John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 2:26

"As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;" — Jeremiah 2:26 (ASV)

Some render the words in the future tense, "So ashamed shall be the house of Israel," etc.; and they think that the Prophet is speaking here of the punishment that was impending over the people. But I explain the words as they are—that the impiety of the people was so gross that there was no need to formally prove it, as it was so very palpable.

Hence the Prophet compares the Jews to open thieves, as if he had said that hypocrites among that people gained nothing by their evasions and subterfuges, for their impiety was quite public. They were like a thief when caught, who cannot deny or hide his crime. Therefore, he says that they were caught, as they say, "in the very act." This means their heinous deeds were so conspicuous that, whatever objections they might raise, they could not clear themselves; their baseness was known to all.

So we now perceive what the Prophet means. We have previously seen that the people resorted to many excuses, but Jeremiah shows here that they gained nothing by their evasions, except that they more fully revealed their own effrontery. For their dishonesty was evident to all; it was so manifest that they could not cover it with any disguises or pretenses.

Nor does he speak only of the common people. He condemns kings, princes, priests, and prophets, as if he had said that they had become so corrupt, from the least to the greatest, that having cast off all shame, they openly showed a manifest and blatant contempt for God by following their own inventions and superstitions. And yet the Jews undoubtedly attempted to defend themselves with many excuses. But God here shakes off all those fallacious pretexts with which they thought to cover their heinous deeds, and declares that they were nevertheless manifestly thieves.

The Prophet had said previously that the Jews made a different declaration, and now he condemns their effrontery; but there is no inconsistency regarding the meaning. The Jews denied in words that they were apostates and guilty of faithlessness, or that they had forsaken the worship of God. But the Prophet, in now proclaiming their shamelessness, does not refer to words, for they had their false pretenses ready at hand, as has already been stated. Instead, the Prophet now takes the fact itself as granted and declares that they wickedly and perversely resisted God, so that their wickedness and obstinacy were beyond all remedy.