Jeremiah 2:8

The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) The priests said not . . .—As throughout the work of Jeremiah and most of the prophets of the Old Testament, that which weighed most heavily on their souls was that those who were called to be guides of the people were themselves the chief agents in the evil. The salt had lost its savour. The light had become darkness. The rebuke, we must remember, came from the lips of one who was himself a priest.

The priests said not, Where is the Lord?—The same failure to seek as that condemned in Jeremiah 2:6. To them, too, all was a routine. Jehovah was absent from their thoughts even in the very act of worship.

They that handle the law.—These, probably, were also of the priestly order, to whom this function was assigned in Deuteronomy 33:10. The order of non-priestly scribes, in the sense of interpreters of the law, does not appear till after the captivity. Their sin was that they “dealt with the law” as interpreters and judges, and forgot Jehovah who had given it.

The pastors.—Better, shepherds, the English “pastors” having gained a too definitely religious connotation. The Hebrew word was general in its significance, but in its Old Testament use was applied chiefly to civil rulers, as in Psalm 78:71; 1Kings 22:17. Even in Ezekiel 34, where the spiritual aspect of rule is most prominent, the contrast between the false shepherds and the one true shepherd of the house of David (Jeremiah 2:23) shows that the kingly, not the priestly, office was in the prophet’s mind.

The prophets prophesied by Baal.—The precise form of the sin described was probably connected with the oracular power ascribed to Baal-zebub, as in 2Kings 1:2. The evil was of long standing. It was one of the sins of the people in Isaiah’s time that they were “soothsayers like the Philistines” (Isaiah 2:6). When Ahab first introduced the Phœnician worship, it was by the prophets rather than the priests of Baal that the new cultus was propagated (1Kings 18:19; 1Kings 22:6).

Things that do not profit.—The word had acquired an almost proverbial force as applied to idols (1Samuel 12:21; Isaiah 44:9). So the phrase is repeated in Jeremiah 2:11.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:1-8 Those who begin well, but do not persevere, will justly be upbraided with their hopeful and promising beginnings. Those who desert religion, commonly oppose it more than those who never knew it. For this they could have no excuse. God's spiritual Israel must own their obligations to him for safe conduct through the wilderness of this world, so dangerous to the soul. Alas, that many, who once appeared devoted to the Lord, so live that their professions aggravate their crimes! Let us be careful that we do not lose in zeal and fervency, as we gain knowledge.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The guilt of this idolatry is ascribed to the four ruling classes:

(a) The accusation brought against the priests is indifference.

(b) "They that handle the law" belonged also to the priestly class Deuteronomy 33:10. Their offence was that "they knew not God." Compare Micah 3:11.

(c) The third class are "the pastors" or shepherds, that is the temporal rulers. Their crime is disobedience.

(d) The fourth class are "the prophets." It was their business to press the moral and spiritual truths of the law home to the hearts of the people: but they drew their inspiration from Baal, the Sun-god. Upon the corruption of the prophetic order at this time, see the Jeremiah 14:13 note.

Things that do not profit - Here idols, which are not merely unreal, but injurious. See 1 Samuel 12:21; Isaiah 44:9.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. The three leading classes, whose very office under the theocracy was to lead the people to God, disowned Him in the same language as the nation at large, "Where is the Lord?" (See Jer 2:6).

priests—whose office it was to expound the law (Mal 2:6, 7).

handle—are occupied with the law as the subject of their profession.

pastors—civil, not religious: princes (Jer 3:15), whose duty it was to tend their people.

prophets—who should have reclaimed the people from their apostasy, encouraged them in it by pretended oracles from Baal, the Phœnician false god.

by Baal—in his name and by his authority (compare Jer 11:21).

walked after things … not profit—answering to, "walked after vanity," that is, idols (Jer 2:5; compare Jer 2:11; Hab 2:18).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

They that handle the law knew me not: q.d. They that should have taught others knew as little as they, or regarded as little to know, Hosea 4:6, who are said here to handle or teach the law, viz. the priests and Levites, who Were the ordinary teachers of the law; not that they did so, but that either they ought to do so, or pretended to do so. This was their office, Deu 33:10, and their practice, Nehemiah 8:8. The phrase is a metaphor taken from warriors, that are said tractare bellum, to handle their arms.

The pastors; either teachers, as instructors; or kings and princes, as conductors. See 1 Kings 22:17.

The prophets prophesied by Baal; they that should have taught the people the true worship of God were themselves worshippers of Baal, 1 Kings 18:22. Or, instead of fetching their oracles from me, saying,

Thus saith the Lord, they would say, Thus saith Baal; or they did make use of lesser deities (for so doth Baal or Baalim signify) in conjunction with God, persuading themselves they could honour God together with them, as the calves, 1 Kings 12:28.

Things that do not profit, viz. idols, a periphrasis, that were never able to do them any service, as Jeremiah 2:5,11. See Poole "Isaiah 44:10". Sure the state must be very bad, when priests, prophets, and people were thus corrupt.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

The priests said not, where is the Lord?.... Whose business it was to draw nigh to God, and offer the sacrifices of the people, and inquire of God for them; whose lips should keep knowledge, and at whose mouth the law should be sought, they being the messengers of the Lord of hosts, Malachi 2:7,

and they that handle the law knew me not; the sanhedrim, according to Jarchi; or the lawyers and scribes, the Rabbins and doctors of the law, whose business it was to read and explain it; these did not understand it, nor the mind of God in it; and much less did they know him in a spiritual and evangelical manner; or as he is in Christ, and revealed in the Gospel:

the pastors also transgressed against me; kings, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi interpret it, who were pastors or shepherds in a civil sense; whose business it was to feed the people as the shepherd does his flock; that is, to guide and govern them by wholesome laws, by the laws of God; but, instead of this, they rebelled against the Lord, and transgressed his commands:

and the prophets prophesied by Baal; in his name; pretending to be inspired by that idol, and to receive the spirit of prophecy from him:

and walked after things that do not profit; the gods of the Gentiles, which could not supply them with the least temporal blessing, and much less give them spiritual and eternal ones; see Jeremiah 14:22. This is to be understood of false prophets, as Ben Melech.

Geneva Study Bible

The priests said not, {i} Where is the LORD? and they that handle the {k} law knew me not: the {l} rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by {m} Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

(i) They did not teach the people to seek after God.

(k) As the scribes, who would have expounded the law to the people.

(l) Meaning, the princes and ministers: signifying, that all estates were corrupt.

(m) That is, spoke vain things, and brought the people from the true worship of God to serve idols: for by Baal, which was the chief idol of the Moabites, are meant all idols.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. The wickedness of the people is matched and encouraged by that of the chief men both in Church and State.

For the denunciation of priests and false prophets on the part of Jeremiah, cp. Hosea and Micah (see Intr. iii. §§ 3, 5), Micaiah (in 1 Kings 22) and Isaiah (Isaiah 28:7). So later Ezekiel (Jeremiah 13:1 ff.).

Three classes of persons are spoken of.

(1) (this class is subdivided into two) the priests. The duty of the tribe of Levi was not only to serve at the altar, but to handle the law; i.e. to direct its administration, whether in accordance with oral or written regulations. Cp. Jeremiah 8:8 (with note), Jeremiah 18:18; Ezekiel 7:26; Malachi 2:7; also Deuteronomy 17:1 ff; Deuteronomy 33:10.

(2) the rulers (mg. Heb. shepherds), meaning, as elsewhere in the Old Testament, kings or princes. Cp. Jeremiah 3:15, Jeremiah 10:21, Jeremiah 23:1-4, Jeremiah 25:34; 1 Kings 22:17; Ezekiel 34:2. So in Homer the kings are “shepherds of the people.”

(3) the prophets, whose duty it was to declare the will of God from time to time, and urge upon the people reformation and a religious life. Jeremiah felt most keenly the wickedness of both priest and prophet, since in his own person he represented both orders, and “by a singularly tragical fate he lived precisely at that age at which both of those great institutions seemed to have reached the utmost point of degradation and corruption” (Stanley, Jewish Church, 11. pp. 439, 440). “He who by each of his callings was naturally led to sympathise with both, was the doomed antagonist of both, victim of one of the strongest of human passions, the hatred of Priests against a Priest who attacks his own order, the hatred of Prophets against a Prophet who ventures to have a voice and a will of his own” (ibid.).

said not, Where is the Lord?] i.e. they were indifferent to God’s will, and thought of nothing less than consulting Him.

transgressed] better, rebelled.

by Baal] lit. by the Baal. The singular is used collectively for false gods in general, and is equivalent to the plural, which occurs Jeremiah 2:23, Jeremiah 9:13. So Hosea uses the singular collectively in Jeremiah 2:8, Jeremiah 13:1; substituting the plural in Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 2:17, Jeremiah 11:2. The word is thus generic, denoting the local deities worshipped in various districts.

things that do not profit] See on Jeremiah 2:5.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - The priests, etc. The blame principally falls on the three leading classes (as in ver. 26; Micah 3:11). First on the priests who "handle the Law," i.e. who have a traditional knowledge of the details of the Law, and teach the people accordingly (Deuteronomy 17:9-11; Deuteronomy 33:10; Jeremiah 18:18; see also on Jeremiah 8:8); next on the "pastors," or "shepherds" (in the Homeric sense), the civil and not the spiritual authorities; so generally in the Old Testament (see Jeremiah 3:15; Jeremiah 10:21; Jeremiah 22:22; Jeremiah 25:34; Zechariah 10:3; Zechariah 11:5, 8, 16; Isaiah 44:28); and lastly on the prophets, who sought their inspiration, not from Jehovah (comp. note on ver. 30), but from Baal. To prophesy by (by means of) Baal or rather, the Baal, implies that prophecy is due to an impulse from the supernatural world; that it is not an objectifying of the imaginations of the prophet himself. Even the Baal prophets yielded to an impulse from without, but how that impulse was produced the prophet does not tell us. We are told in 1 Kings 22:19-23, that even prophets of Jehovah could be led astray by a "lying spirit;" much more presumably could prophets of the Baal. The Baal is here used as a representative of the idol-gods, in antithesis to Jehovah; sometimes "Baalim," or the Baals, is used instead (e.g. ver. 23; Jeremiah 9:13), each town or city having its own Baal ("lord"). Things that do not profit. A synonym for idols (comp. Jeremiah 16:19; Isaiah 44:9;. 1 Samuel 12:21). An enlightened regard for self-interest is encouraged by the religion of the Bible, at any rate educationally. Contrast Comtism. Jeremiah 2:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

And He has done yet more. He has brought them into a fruitful and well-cultivated land. כּרמל, fruitful fields, the opposite of wilderness, Jeremiah 4:26; Isaiah 29:17. To eat up its fruit and its good; cf. the enumeration of the fruits and useful products of the land of Canaan, Deuteronomy 8:7-9. And this rich and splendid land the ungrateful people have defiled by their sins and vices (cf. Leviticus 18:24), and idolatry (cf. Ezekiel 36:18); and the heritage of Jahveh they have thus made an abomination, an object of horror. The land of Canaan is called "my heritage," the especial domain of Jahveh, inasmuch as, being the Lord of the earth, He is the possessor of the land and has given it to the Israelites for a possession, yet dwells in the midst of it as its real lord, Numbers 25:34. - In Jeremiah 2:8 the complaint briefly given in Jeremiah 2:6 is expanded by an account of the conduct of the higher classes, those who gave its tone to the spirit of the people. The priests, whom God had chosen to be the ministers of His sanctuary, asked not after Him, i.e., sought neither Him nor His sanctuary. They who occupy themselves with the law, who administer the law: these too are the priests as teachers of the law (Micah 3:11), who should instruct the people as to the Lord's claims on them and commandments (Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10). They knew not Jahveh, i.e., they took no note of Him, did not seek to discover what His will and just claims were, so as to instruct the people therein, and press them to keep the law. The shepherds are the civil authorities, princes and kings (cf. Jeremiah 23:1.): those who by their lives set the example to the people, fell away from the Lord; and the prophets, who should have preached God's word, prophesied בּבּעל, by Baal, i.e., inspired by Baal. Baal is here a generic name for all false gods; cf. Jeremiah 23:13. ,לא those who profit not, are the Baals as unreal gods; cf. Isaiah 44:9; 1 Samuel 12:21. The utterances as to the various ranks form a climax, as Hitz. rightly remarks. The ministers of public worship manifested no desire towards me; those learned in the law took no knowledge of me, of my will, of the contents of the book of the law; the civil powers went the length of rising up against my law; and the prophets fairly fell away to false gods, took inspiration from Baal, the incarnation of the lying spirit.