Jeremiah 2:14

14 "Isn't Israel a valued servant, born into a family with place and position? So how did she end up a piece of meat

Jeremiah 2:14 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 2:14

Is Israel a servant?
&c.] That he does not abide in the house, in his own land, but is carried captive, becomes subject to others, and is used as a slave; so the Targum,

``as a servant;''

is he not the Lord's first born? are not the people of Israel called the children of the living God? how come they then to be treated not as children, as free men, but as servants? this cannot be owing to any breach of covenant or promise on God's part, or to the failure of the blessing of national adoption bestowed on them; but to some sin or sins of theirs, which have brought them into this miserable condition: is he a home born slave?
or born in the house, of the handmaid, and so in the power of the master of the family in whose house he was born, ( Exodus 21:4 ) or the sense is, either Israel is a servant, or a son of the family
^F4, as some render the words; not the former, being not only the son of a free woman, but Jehovah's firstborn; if the latter, why is he spoiled?
why is he delivered up to the spoilers? as the Targum; why should he be given up into the hands of the Babylonians, and become their prey? is it usual for fathers to suffer their children, or those born in their house, to be so used? some reason must be given for it.

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FOOTNOTES:

F4 (tyb dyly) "filius familias", Munster.

Jeremiah 2:14 In-Context

12 "Stand in shock, heavens, at what you see! Throw up your hands in disbelief - this can't be!" God's Decree.

13 "My people have committed a compound sin: they've walked out on me, the fountain Of fresh flowing waters, and then dug cisterns - cisterns that leak, cisterns that are no better than sieves.

14 "Isn't Israel a valued servant, born into a family with place and position? So how did she end up a piece of meat

15 fought over by snarling and roaring lions? There's nothing left of her but a few old bones, her towns trashed and deserted.

16 Egyptians from the cities of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken your skulls.