Teks -- Jeremiah 2:8 (NET)

2:8 Your priests did not ask, ‘Where is the Lord?’ Those responsible for teaching my law did not really know me. Your rulers rebelled against me. Your prophets prophesied in the name of the god Baal. They all worshiped idols that could not help them.

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Jer 2:8 - They

They that should have taught others, knew as little as they, or regarded as little, who are said here to handle the law, the priests and Levites, who were the ordinary teachers of the law.

Wesley: Jer 2:8 - Pastors

Either teachers, or kings and princes.

Wesley: Jer 2:8 - Prophets

They that should have taught the people the true worship of God, were themselves worshippers of Baal.

JFB: Jer 2:8

The three leading classes, whose very office under the theocracy was to lead the people to God, disowned Him in the same language as the nation at large, "Where is the Lord?" (See Jer 2:6).

JFB: Jer 2:8 - priests

Whose office it was to expound the law (Mal 2:6-7).

JFB: Jer 2:8 - handle

Are occupied with the law as the subject of their profession.

JFB: Jer 2:8 - pastors

Civil, not religious: princes (Jer 3:15), whose duty it was to tend their people.

JFB: Jer 2:8 - prophets

Who should have reclaimed the people from their apostasy, encouraged them in it by pretended oracles from Baal, the Phœnician false god.

JFB: Jer 2:8 - by Baal

In his name and by his authority (compare Jer 11:21).

JFB: Jer 2:8 - walked after things . . . not profit

Answering to, "walked after vanity," that is, idols (Jer 2:5; compare Jer 2:11; Hab 2:18).

Clarke: Jer 2:8 - They that handle the law

They that handle the law - ותפשי vethophe shey , they that draw out the law; they whose office it is to explain it, draw out its spiritual meanings, and show to what its testimonies refer

Clarke: Jer 2:8 - The pastors also

The pastors also - Kings, political and civil rulers

Clarke: Jer 2:8 - Prophesied by Baal

Prophesied by Baal - Became his prophets, and were inspired with the words of lying spirits.

Calvin: Jer 2:8 - NO PHRASE

God assails here especially the teachers and those to whom was committed the power of ruling the people. It often happens that the common people fall away, while yet some integrity remains in the rulers. But God shews here that such was the falling away among the whole community, that priests as well as prophets and all the chief men had departed from the true worship of God, and from all uprightness.

Now, when Jeremiah thus rebukes the teachers and the priests and others, he does not excuse the common people, nor extenuate the crimes, which then prevailed everywhere, as we shall see from what follows. As many think that they set up a shield against God, when they pretend that they are not acquainted with so much learning as to distinguish between light and darkness, but that they are guided by their rulers, the Prophet, therefore, does not here cast the faults of the people upon their rulers, but, on the contrary, he amplifies the atrocity of their impiety, for they had, from the least to the greatest, rejected God and his Law. We now, then, understand the design of the Prophet. ³³

We may learn from this passage how unwise and foolish are they who think that they are in part excusable when they can say, that they have proceeded in their simplicity and have been drawn into error by the faults of others; for it appears evident that the whole community was in a hopeless state when God gave up the priests and rulers unto a reprobate mind; and there is no doubt but that the people had provoked God’s vengeance, when every order, civil as well as religious, was thus corrupt. God then visited the people with deserved punishment, when he blinded the priests, the prophets, and the rulers.

Hence Jeremiah now says, that the priests did not inquire where Jehovah was: and he adds, and they who keep the law, etc. The verb תפש t a ph e sh, means to keep, to lay hold on, and sometimes to cover; so that there may be here a twofold meaning, — that the priests kept the law, — or, that they had it shut up as it were under their keeping. It would not, however, be in harmony with the passage to suppose that the law was suppressed by them; for God, by way of concession, speaks here honorably of them, thought he thereby shews that they were the more wicked, as they had no care for their office. He says, then, that they were the keepers of his law, not that they really kept the law, as though a genuine zeal for it prevailed among them, but because they professed this. They indeed wished to be thought the keepers of the law, who possessed the hidden treasure of celestial truth; for they wished to be consulted as though they were the organs of God’s Spirit. Since, then, they boasted that they kept and preserved the law, the Prophet now more sharply rebukes them, because they knew not God himself. And Paul seems to have taken from this place what he says in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,

“Thou who hast the form of the law — thou who preachest against adultery, committest adultery, and thou who condemnest idols art thyself guilty of sacrilege; for thou keepest the law, restest in it, boastest in God, and with thee is understanding and knowledge.”
(Rom 2:20.)

Paul in these words detects the wickedness of hypocrites; for the more detestable they were, as they were thus inflated with false glory; they profaned the name of God, while they pretended to be his heralds, and as it were his prophets. We now see that this second clause refers to the priests, and that they are called the keepers of the law, because they were so appointed, according to what we read in Malachi. ³⁴

He afterwards adds, The pastors have dealt treacherously with God We may apply this to the counselors of the king as well as to the governors of cities. The Prophet, I have no doubt, included all those who possessed authority to rule the people of God; for kings and their counselors, as well as prophets, are in common called pastors.

And he says, that the prophets prophesied by Baal The name of prophet is sacred; but Jeremiah in this place, as in other places, calls those prophets (contrary to the real fact) who were nothing but impostors; for God had taken from them all the light of divine truth. But as they were held still in esteem by the people, as though they were prophets, the Prophet concedes this title to them, derived from their office and vocation. We do the same in the present day; we call those bishops and prelates, and primates and fathers, who under the papacy boast that they possess the pastoral office, and yet we know that some of them are wolves, and some are dumb dogs. We concede to them these titles in which they take pride; and yet a twofold condemnation impends over their heads, as they thus impiously, and with sacrilegious audacity, claim for themselves sacred titles, and deprive God of the honor rightly due to him. So then Jeremiah, speaking of the prophets, does now point out those as impostors who at that time wickedly deceived the people.

He says that they prophesied by Baal: they ascribed more authority to idols than to the true God. The name of Baal, we know, was then commonly known. The prophets often call idols Baalim, in the plural number; but when Baal signifies a patron, when the prophets speak either of Baal in the singular number, or of Baalim in the plural, they mean the inferior gods, who had then been heaped together by the Jews, as though God was not content with his own power alone, but had need of associates and helpers, according to what is done at this day by those under the papacy, who confess that there is but one true God; and yet they ascribe nothing more to him than to their own idols which they invent for themselves at their pleasure. The same vice then prevailed among the Jews, and indeed among all heathen nations; for it was the plain and real confession of all, that there is but one supreme Being; and yet they had gods without number, and these all were called Baalim. When, therefore, the Prophet says here, that the teachers were ministers of Baal, he sets this name in opposition to the only true God, as though he had said that the truth was corrupted by them, because they passed over its limits, and did not acquiesce in the pure doctrine of the law, but mingled with it corruptions derived from all quarters, even from those many gods which heathen nations had invented for themselves.

Nor does the Prophet insist on a name; for it may have been that these false teachers pretended to profess the name of the eternal God, though falsely. But God is no sophist: there is then no reason for the Papists to think that they are at this day unlike these ancient impostors, because they profess the name of the only true God. It has always been so. Satan has not begun for the first time at this day to transform himself into an angel of light; but all his teachers in all ages have presented their poison, even all their errors and fallacies, in a golden cup. Though, then, these prophets boasted that they were sent from above, and confidently affirmed that they were the servants of the God of Abraham, it was yet all an empty profession; for they mingled with the truth those corruptions which they had derived from the ungodly errors of heathen nations.

It follows, And after those who do not profit have they gone ³⁵ He again, by an implied comparison, exaggerates their sin, because they had despised him whom they had known, by so many evidences, to be their Father and the author of salvation, whose infinite power they had as it were felt by their own hands, and then they followed their own inventions, though there was nothing in all their idols which could have justly allured the people of Israel. Since, then, they followed vain and profitless deceptions, the more heinous and inexcusable was their sin. It afterwards follows —

TSK: Jer 2:8 - priests // and they that // the pastors // prophets // do not

priests : Jer 2:6, Jer 5:31, Jer 8:10,Jer 8:11, Jer 23:9-15; 1Sa 2:12; Isa 28:7, Isa 29:10, Isa 56:9-12; Hos 4:6

and they that : Jer 8:8, Jer 8:9; Deu 33:10; Mal 2:6-9; Luk 11:52; Joh 8:55, Joh 16:3; Rom 2:17-24; 2Co 4:2

the pastors : Jer 10:21, Jer 12:10, Jer 23:1, Jer 23:2

prophets : Jer 23:13; 1Ki 18:29, 1Ki 18:22, 1Ki 18:40

do not : Jer 2:11, Jer 7:8; 1Sa 12:21; Isa 30:5; Hab 2:18; Mat 16:26

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Jer 2:8 - They that handle the law knew me not // The pastors // The prophets prophesied by Baal // Thus saith the Lord // Things that do not profit

They that handle the law knew me not: q.d. They that should have taught others knew as little as they, or regarded as little to know, Hos 4:6 , who are said here to handle or teach the law, viz. the priests and Levites, who Were the ordinary teachers of the law; not that they did so, but that either they ought to do so, or pretended to do so. This was their office, Deu 33:10 , and their practice, Neh 8:8 . The phrase is a metaphor taken from warriors, that are said tractare bellum , to handle their arms.

The pastors either teachers, as instructors; or kings and princes, as conductors. See 1Ki 22:17 .

The prophets prophesied by Baal they that should have taught the people the true worship of God were themselves worshippers of Baal, 1Ki 18:22 . Or, instead of fetching their oracles from me, saying,

Thus saith the Lord they would say, Thus saith Baal; or they did make use of lesser deities (for so doth Baal or Baalim signify) in conjunction with God, persuading themselves they could honour God together with them, as the calves, 1Ki 12:28 .

Things that do not profit viz. idols, a periphrasis, that were never able to do them any service, as Jer 2:5,11 . See Poole "Isa 44:10" . Sure the state must be very bad, when priests, prophets, and people were thus corrupt.

Haydock: Jer 2:8 - Priests // Pastors // In Baal

Priests were silent, or abandoned themselves. ---

Pastors; "princes." (Chaldean) Manasses, Amon, &c. ---

In Baal, promoting his worship. (Haydock) ---

The land was full of false prophets, and none stood up for the Lord.

Gill: Jer 2:8 - The priests said not, where is the Lord // and they that handle the law knew me not // the pastors also transgressed against me // and the prophets prophesied by Baal // and walked after things that do not profit

The priests said not, where is the Lord?.... Whose business it was to draw nigh to God, and offer the sacrifices of the people, and inquire of God for them; whose lips should keep knowledge, and at whose mouth the law should be sought, they being the messengers of the Lord of hosts, Mal 2:7,

and they that handle the law knew me not; the sanhedrim, according to Jarchi; or the lawyers and scribes, the Rabbins and doctors of the law, whose business it was to read and explain it; these did not understand it, nor the mind of God in it; and much less did they know him in a spiritual and evangelical manner; or as he is in Christ, and revealed in the Gospel:

the pastors also transgressed against me; kings, as the Targum, Jarchi, and Kimchi interpret it, who were pastors or shepherds in a civil sense; whose business it was to feed the people as the shepherd does his flock; that is, to guide and govern them by wholesome laws, by the laws of God; but, instead of this, they rebelled against the Lord, and transgressed his commands:

and the prophets prophesied by Baal; in his name; pretending to be inspired by that idol, and to receive the spirit of prophecy from him:

and walked after things that do not profit; the gods of the Gentiles, which could not supply them with the least temporal blessing, and much less give them spiritual and eternal ones; see Jer 14:22. This is to be understood of false prophets, as Ben Melech.