The LORD Pleads with Backsliding Israel

21 And there is a word of Jehovah unto me, saying, 2 'Go, and thou hast called in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus said Jehovah: I have remembered for thee The kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, Thy going after Me in a wilderness, in a land not sown. 3 Holy 'is' Israel to Jehovah, The first-fruit of His increase, All consuming him are guilty, Evil cometh in unto them, an affirmation of Jehovah. 4 Hear a word of Jehovah, O house of Jacob, And all ye families of the house of Israel. 5 Thus said Jehovah: What—have your fathers found in Me perversity, That they have gone far off from Me, And go after the vanity, and become vain, 6 And have not said, Where 'is' Jehovah, Who bringeth us up out of the land of Egypt, Who leadeth us in a wilderness, In a land of deserts and pits, In a dry land, and of death-shade, In a land—none hath passed through it, Nor dwelt hath man there?' 7 Yea, I bring you in to a land of fruitful fields, To eat its fruit and its goodness, And ye come in and defile My land, And Mine inheritance have made an abomination.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 2:1-7

Commentary on Jeremiah 2:1-8

(Read Jeremiah 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.