Jeremiah 18:15 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 18:15
Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
forgotten
שְׁכֵחֻ֥נִיshe.khe.Chu.ni
H7911
to mislay · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural + pronominal suffix
incense
יְקַטֵּ֑רוּye.ka.Te.ru
H6999
to smoke · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
vanity
לַשָּׁ֣וְאla.Shav'
H7723
evil (as destructive) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
stumble
וַיַּכְשִׁל֤וּםvai.yakh.shi.Lum
H3782
to totter or waver (through weakness of the legs · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
ways
בְּדַרְכֵיהֶם֙be.dar.khei.Hem
H1870
a road (as trodden) · preposition + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
ancient
עוֹלָ֔םo.Lam
H5769
properly · noun, common masculine singular absolute
paths
שְׁבִילֵ֣יshe.vi.Lei
H7635
a track or passage-way (as if flowing along) · noun, common masculine plural construct
walk
יָלַךְyâlak
H3212
to walk (literally or figuratively)
paths
נְתִיב֔וֹתne.ti.Vot
H5410
a (beaten) track · noun, common feminine plural construct
way
דֶּ֖רֶךְDe.rekh
H1870
a road (as trodden) · noun, common both genders singular absolute
up
סְלוּלָֽהse.lu.Lah
H5549
to mound up (especially a turnpike) · verb, qal passive participle, feminine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find re…
Jeremiah 2:32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.
Isaiah 57:14 And shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumblingblock out of the way of my people.
Hosea 11:2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.
Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, t…
Malachi 2:8 But ye are departed out of the way; ye have caused many to stumble at the law; ye have corrupted the covenant of Levi, saith the LORD of hos…
Isaiah 41:29 Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.
Jeremiah 10:15 They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 18:11-17
These verses seem to be the application of the general truths laid down in the foregoing part of the chapter to the nation of the Jews and their present state.
I. God was now speaking concerning them to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy; for it is that part of the rule of judgment that their case agrees with (Jer 18:11): "Go, and tell them" (saith God), "Behold I frame evil against you and devise against you. Providence in all its operations is plainly working towards your ruin. Look upon your conduct towards God, and you cannot but see that you deserve it; look upon his dealings with you, and you cannot but see that he designs it." He frames evil, as the potter frames the vessel, s…
Because--rather, "And yet"; in defiance of the natural order of things.
forgotten me-- (Jer 2:32). This implies a previous knowledge of God, whereas He was unknown to the Gentiles; the Jews' forgetting of God, therefore, arose from determined perversity.
they have caused . . . to stumble--namely the false prophets and idolatrous priests have.
ancient paths-- (Jer 6:16): the paths which their pious ancestors trod. Not antiquity indiscriminately, but the example of the fathers who trod the right way, is here commended.
them--the Jews.
not cast up--not duly prepared: referring to the raised center of the road. CALVIN translates, "not trodden." They had no precedent of former saints to…
Because my people hath forgotten me,.... Or, "that they have forgotten me" (z); this is the horrible thing they have done, which was unheard of among the Gentiles, who were always tenacious of their gods, and the worship of them; and that foolish and unwise thing, which was like leaving pure flowing streams of water for dirty puddles. This is to be understood of their forsaking the worship of God, as the Targum interprets it, and following after idols:
they have burnt incense to vanity; to idols, which are vain empty things, and which cannot give their worshippers what they expect from them: or, "in vain they burn incense" (a); even to the true God, while they also sacrificed unto idols; wh…
The Church Fathers
(Verse 15) Because my people have forgotten me, offering sacrifices in vain and stumbling in their ways, in the paths of the world (or eternal) in order to walk through them on an untrodden journey. Whoever forgets God and forsakes him, who says: 'I am the way' (John 14:6); offers sacrifices to foreign gods, stumbles in his own ways, not God's, and forsakes the ancient and eternal paths, which are trodden by the footsteps of all who worship God. But these truly have walked on an untrodden path, and having abandoned the worship of God, they have revered idols, for which the punishment that follows is inflicted.
"For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense in vain." Everyone who sins has forgotten God, but the righteous one says, "All these things have come upon us, and we have not forgotten you, nor have we done wrong" — and he burned incense in vain. But what "they have burned incense in vain" means must be considered. If we take up again the things said earlier upon the hundred and fortieth Psalm, we shall understand what "they have burned incense in vain" is. Now there was in the Psalm something of this sort said: "Let my prayer be set forth as incense before you." Therefore my prayer, being composed of a fine heart — when our heart is not made gross — being sent up, becomes as incense before God. If, then, the prayer of the righteous is incense before God, the prayer of the unrighteous is indeed incense, but such incense that it may be said concerning it and concerning the unrighteous who prays, "they have burned incense in vain"; as is written concerning Judas, "Let his prayer become sin." That man, in his praying, burned incense in vain. And who it is that burns incense in vain, let us consider still further in this way. "Three times in the year," it says, "shall every male of yours appear before the Lord your God," to which is immediately added, "You shall not appear before me empty."
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Highways · Often obstructed — Often obstructed
Idolatry · They who practise: Forget God — They who practise: Forget God
Vanity · Idolatry is — Idolatry is
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Jeremiah 18:14-15
14. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken?
14. Ar relinquet e rupe agri nivem Libani? an relinquentur aquae alienae et frigidae fluentes?
15. Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burnt incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up;
15. Quia oblitus est mei populus meus, frustra suffitum faciunt (vel, adolent,) dum corruere eos fecerunt (copula enim explicitive accipitur, vel causaliter) in viis suis (vel, ipsorum,) semitis saeculi, ut ambularent per semitas viam…
Application of the emblem to Judah. - Jer 18:11. "And now speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus hath Jahveh said: Behold, I frame against you evil and devise against you a device. Return ye, now, each from his evil way, and better your ways and your doings. Jer 18:12. But they say: There is no use! For our imaginations will we follow, and each do the stubbornness of his evil heart. Jer 18:13. Therefore thus hath Jahveh said: Ask now among the heathen! who hath heard the like? A very horrible thing hath the virgin of Israel done! Jer 18:14. Does the snow of Lebanon cease from the rock of the field? or do strange, cold trickling waters dry up? Jer 18:15. For…
The answer to these two rhetorical questions was “No.” The snow and the streams of the mountaintops of Lebanon were perennially reliable. By contrast, the Lord’s people were not so reliable. • The ancient highways represented a life of faithfulness to the covenant (6:16), while the muddy paths symbolized a life of self-serving paganism.
Rashi on Jeremiah 18:15
For so have My people done, that they have forgotten Me and burnt incense to vanity.
ancient paths The proper paths they said that they are a stumbling block, in order to go...[on] a way that is not trodden down Heb. סְלוּלָה.
