel, all of them, are they to whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far away from Yahweh. This land has been given to us for a possession.’ ”
- Matthew 15:8 ‘These people draw near to me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (14 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Then follows the charge: What, iniquity have your fathers…
Then follows the charge: What, iniquity have your fathers found in me, that having forsaken me they should walk after vanity and become vain? Here Jeremiah charges the people with two crimes, — that they had departed from the true God, whom they had found to be a deliverer, — and that they had become vain in their devices; or, in other words, that they were become for no reason apostates: for their sin was enhanced, because there had been no occasion given them to forsake God, and to alienate themselves from him. As then God had kindly treated them, and they themselves had shaken off the yoke, and as there was no one whom they could compare with God, they could not have said, “We have been deceived,” — how so? “For ye have, he says, followed vanity; and vanity alone was the reason why ye have departed from me.” I wish I could proceed farther; but I have some business to which I was called even before the lecture.
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 Altogether given to vanity, and are become blind and…
Altogether given to vanity, and are become blind and insensible as the idols that they serve.
That is, fallen to most vile idolatry.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Jer 2:5 Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have…
Jer 2:5 Thus saith the LORD, What iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?
Ver. 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me?] How unreasonable was their apostasy! and how senseless is your pleading from their example! Nothing is more irrational than irreligion.
Read full note →
That they are gone far from me.] Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man? said Themistocles to his ungrateful countrymen.
And have walked after vanity.] An idol is nothing at all, but only in the vain opinion of the idolater.
And are become vain,] scil., " In their imaginations"; {Rom 1:21} as vain as their very idols. {Psa 115:8}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain God having, as it were on his own behalf,…
God having, as it were on his own behalf, shown how kind he had been, calls upon them to speak now, if they knew any thing of injury, either in breach of covenant or severity, that they can charge him with, that they have thus apostatized. See Poole "Isa 1:18"; See Poole "Isa 5:3": compare Mic 6:2-4. By this manner of speech his proceeding appears the more justifiable; he both makes their conviction the clearer, and the reproof the sharper.
Walked after vanity, viz. idols, showing their folly in going from God to such vain things as idols are, Deu 32:21; 1Sa 12:20,21; and see on Isa 41:29; the abstract for the concrete, Ecc 1:2.
Read full note →
Become vain, viz. in following their imaginations; fools,
Rom 1:21,22, as senseless as the stocks and stones that they made their idols of, Psa 115:8; and herein they are said to go far from God, and choose their delusions, Jon 2:8.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Neither said they, where is the Lord?.... They did…
Neither said they, where is the Lord?.... They did not ask after him, nor seek his face and favour, nor worship him, nor took any notice of the blessings he bestowed upon them:
that brought us up out of the land of Egypt? by means of Moses the deliverer, with a mighty hand, and outstretched arm; for, though Moses was the instrument, God was the efficient cause of the deliverance; the favour was his, and the glory of it ought to have been given to him:
Read full note →
that led us through the wilderness; of "Shur", or of "Sin", the desert of Arabia, Exo 15:22 and a dreadful and terrible one it was:
through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought, and of the shadow of death; where were scorpions, fiery serpents, drought, and no water, and so very dangerous as well as uncomfortable travelling; and yet through all this they were led, and wonderfully supplied and preserved;
through a land that no man passed through, and where no man dwelt; there was no passenger in it, nor inhabitants on it, so that there were none to relieve them; whence it appears, that all their supply, support, and preservation, were from the Lord. The Jews (y) interpret this of the first man Adam, after this manner,
"all land, concerning which the first man decreed that it should be inhabited, it is inhabited; and all land, concerning which he did not decree it should be inhabited, it is not inhabited; and such they suggest was this wilderness;''
see Deu 8:15.
(y) T. Bab. Beracot, fol. 31. 1. & Sota, fol. 46. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Vanity - Idols. Vain - Fools; senseless as the…
Vanity - Idols. Vain - Fools; senseless as the stocks and stones that they made their idols of.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in…
Verse 5. What iniquity have your fathers found in me] Have they ever discovered any thing cruel, unjust, oppressive in my laws? Any thing unkind or tyrannical in my government? Why then have they become idolaters?
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Vanity; idols, whom he will not mention, to spare…
Vanity; idols, whom he will not mention, to spare their shame. (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain iniquity--wrong done to them (Isa 5:4; Mic 6:3; compare…
iniquity--wrong done to them (Isa 5:4; Mic 6:3; compare Deu 32:4).
walked after vanity--contrasted with "walkest after me in the wilderness" (Jer 2:2): then I was their guide in the barren desert; now they take idols as their guides.
Read full note →
vanity . . . vain--An idol is not only vain (impotent and empty), but vanity itself. Its worshippers acquire its character, becoming vain as it is (Deu 7:26; Psa 115:8). A people's character never rises above that of its gods, which are its "better nature" [BACON] (Kg2 17:15; Jon 2:8).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 5. Have walked after vanity — The original of…
5. Have walked after vanity — The original of “vanity” is, in the historical books, used in the sense of idols or false gods, as in Deu_32:21; 1Ki_16:13; 1Ki_16:26, etc.; but in Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and some of the Psalms, it is used in a more general or abstract sense. In this book it is used in its earlier import, and this is one of many indications of the affinity of this book in thought and language with the formative period of Hebrew life. The precise words of this text occur in 2Ki_17:15, where they are applied to the ten tribes. They involve the universally recognised law that the worshipper will be as the worshipped. The deity enshrined in the soul will, of necessity, be the dominant force in the life and character. God will be first of all — Creator in his own realm.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 5. Has Israel had any excuse for their disloyalty…
5. Has Israel had any excuse for their disloyalty to Me? None.
have walked after vanity] ‘vanity’ (lit. a breath) is here used in the same sense as in 1Ki_16:13. Jehovah and His prophets regarded idols simply as unsubstantial, unreal things. Hence ‘vanity’ (i.e. idols) expresses their view. So in 1Co_8:4. Cp. Jer_2:8; Jer_2:11, Jer_16:19; 1Sa_12:21; Isa_44:9 f. Ch. Jer_10:10 contrasts God as “the true God,” “the living God”; while the notions of that which is unreal and that which is positively injurious are combined in Jer_16:19.
Read full note →
and are become vain] have their characters assimilated to the objects which they serve. Cp. Rom_1:21 f., they “became vain in their reasonings … they became fools.”
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (5) Vanity.—In the special sense, as a synonym for…
(5) Vanity.—In the special sense, as a synonym for idol-worship (Deu_32:21; 1Ki_16:13). As in the character of a husband wronged by his wife’s desertion Jehovah pleads with His people, and asks whether He has failed in anything.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain What iniquity, etc.; rather, what unrighteousness, etc. (comp. Deu_32:4,…
What iniquity, etc.; rather, what unrighteousness, etc. (comp. Deu_32:4, "a God of faithfulness, and without unrighteousness," alluding to the "covenant" between Jehovah and Israel) God"s condescending grace (his anavah, Psa_18:36). As if he were under an obligation to Israel. (comp. Mic_6:3, etc.; Isa_5:3) Vanity; i.e. the idols; literally, a breath. (so Jer_10:15 Jer_14:22 Jer_16:19) Are become vain. The whole being of man is affected by the want of solid basis to his religion; (comp. Jer_23:16 Psa_115:8) and the evident allusion to our passage in Rom_1:21 (St. Paul has emataiwyhsan , as Septuagint here). The clause is verbally repeated in 2Ki_17:15, with reference to the ten tribes.
Vers. 5-7. The ingratitude of sin.
Read full note →
Of the many aspects under which sin may be viewed none is more sad than that of ingratitude to God. Every act of sin is a distinct act of ingratitude; for every such act is an offence against him who has shown to us nothing but love, and from whom we are taking innumerable favors in the very moment of our transgression.
I THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE FORGETFULNESS OF GOD"S SAVING MERCY. So the Israelites forget the glorious deliverance from Egypt, and preservation amidst the horrors of the wilderness (ver. 6). God is resorted to in distress only to be ignored, forsaken, insulted, directly rebelled against, when he has effected a deliverance.
II THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE IGNORING OF THE PRESENT GOODNESS OF GOD. (Ver. 7) The Israelites were eating the fruit of the good land which God had given to them while they were rebelling against him. This is even worse than ingratitude for past blessings. Such ingratitude might attempt to plead the excuse of failure of memory; but ingratitude for present mercies can only arise from gross spiritual blindness or willful disregard of all claims of justice and affection.
III THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE FALSE CHARACTER WHICH IS ASCRIBED TO GOD. God asks, "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me?" The conduct of the Jews was a direct indictment of the character of God. They deliberately insulted him, and rejected him for heathen deities. Such conduct could only be justified by the discovery that he was not what he claimed to be. After God has revealed himself to men in myriad fold evidences of goodness, there are some who hold, if they do not confess to, such evil conceptions of his character as amount to the basest calumnies of heartless ingratitude.
IV THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE CHARACTER OF THE GODS WHO ARE PREFERRED TO JEHOVAH. These are "false" gods. Jews who knew that converted religious worship into an unreality, and thus became themselves hollow and unreal. For this miserable result did they forsake the God of heaven and earth, their Savior and constant Benefactor! If they had found a rival with some pretensions to worth the insult would have been less. Herein is the grossness of the insult to God seen in all sin. What do men prefer to him? Transient pleasures, earthly dross. The pearl of great price is flung away, not for a smaller pearl, but for dust and ashes.
V THE INGRATITUDE OF SIN IS SEEN IN THE ABUSE AND CORRUPTION OF GOD"S GIFTS. God gave the Israelites "gardenland," and they defiled it; they made Gods heritage an abomination. When we sin we do so by employing the very powers which God has bestowed upon us. We insult him by turning his own gifts into weapons of rebellion. We blaspheme him with the tongue which he has made.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 2:5 The Israelites worshiped worthless idols, so their lives…
2:5 The Israelites worshiped worthless idols, so their lives were ruled by delusions.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.