Jeremias 2:35

35 Yet thou saidst, I am innocent: only let his wrath be turned away from me. Behold, I plead with thee, whereas thou sayest, I have not sinned.

Jeremias 2:35 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 2:35

Yet thou sayest, because I am innocent
Or, "that I am innocent"; though guilty of such flagrant and notorious crimes, acting like the adulterous woman, ( Proverbs 30:20 ) to whom the Jews are all along compared in this chapter; which shows the hardness of their hearts, and their impudence in sinning: surely his anger shall turn from me;
the anger of God, since innocent; or, "let his anger be turned from me", as the Septuagint and Arabic versions; pleading for the removing of judgments upon the foot of innocency, which is pretended: behold, I will plead with thee;
enter into judgment with thee, and examine the case closely and thoroughly: because thou sayest, I have not sinned;
it would have been much better to have acknowledged sin, and pleaded for mercy, than to insist upon innocence, when the proof was so evident; nothing can be got by entering into judgment with God, upon such a foundation; and to sin, and deny it, is an aggravation of it: the denial of sin is a double sin, as the wise man says, whom Kimchi cites.

Jeremias 2:35 In-Context

33 What fair device wilt thou yet employ in thy ways, so as to seek love? not so; moreover thou has done wickedly in corrupting thy ways;

34 and in thine hands has been found the blood of innocent souls; I have not found them in holes, but on every oak.

35 Yet thou saidst, I am innocent: only let his wrath be turned away from me. Behold, I plead with thee, whereas thou sayest, I have not sinned.

36 For thou has been so exceedingly contemptuous as to repeat thy ways; but thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assur.

37 For thou shalt go forth thence also with thine hands upon thine head; for the Lord has rejected thine hope, and thou shalt not prosper in it.