John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 2:34

"Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor: thou didst not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things." — Jeremiah 2:34 (ASV)

The Prophet repeats, I believe, what he had said before—that the wickedness of his nation was incorrigible. For they did not repent when warned, but on the contrary, raged like wild beasts against the Prophets and religious teachers. Those interpreters are mistaken who think that the savage cruelty of the Jews in general is condemned here; and all are of this opinion.

But the Prophet no doubt enhances this evil by saying that the Jews were not only obstinate in their vices but also raged furiously against the Prophets. Hence he shows again that God had used all remedies to heal the Jews, but without effect. For what better medicine could have been offered than for the Prophets to reprove the people and to show them how wickedly they had departed from God? God then wished to correct the vices of His own people in this way; but He was so far from achieving anything that in Jerusalem and throughout all Judea, the Prophets were slaughtered, and the whole land was filled with and polluted by their blood.

Therefore, he says, Even in thy wings has been found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents. He calls the borders of garments wings. He seems to say that these slaughters were not hidden, for the Jews were sprinkled with blood to the very edges of their garments.

It is as if he had said, “There is no reason for me to deal harshly with you in this instance, for your filthiness is most apparent. You have not only been rebellious against my teaching, but you have also cruelly murdered my prophets. If you ask, where are these slaughters to be found? Even in your wings, on the borders of your garments, so that your crimes are fully known.” Now we perceive what the Prophet means.

We must also notice the significance of the particle גם, gam, also, or even. Their cruelty was worse and more nefarious because they thus rose up against their own physicians; for the prophets, as has been said, were the ministers of their safety. Since they raged in this way against God’s favor so as to murder His prophets, it became still more evident that they were utterly irreclaimable.

Afterwards, he adds what serves as a confirmation: They have not been found in digging under. Some offer another explanation, but those are correct who think that the Prophet alludes to what Moses says in Exodus 22:2—that if a thief should be found digging under (or undermining), he might be killed with impunity. For he who breaks through into the houses of others in this way is as audacious as a robber and should be considered not only a thief but also as one guilty of manslaughter and felony.

God then says that the Prophets, who had been slain by the Jews, had not been found in digging up; that is, they had not been found guilty of any crime, either robbery or murder, for he mentions a particular act instead of the general crime.

But it has been on account of all these things; that is, “because they boldly dared to reprove you, because they severely condemned your vices, because they discovered your baseness, because they were enemies to your perfidy and your sins. Since the prophets, by the divine Spirit, had thus carried on war with your sins, they have on this account been murdered by you.”

We see how well the whole passage reads, provided it is applied to the prophets only. It was not indeed the object of Jeremiah to condemn murders generally among the Jews, but to show that they were the enemies of the prophets because they were opposed to every good and sound counsel and were incapable of receiving instruction. The mistake of other interpreters is made evident by this, for in the last clause they touch neither heaven nor earth.