29 Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me, says Yahweh. 30 I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. 31 Generation, see the word of Yahweh. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? or a land of thick darkness? why say my people, We are broken loose; we will come no more to you? 32 Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number. 33 How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways. 34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things. 35 Yet you said, I am innocent; surely his anger is turned away from me. Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say, I have not sinned. 36 Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria. 37 From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head: for Yahweh has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with 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.