Matthew Henry Commentary Jeremiah 2:29-37

"Wherefore will ye contend with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith Jehovah. In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. 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? Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women hast thou taught thy ways. 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. Yet thou saidst, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned. Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou shalt be ashamed of Egypt also, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria. From thence also shalt thou go forth, with thy hands upon thy head: for Jehovah hath rejected those in whom thou trustest, and thou shalt not prosper with them." — Jeremiah 2:29-37 (ASV)

The nation had not been affected by the judgments of God, but sought to justify themselves. To those who make the world their home and their portion, it is a wilderness and a land of darkness; but for those who dwell in God, the lines have fallen to them in pleasant places.

This is the language of presumptuous sinners. The Jews had long thrown off serious thoughts of God. How many days of our lives pass without a suitable remembrance of Him!

The Lord was displeased with their misplaced confidences and would not prosper them in these. People employ all their ingenuity but cannot find happiness in the way of sin, or an excuse for it. They may shift from one sin to another, but no one has ever hardened themselves against God, or turned from Him, and prospered.