John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 2:17

"Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken Jehovah thy God, when he led thee by the way?" — Jeremiah 2:17 (ASV)

Have you not procured this unto yourself All this desolation and destruction, both from the Egyptians and the Babylonians; their sin was the cause of it, their idolatry and forsaking the Lord their God, as follows: and so the Targum,

``is not this vengeance taken upon you?'' that is, by the Lord, for their sins and transgressions; he suffered these nations to make them desolate on that account: to which agrees the Septuagint version, "has not he done these things unto you?" for what the Egyptians and Babylonians did were done by the will of the Lord, who suffered them for their correction: and the Arabic version renders it, "have not I done these things unto you?" and the Syriac as a prophecy, as indeed so is the whole, "lo, so it shall be done to you"; as is predicted in the foregoing verses, and that for the following reason:

in that you have forsaken the Lord your God ; as in (Jeremiah 2:13) , (See Gill on Jeremiah 2:13), that is, as the Targum interprets it, the worship of the Lord your God, his service, his statutes, and his ordinances; and followed after idols, and the worship of them; which is aggravated by the circumstance of time in which this was done:

when he led you by the way? who showed you the right way, and you walked not in it, as the Targum; the way in which they should have gone, the way of their duty, and his commandments; and which would have been pleasant and profitable to them, and secured them from ruin and destruction.