Jeremiah 2:34

34 Your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor, though you didn’t catch them breaking into your houses!

Jeremiah 2:34 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 2:34

Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the
poor innocents
Either of the innocent infants of poor persons, who were sacrificed to Moloch; or of the poor prophets of the Lord, whom they slew, because they faithfully reproved them for their sins; and the blood of those being found in their skirts is expressive of the publicness and notoriety of their sin, and also of the large quantity of blood shed, inasmuch as the skirts of their garments were filled with it, as if they had trod and walked in blood; see ( Isaiah 63:3 ) . I have not found it by secret search;
or, "by digging" F17; there was no need to dig for it; it lay above ground; it was upon their skirts, public enough: or, "in ditches", as the Septuagint and Vulgate Latin


FOOTNOTES:

F18 versions; as when murders are privately and secretly committed; but these were done openly. Some read the words, "thou didst not find them with a digging instrument" F19; so Jarchi interprets the words,
``you did not find them with a digging instrument, or in digging, when you slew them;''
you did not find them prepared as thieves to break up your houses, or digging down your walls, and breaking through into your houses, then you would have been justified by the law in slaying them, ( Exodus 22:2 ) , but this was not the case: but upon all these;
upon all their skirts, and not in ditches, or under ground; or, "for all these"; thou hast so done; not for their sins, for theft, or any other; but for their faithful reproofs and rebukes; so Jarchi, for all these words with which they reproved thee; or for all these, the idols on whose account, in the worship of them, the blood of the innocents was shed.
F17 (trtxmb) "in suffossione", Vatablus, Calvin, De Dieu; "effossione", Junius & Tremellius; "perfossione", Schmidt.
F18 (en diorugmasin) , Sept. "in fossis", V. L.
F19 "Cum perfossorio", Pagninus, Montanus; "sub. instrumento", Grotius; "terebro", Cocceius.

Jeremiah 2:34 In-Context

32 Does a young woman forget her jewelry, or a bride her wedding dress? Yet for years on end my people have forgotten me.
33 “How you plot and scheme to win your lovers. Even an experienced prostitute could learn from you!
34 Your clothing is stained with the blood of the innocent and the poor, though you didn’t catch them breaking into your houses!
35 And yet you say, ‘I have done nothing wrong. Surely God isn’t angry with me!’ But now I will punish you severely because you claim you have not sinned.
36 First here, then there— you flit from one ally to another asking for help. But your new friends in Egypt will let you down, just as Assyria did before.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.