Jeremiah 2:5

5 Here is what the Lord says: What fault did your fathers find in Me that they went so far from Me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?^[a]

Jeremiah 2:5 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 2:5

Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in
me
What injustice or injury has been done them? there is no unrighteousness in God, nor can any be done by him; or what unfaithfulness, or want of truth and integrity in performing promises, had they found in him? he never suffers his faithfulness to fail, or any of the good things he has promised. So the Targum,

``what falsehood have your fathers found in my word?''

none at all; God is a covenant keeping God: that they are gone far from me;
from my fear, as the Chaldee paraphrase; from the word and worship, and ways of God: and have walked after vanity;
after idols, the vanities of the Gentiles, ( Jeremiah 14:22 ) : and are become vain?
in their imaginations and in their actions, in their knowledge and in their practice, worshipping idols, as well as guilty of many other sins.

Jeremiah 2:5 In-Context

3 Israel was holy to the Lord, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who ate of it found themselves guilty; disaster came on them." [This is] the Lord's declaration.

4 Hear the word of the Lord, house of Jacob and all families of the house of Israel.

5 Here is what the Lord says: What fault did your fathers find in Me that they went so far from Me, followed worthless idols, and became worthless themselves?

6 They stopped asking: Where is the Lord who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived?

7 I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but after you entered, you defiled My land; you made My inheritance detestable.

Footnotes

• [a]. Jr 8:19; 2 Kg 17:15; Rm 1:21