Jeremiah 2:1

the kindness of thy youths the love of thine espousals This has been taken as meaning, the kindness and love (a) of Israel towards God, or (b) of God towards Israel. In favour of (a) is urged (i) the sense of the rest of the v., (ii) that the -kindness" and -love" spoken of evidently refer to the past, while God's attitude of grace towards Israel is still the same that it has ever been. On the other hand for (b) it may be said (i) that the original word (חֶסֶד) is ordinarily used of God's attitude to man (but see Isaiah 57:1; Hosea 6:4; Hosea 6:6), (ii) that even in the wilderness Israel was often unfaithful (cp. Jeremiah 7:25; Ezekiel 2:3; Ezekiel 20:13 ff.), (iii) that the whole tone of Deut., to which these prophecies (see Intr. iii. § 16) are so closely related in language, indicates God's free choice of Israel and her ingratitude. In this latter case the sense will be (using a bold metaphor), "I have not forgotten my love for my young bride," i.e. Israel's consecration and my promise to defend her. For this metaphorical application of the thought of a marriage union between Jehovah and Israel, cp. Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 54:4 ff., Isaiah 62:4 f.