Jeremiah 2:17

17 Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way?

Jeremiah 2:17 in Other Translations

KJV
17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, when he led thee by the way?
ESV
17 Have you not brought this upon yourself by forsaking the LORD your God, when he led you in the way?
NLT
17 And you have brought this upon yourselves by rebelling against the LORD your God, even though he was leading you on the way!
MSG
17 And why do you think all this has happened? Isn't it because you walked out on your God just as he was beginning to lead you in the right way?
CSB
17 Have you not brought this on yourself by abandoning the Lord your God while He was leading you along the way?

Jeremiah 2:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 2:17

Hast thou not procured this unto thyself
All this desolation and destruction, both from the Egyptians and the Babylonians; their sin was the cause of it, their idolatry and forsaking the Lord their God, as follows: and so the Targum,

``is not this vengeance taken upon thee?''
that is, by the Lord, for their sins and transgressions; he suffered these nations to make them desolate on that account: to which agrees the Septuagint version, "hath not he done these things unto thee?" for what the Egyptians and Babylonians did were done by the will of the Lord, who suffered them for their correction: and the Arabic version renders it, "have not I done these things unto thee?" and the Syriac as a prophecy, as indeed so is the whole, "lo, so it shall be done to thee"; as is predicted in the foregoing verses, and that for the following reason: in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God;
as in ( Jeremiah 2:13 ) , (See Gill on Jeremiah 2:13), that is, as the Targum interprets it, the worship of the Lord thy God, his service, his statutes, and his ordinances; and followed after idols, and the worship of them; which is aggravated by the circumstance of time in which this was done: when he led thee by the way?
who showed thee the right way, and thou walkedst not in it, as the Targum; the way in which they should have gone, the way of their duty, and his commandments; and which would have been pleasant and profitable to them, and secured them from ruin and destruction.

Jeremiah 2:17 In-Context

15 Lions have roared; they have growled at him. They have laid waste his land; his towns are burned and deserted.
16 Also, the men of Memphis and Tahpanhes have cracked your skull.
17 Have you not brought this on yourselves by forsaking the LORD your God when he led you in the way?
18 Now why go to Egypt to drink water from the Nile ? And why go to Assyria to drink water from the Euphrates?
19 Your wickedness will punish you; your backsliding will rebuke you. Consider then and realize how evil and bitter it is for you when you forsake the LORD your God and have no awe of me,” declares the Lord, the LORD Almighty.

Cross References 2

  • 1. Jeremiah 4:18
  • 2. S Isaiah 1:28; Jeremiah 17:13; Jeremiah 19:4
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