Jeremiah 2:1-13·~1 min

Israel Has Forsaken God

The word of the LORD sends Jeremiah to Jerusalem with a memory of Israel's younger days, when the nation followed God through the wilderness. Israel is pictured as holy to the LORD, with judgment falling on those who tried to consume her.

N¹ow the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ³Israel was holy to the LORD,

The LORD asks what wrong the fathers found in Him that they wandered after emptiness and forgot the One who led them out of Egypt. Even after entering a fertile land, priests, rulers, and prophets alike failed to seek Him and turned toward what could not profit.

⁴Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob, and all you families of the house of Israel. ⁵This is what the LORD says: ⁶They did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD ⁷I brought you into a fertile land ⁸The priests did not ask,

God declares that He will contend with His people and calls the heavens to be appalled at what has happened. Nations do not usually exchange their gods, yet Judah has traded true glory for nothing and committed the double evil of leaving the living fountain for cracked cisterns.

⁹Therefore, I will contend with you again, ¹⁰Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus ¹¹Has a nation ever changed its gods? ¹²Be stunned by this, O heavens; ¹³“For My people have committed two evils:

Section summaryThe LORD begins by remembering Israel's earlier devotion and holiness, then turns to the bewildering fact that His people have drifted from Him without cause. Their leaders no longer ask for the LORD, and the section ends with the sharp charge that they have abandoned the fountain of living water for broken cisterns.

Role in the chapterThis opening section frames Judah's sin as a personal and covenantal betrayal rather than a minor lapse. It sets the chapter's argument by contrasting God's past care with the nation's present exchange of Him for what cannot hold life.