Jeremiah 2:8

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

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.

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, , 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, , and their practice, . 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 . The prophets prophesied by Baal; they that should have taught the people the true worship of God were themselves worshippers of Baal, . 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, . Things that do not profit, viz. idols, a periphrasis, that were never able to do them any service, as ,11. See Poole "". Sure the state must be very bad, when priests, prophets, and people were thus corrupt.

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. Ver. 8. The priests said not, Where is the Lord?] Ignorant they were, and idle. They would not be at the pains of a serious inquisition after God and his will; though he be a "rewarder of all that diligently seek him." And they that handled the law.] That expounded and applied it. A metaphor from such as are trained in the war, who are said tractate bellum, to handle their arms. The pastors also transgressed against me.] What marvel, therefore, that the people did so too? For, as in a fish, the corruption of it beginneth at the head; so here. And the prophets prophesied by Baal.] And taught others to worship idols. We see then, it is nothing new that stars fall from heaven, that church chieftains should fall from God, and draw others after them. It went for a proverb, a little before Luther stirred, Qui theologum seholasticum videt, videt septem peccata mortalia, He that seeth a divine, seeth the seven deadly sins. Dixerunt, Ubi victimae, ubi nummi? triobolarium Deum faciunt subque hastam mittunt. - Oecol.

(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 Psalms 78:71; 1 Kings 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 2 Kings 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 (1 Kings 18:19; 1 Kings 22:6). Things that do not profit.—The word had acquired an almost proverbial force as applied to idols (1 Samuel 12:21; Isaiah 44:9). So the phrase is repeated in Jeremiah 2:11.

Verse 8. They that handle the law] ותפשי vethophe shey, they that draw out the law; they whose office it is to explain it, draw out its spiritual meanings, and show to what its testimonies refer. The pastors also] Kings, political and civil rulers. Prophesied by Baal] Became his prophets, and were inspired with the words of lying spirits.

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.

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.

8. This verse is doubly climacteric. Its subjects are —1. Priests in general — The priests.2. Teaching priests — They that handle the law.3. Kings and princes — Pastors.4. Inspired men — Prophets. Its predicates are —1.