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Selected Verse: Jeremiah 2:33 - Strong Concordance
| Verse |
Translation |
Text |
| Jer 2:33 |
Strong Concordance |
Why trimmest [03190] thou thy way [01870] to seek [01245] love [0160]? therefore hast thou also taught [03925] the wicked ones [07451] thy ways [01870]. |
| |
King James |
Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways. |
Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse
| A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882] |
Why trimmest--MAURER translates, "How skilfully thou dost prepare thy way," &c. But see Kg2 9:30. "Trimmest" best suits the image of one decking herself as a harlot.
way--course of life.
therefore--accordingly. Or else, "nay, thou hast even," &c.
also . . . wicked ones--even the wicked harlots, that is, (laying aside the metaphor) even the Gentiles who are wicked, thou teachest to be still more so [GROTIUS]. |
| Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834] |
Why trimmest thou thy way - literally, "Why makest thou thy way good," a phrase used here of the pains taken by the Jews to learn the idolatries of foreign nations.
The wicked ones ... - Or, "therefore thou hast taught" thy ways wickednesses." |
| Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78] |
| In Jer 2:33 the style of address is ironical. How good thou makest thy way! i.e., how well thou knowest to choose out and follow the right way to seek love. היטיב דּרך sig. usually: strive after a good walk and conversation; cf. Jer 7:3, Jer 7:5; Jer 18:11, etc.; here, on the other hand, to take the right way for gaining the end in view. "Love" here is seen from the context to be love to the idols, intrigues with the heathen and their gods. Seek love = strive to gain the love of the false gods. To attain this end thou hast taught thy ways misdeeds, i.e., accustomed thy ways to misdeeds, forsaken the commandments of thy God which demand righteousness and the purifying of one's life, and accommodated thyself to the immoral practices of the heathen. הרעות, with the article as in Jer 3:5, the evil deeds which are undisguisedly visible; not: the evils, the misfortunes which follow thee closely, as Hitz. interprets in the face of the context. For in Jer 2:34 we have indisputable evidence that the matter in hand is not evils and misfortunes, but evil deeds or misdemeanours; since there the cleaving of the blood of innocent souls to the hems of the garments is mentioned as one of the basest "evils," and as such is introduced by the גּם of gradation. The "blood of souls" is the blood of innocent murdered men, which clings to the skirts of the murderers' clothes. כּנפים are the skirts of the flowing garment, Eze 5:3; Sa1 15:27; Zac 8:23. The plural נמצאוּ before דּם is explained by the fact that נפשׁות is the principal idea. אביונים are not merely those who live in straitened circumstances, but pious oppressed ones as contrasted with powerful transgressors and oppressors; cf. Ps. 40:18; Psa 72:13., Psa 86:1-2, etc. By the next clause greater prominence is given to the fact that they were slain being innocent. The words: not בּמּחתּרת, at housebreaking, thou tookest them, contain an allusion to the law in Exo 22:1 and onwards; according to which the killing of a thief caught in the act of breaking in was not a cause of blood-guiltiness. The thought runs thus: The poor ones thou hast slain were no thieves or robbers whom thou hadst a right to slay, but guiltless pious men; and the killing of them is a crime worthy of death. Exo 21:12. The last words כּי על כּל־אלּה are obscure, and have been very variously interpreted. Changes upon the text are not to the purpose. For we get no help from the reading of the lxx, of the Syr. and Arab., which seem to have read אלּה as אלה, and which have translated δρυΐ́ oak or terebinth; since "upon every oak" gives no rational meaning. Nor from the connection of the words with the next verse (Venem., Schnur., Ros., and others): yet with all this, or in spite of all this, thou saidst; since neither does כּי mean yet, nor can the ו before תאמרי, in this connection, introduce the sequel thought. The words manifestly belong to what goes before, and contain a contrast: not in breaking in by night thou tookest them, but upon, or on account of all this. על in the sig. upon gives a suitable sense only if, with Abarb., Ew., Ng., we refer אלּה to בּכנפיך and take מצאתים as 1st pers.: I found it (the blood of the slain souls) not on the place where the murder took place, but upon all these, sc. lappets of the clothes, i.e., borne openly for display. But even without dwelling on the fact that מחתּרת does not mean the scene of a murder or breaking in, this explanation is wrecked on the unmistakeably manifest allusion to the law, אם בּמּחתּרת ימּצא הגּנּב, Exo 21:1, which is ignored, or at least obscured, by that view. The allusion to this passage of the law shows that מצאתים is not 1st but 2nd pers., and that the suffix refers to the innocent poor who were slain. Therefore, with Hitz. and Graf, we take על כּל־ אלּה in the sig. "on account of all this," and refer the "all this" to the idolatry before mentioned. Consequently the words bear this meaning: Not for a crime thou killedst the poor, but because of thine apostasy from God and thy fornication with the idols, their blood cleaves to thy raiment. the words seem, as Calv. surmised, to point to the persecution and slaying of the prophets spoken of in Jer 2:30, namely, to the innocent blood with which the godless king Manasseh filled Jerusalem, Kg2 21:16; Kg2 24:4; seeking as he did to crush out all opposition to the abominations of idolatry, and finding in his way the prophets and the godly of the land, who by their words and their lives lifted up their common testimony against the idolaters and their abandoned practices. |
| Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65] |
| Trimmest - Or, deckest, Eze 23:40, thinking thereby to entice others to thy help. Taught - Nations that have been vile enough of themselves, by thy example are become more vile. |
| Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826 |
Why trimmest thou thy way - Ye have used a multitude of artifices to gain alliances with the neighboring idolatrous nations.
Hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways - Ye have made even these idolaters worse than they were before. Dr. Blayney translates, "Therefore have I taught calamity thy ways." A prosopopoeia: "I have instructed calamity where to find thee." Thou shalt not escape punishment. |
30 And when Jehu [03058] was come [0935] to Jezreel [03157], Jezebel [0348] heard [08085] of it; and she painted [07760] [06320] her face [05869], and tired [03190] her head [07218], and looked out [08259] at a window [02474].
4 And also for the innocent [05355] blood [01818] that he shed [08210]: for he filled [04390] Jerusalem [03389] with innocent [05355] blood [01818]; which the LORD [03068] would [014] not pardon [05545].
16 Moreover Manasseh [04519] shed [08210] innocent [05355] blood [01818] very [03966] much [07235], till he had filled [04390] Jerusalem [03389] from one end [06310] to another [06310]; beside his sin [02403] wherewith he made Judah [03063] to sin [02398], in doing [06213] that which was evil [07451] in the sight [05869] of the LORD [03068].
30 In vain [07723] have I smitten [05221] your children [01121]; they received [03947] no correction [04148]: your own sword [02719] hath devoured [0398] your prophets [05030], like a destroying [07843] lion [0738].
1 Now these are the judgments [04941] which thou shalt set [07760] before [06440] them.
12 He that smiteth [05221] a man [0376], so that he die [04191], shall be surely [04191] put to death [04191].
1 If a man [0376] shall steal [01589] an ox [07794], or a sheep [07716], and kill [02873] it, or sell [04376] it; he shall restore [07999] five [02568] oxen [01241] for an ox [07794], and four [0702] sheep [06629] for a sheep [07716].
1 A Prayer [08605] of David [01732]. Bow down [05186] thine ear [0241], O LORD [03068], hear [06030] me: for I am poor [06041] and needy [034].
2 Preserve [08104] my soul [05315]; for I am holy [02623]: O thou my God [0430], save [03467] thy servant [05650] that trusteth [0982] in thee.
13 He shall spare [02347] the poor [01800] and needy [034], and shall save [03467] the souls [05315] of the needy [034].
23 Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635]; In those days [03117] it shall come to pass, that ten [06235] men [0582] shall take hold [02388] out of all languages [03956] of the nations [01471], even shall take hold [02388] of the skirt [03671] of him that is a Jew [0376] [03064], saying [0559], We will go [03212] with you: for we have heard [08085] that God [0430] is with you.
27 And as Samuel [08050] turned about [05437] to go away [03212], he laid hold [02388] upon the skirt [03671] of his mantle [04598], and it rent [07167].
3 Thou shalt also take [03947] thereof a few [04592] in number [04557], and bind [06696] them in thy skirts [03671].
34 Also in thy skirts [03671] is found [04672] the blood [01818] of the souls [05315] of the poor [034] innocents [05355]: I have not found [04672] it by secret search [04290], but upon all these.
5 Will he reserve [05201] his anger for ever [05769]? will he keep [08104] it to the end [05331]? Behold, thou hast spoken [01696] and done [06213] evil things [07451] as thou couldest [03201].
11 Now therefore go to, speak [0559] to the men [0376] of Judah [03063], and to the inhabitants [03427] of Jerusalem [03389], saying [0559], Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068]; Behold, I frame [03335] evil [07451] against you, and devise [02803] a device [04284] against you: return [07725] ye now every one [0376] from his evil [07451] way [01870], and make your ways [01870] and your doings [04611] good [03190].
5 For if ye throughly [03190] amend [03190] your ways [01870] and your doings [04611]; if ye throughly [06213] execute [06213] judgment [04941] between a man [0376] and his neighbour [07453];
3 Thus saith [0559] the LORD [03068] of hosts [06635], the God [0430] of Israel [03478], Amend [03190] your ways [01870] and your doings [04611], and I will cause you to dwell [07931] in this place [04725].
33 Why trimmest [03190] thou thy way [01870] to seek [01245] love [0160]? therefore hast thou also taught [03925] the wicked ones [07451] thy ways [01870].
40 And furthermore [0637], that ye have sent [07971] for men [0582] to come [0935] from far [04801], unto whom a messenger [04397] was sent [07971]; and, lo, they came [0935]: for whom thou didst wash [07364] thyself, paintedst [03583] thy eyes [05869], and deckedst [05710] thyself with ornaments [05716],