Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 1:16

"And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands." — Jeremiah 1:16 (ASV)

I will utter my judgments against them. —Here, again, we find a literal correspondence in the words of Jeremiah 39:5, “he gave [or uttered] judgment upon him,” regarding Nebuchadnezzar’s sentence on Zedekiah. And yet, the invaders, in their sentence, are to be only the ministers of a higher judgment than their own. In the words “my judgments,” He recognizes their work.

Who have forsaken. —The remainder of the verse gives, as it were, the formal enumeration of the crimes for which Judah was condemned:

1. Apostasy from the true God;
2. The transfer of adoration to other Gods, such as Baal, Ashtaroth, and the Queen of Heaven—sins against the First Commandment;
3. The worship of graven images—a sin against the Second.

The sins were of long standing, but the words point specially to the proportions they had assumed in the reign of Manasseh (2 Chronicles 33:1–7).