Jeremiah 2:21

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed,.... It is usual to compare the people of the Jews to a vineyard, and to vines; and their settlement in the land of Canaan to the planting of

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? Planted thee. The same image as Deuteronomy 32:32. Contrast Isaiah 5:1, etc., Psalms 80:8-9.

A noble vine; a usual metaphor for the church, ,9, &c. See Poole "". The Hebrew is Sorek, and may refer to the place or to the plant. With reference to the place, it may be taken either for a proper name, as Carmel for any fruitful place; so here noting either the place whence, viz. a vine of the same kind with those that come from Sorek; possibly that country where Samson saw Delilah, : or, the place where planted, viz. in a fruitful land, . See Poole "". If it be referred to the plant, then it points at the excellency of its kind; and this the next clause seems to favour: and thus it notes both God’ s care; he had as great a care of it as of the choicest plant; see on ,3; and also his expectation, that it should prove so, . And the sense is, I planted thee, that thou shouldst bring forth choice fruit to me. A right seed; a right seed of true believers, as ill the days of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Or supposing with to be understood before right seed, (as it often is in the Hebrew,) we may understand it of the ordinances of his church, which are said to be the plants or seed that God furnisheth it withal, ; and these are called right, , not false or counterfeit. The degenerate plant: though there be only degenerate or declining in the Hebrew text, yet the supplement is necessary in regard of the metaphor. Strange: this must here be taken in a bad sense, as the word degenerate going before intimates, though it be sometimes for what is rare and excellent: here it notes their apostacy and infidelity, and other wickednesses, where God speaks after the manner of man, both in a way of wonder and reproof.

Jeremiah 2:21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? Ver 21. Yet I had planted thee a noble vine.] Heb., A sorek, or with slips of sorek. See Isaiah 5:3, a parallel text; Exodus 15:17 Psalms 44:3; Psalms 80:9. Wholly a right seed.] That should have yielded a right crop, but it proveth otherwise. Nec votis respondet avari agricolae. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant?] How is it that slips of sorek prove slips of Sodom? See on Isaiah 5:4; Isaiah 5:7.

(21) A noble vine.—Literally, a Sorek vine. Elsewhere rendered choice or choicest (Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2). The word “Sorek” points primarily to the dark purple of the grape, and then to the valley of Sorek, between Ascalon and Gaza (Judges 16:4). Wholly a right seed.—Literally, a seed of truth, parallel with the “good seed” in the Parable of the Tares. Here, however, as in Isaiah 5:1-7, which Jeremiah seems to have in his mind, stress is laid not on the mingling of the evil with the good, but on the degeneration which had changed the character of that which God had planted. Art thou turned . . .?—Better, hast thou changed thyself . . .? Plant.—Better, branches.

Verse 21. I had planted thee a noble vine] I gave thee the fullest instruction, the purest ordinances, the highest privileges; and reason would that I should expect thee to live suitably to such advantages; but instead of this thou art become degenerate; the tree is deteriorated, and the fruit is bad. Instead of being true worshippers, and of a holy life and conversation, ye are become idolaters of the most corrupt and profligate kind. See Isaiah 5:1, &c., where the same image is used.

21. The fault did not lie in Jehovah’s planting, but in Israel’s perversity. Hosea 10:1 has the same illustration. Jeremiah has probably a reminiscence also of Isa 5:1 ff., where, however, Israel is not as here the vine, but the vineyard in which it is planted. a noble vine] a Sorek vine, the word Sorek probably referring to the colour of the fruit, a vine bearing dark-purple grapes. It is the “choice vine” of Genesis 49:11. how then art thou turned] That which had been sown, in other words the people, when first chosen to be God’s, was uncorrupt. How is it then, He asks, that such “right seed” can have produced such degenerate shoots? degenerate plant] The Hebrew is harsh, and suggested emendations are rendered either (with LXX) bitterness, or (with Dr.) evil smell. strange] foreign. For the word in this sense cp. Genesis 42:7; Exodus 21:8; Psalms 114:1 and so And palmers for to seeken straunge strondes. Chaucer, Cant. Tales, prol. unto me] to my grief—a frequent use of the dative case.

A noble vine - Properly, a Sorek vine (see Isaiah 5:2), which produced a red wine Proverbs 23:31, and had a lasting reputation Genesis 49:11. A right seed - literally, “a seed of truth,” i.

21. In the original, two different words in the first member of this verse are emphasized, which fact of emphasis escapes our attention in the English Version.