Jeremiah 2


Jeremiah 2 is the second chapter of the Book of Jeremiah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains prophecies attributed to the prophet Jeremiah, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 2 to 6 contain the earliest preaching of Jeremiah on the apostasy of Israel. Verses 2:1 to 3:5 dramatize the ending of "marriage" between Yahweh and Israel.

Text

The original text of this chapter, as with the rest of the Book of Jeremiah, was written in the Hebrew language. Since the division of the Bible into chapters and verses in the late medieval period, this chapter is divided into 37 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Parashot

The parashah sections listed here are based on the Aleppo Codex. Jeremiah 2 is a part of the Second prophecy in the Prophecies of Destruction section. : open parashah; : closed parashah.

The Broken Marriage between Yahweh and Israel

Similar to the theme in Hosea 1–3, the relationship between Yahweh and the people of Israel is described using the marriage metaphor, where Yahweh acts as a husband to Judah as his wife. The poem in 2:1–3:5 shows the evidence of a broken covenant against Israel, addresses alternately between the two personae of Judah as a female wife and the "male Israel". Yahweh accuses Israel of betraying and forsaking him, while he has been generous to bring them into a "plentiful land", evoking sympathy for Yahweh who cannot understand this treachery.

Verse 1

The opening word Moreover connects Jeremiah's first prophecy with his call as a prophet in, using a similar formula of statement as in.

Verse 7

Verse 16

Egypt, identified by its two cities, will inevitably hegemonize Israel.
The futility of relying on Egypt and Assyria was stated by other prophets, but here it refers to the two political factions in Judah: the pro-Egyptians and the pro-Assyrians. This points to the early period of Jeremiah's ministry, when the two nations held the "balance of power in the Middle East"; this ends when Assyria collapsed in 612 BCE.
"Sihor" refers to the Nile, whereas "the river" refers to the Euphrates.

Verse 36

Israel's two lovers will shame her.

Jewish

*