29 Wherefore would ye contend with me? Ye all have transgressed against me, saith Jehovah. 30 In vain have I smitten your children: they received no correction. Your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. 31 O generation, mark ye the word of Jehovah. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Wherefore say my people, We have dominion; we will come no more unto thee? 32 Doth a virgin forget her ornaments, a bride her attire? But my people have forgotten me days without number. 33 How dost thou trim thy way to seek love! Therefore hast thou also accustomed thy ways to wickedness. 34 Yea, in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the innocent poor, whom thou didst not encounter breaking in, but [it is found] upon all these. 35 And thou sayest, Indeed I am innocent; his anger will turn from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with thee because thou sayest, I have not sinned. 36 Why dost thou gad about so much, and change thy way? Thou shalt also be brought to shame by Egypt, as thou wast brought to shame by Assyria. 37 Thou shalt indeed go forth from her with thy hands upon thy head; for Jehovah hath rejected those thou confidest in, and thou shalt not prosper by them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Jeremiah 2:29-37
Commentary on Jeremiah 2:29-37
(Read Jeremiah 2:29-37)
The nation had not been wrought upon by the judgements of God, but sought to justify themselves. The world is, to those who make it their home and their portion, a wilderness and a land of darkness; but those who dwell in God, have the lines fallen to them in pleasant places. Here is the language of presumptuous sinners. The Jews had long thrown off serious thoughts of God. How many days of our lives pass without suitable remembrance of him! The Lord was displeased with their confidences, and would not prosper them therein. Men employ all their ingenuity, but cannot find happiness in the way of sin, or excuse for it. They may shift from one sin to another, but none ever hardened himself against God, or turned from him, and prospered.