Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 7:26

"yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers." — Jeremiah 7:26 (ASV)

Worse than their fathers. — The rapid survey of the past makes it doubtful whether the comparison is made between the generations that came out of Egypt and their immediate followers, or between those followers and their successors. Probably the general thought was that the whole history of Israel had been one of progressive deterioration, reaching its climax in the generation in which Jeremiah lived. His words find a striking parallel in the complaint of the Roman historian (Livy, Præf.), or of the poet:

“Æta s parentum, pejor avis, tulit
Nos nequiores.”—Horace, Odes iii. 6.

“Our fathers’ age, more stained with crime
Than were their forefathers in former times,
Has brought us forth a later race
Yet more iniquitous and base.”