John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 2:31

"O generation, see ye the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? or a land of thick darkness? wherefore say my people, We are broken loose; we will come no more unto thee?" — Jeremiah 2:31 (ASV)

The prophet assumes the character, no doubt, of one in astonishment, to make the sin of the people more detestable, for he speaks as one astonished: generation! The word, דור, dur, as is well known, means an age. It is then as if he had said, “Into what time have we fallen? Or in what an age do we now live?”

We now perceive the meaning of the word. Then he adds, See you the word of Jehovah. The word see seems unsuitable, for he should have said, “Attend to,” or “Hear.” But he tells them to see, and the term is most appropriate; for he does not require the people to hear but, on the contrary, to know, as if he had said, “See for yourselves what this is that the Lord declares.” And he emphatically says, אתם atem, “you yourselves.” For the Jews could have been deservedly condemned by all nations if they were brought into judgment.

But the Prophet shows that however blind they were, they could see with their own eyes what the Lord now says. He does not refer to instruction but to a fact, as if he had said, “The Lord through me expostulates with you; and though there are no witnesses, judge, or umpire present, you yourselves are able to understand and know the whole matter.” Thus we see how aptly the Prophet speaks when he tells them to see the word of Jehovah.

For he immediately adds, Have I been a desert to Israel? He makes the Jews themselves the umpires and judges of the cause, whether they had not experienced God's bounty and forsaken Him, according to his former complaint, when he said that God was the fountain of living waters and that they had dug for themselves broken cisterns. Therefore he says, “How has it happened that you have departed from Me? Have I in vain promised to be bountiful and kind to you? Did I disappoint you or your expectations while you served Me? Since then I had not been to you a dark and gloomy land, a land without the light of the sun, but an abundance of blessings has always been found in Me, how is it that you have departed from Me?”

He afterwards mentions another crime: Why has my people said, We are lords? The verb רדנו, redenu, is variously explained by interpreters. Some derive it from ידר, ired, to descend, and think that the י, iod, is supplied by a point. But these differ in their views: some refer to the calamities with which the Jews had been visited, and others to their apostasy.

The first give this explanation: “We have descended;” that is, “We have been oppressed with calamities, so what can we gain by calling on God, since our affairs are in such a hopeless state?” The second derive another meaning: “We have gone back;” that is, “There is no reason for the prophets to stun our ears with their clamors, for we have resolved once and for all never to return to God. We have wholly renounced Him; away with Him, let Him be gone along with His exhortations, for we will not listen to them.” Both these interpreters think it to be the language of despair, but we see how they differ: the first apply “descend” to the people's calamities, and the second to their treachery, because they had, so to speak, bid adieu to God and wished to have no further dealings with Him.

But there are others who take the word more grammatically, for רדה, rede, and רוד, rud, signify to be lord, or to rule. I therefore prefer the view of those who render the word, We are lords. Some take the verb in a passive sense, but I do not know for what reason, and the commentary of others is very weak: “We have kings and counselors.” I consider it to be the language of pride and vain boasting, for the Jews thought themselves to be kings, according to what Paul says of the Corinthians,

You are rich, you have reigned without us, and I wish that you did reign (1 Corinthians 4:8).

The Corinthians, being inflated with pride on account of their city's opulence, despised the simplicity of the Gospel; they looked for refined things and were much addicted to novelties. Therefore Paul, seeing that they despised the grace of God, ironically reproved them and said that they wished to be rich and to be kings without him, to whom, as an instrument, they yet owed everything.

This same vice is what Jeremiah now condemns in that people: We are lords, we will not come to you; It is as if He had said, “Your happiness has until now come from Me; for whatever you have been, and whatever has been given you, ought to be ascribed to Me and My bounty. But now without Me (for God Himself speaks) you are kings—but by what right and by what title? What do you have as your own? Why then has My people said, We will come no more to you?” We now understand the Prophet's real meaning.

As to the subject itself, in the first place, as I have already said, he is, in a way, astonished at the people's wickedness, as at something monstrous. Therefore he exclaims, O generation! as if he had said that what he saw was incredible.

Then he immediately adds, see you yourselves the word of Jehovah. This was much more severe than if he had summoned them before God’s tribunal, for he thus proved that their wickedness was extremely blatant. For they had, without any cause—indeed, without any pretext and without shame—renounced God, who had been so bountiful towards them.

He also indirectly reproved them because they refused to be instructed; for he commanded them to look at the fact itself, since they were deaf, or, having ears, they closed them against all instruction. For, as we have said, he calls their attention away from the word to the fact itself, and this is what interpreters have not observed.

Then follows an upbraiding—that God had not been a desert to them; but, as the Prophet had shown before, an abundance of all blessings had flowed to them, so as to satisfy them fully. Since God had enriched them through His blessing, their sin in departing from Him was thereby increased all the more.

In the last part of the verse, God expostulates with them about their ingratitude, because they thought themselves to be lords. They were indeed a royal priesthood, but it was through God’s favor.

They did not reign by their own right; they did not reign because they had attained power through their own valor or efforts, or through their own merits or good fortune. How then? Only through the favor of another.

Though they were kings only on the condition of being subject to the supreme King, yet they wished to reign alone—that is, according to their own pleasure—and thus trod God's favor under their feet. It is with this wickedness, then, that the Prophet charges them.

And the end of the verse is of the same meaning: we will come no more to you; as if they stood in no need of God’s aid, for they thought that they could supply themselves with whatever was necessary to support them. Since they were inflated with such pride, they despised God's favor, as if they stood in no need of another's aid.