Jeremiah 2:8

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.