Jeremiah 2:14

Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
Israel	יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל Yis.ra.'El	H3478	Jisrael · proper noun, a place name
servant	הַעֶ֙בֶד֙ ha.'E.ved	H5650	a servant · interrogative particle + noun, common masculine singular absolute
homeborn	בַּ֖יִת Ba.yit	H1004	a house (in the greatest variation of applications · noun, common masculine singular absolute
why	מַדּ֖וּעַ ma.Du.a'	H4069	what (is) known? · interrogative particle
spoiled	לָבַֽז la.Vaz	H957	plunder · preposition + noun, common masculine 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

Exodus 4:22 And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
Genesis 15:3 And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
Ecclesiastes 2:7 I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were…
Isaiah 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sol…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 2:14-19

The prophet, further to evince the folly of their forsaking God, shows them what mischiefs they had already brought upon themselves by so doing; it had already cost them dear, for to this were owing all the calamities their country was now groaning under, which were but an earnest of more and greater if they repented not. See how they smarted for their folly. I. Their neighbours, who were their professed enemies, prevailed against them, and this was owing to their sin. 1. They were enslaved and lost their liberty (Jer 2:14): Is Israel a servant? No; Israel is my son, my first-born, Exo 4:22. They are children; they are heirs. Nay, their extraction is noble; they are the seed of Abraham, God'…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 2:14

is he a homeborn slave--No. "Israel is Jehovah's son, even His first-born" (Exo 4:22). Jer 2:16, Jer 2:18, Jer 2:36, and the absence of any express contrast of the two parts of the nation are against EICHORN'S view, that the prophet proposes to Judah, as yet spared, the case of Israel (the ten tribes) which had been carried away by Assyria as a warning of what they might expect if they should still put their trust in Egypt. "Were Israel's ten tribes of meaner birth than Judah? Certainly not. If, then, the former fell before Assyria, what can Judah hope from Egypt against Assyria? . . . Israel" is rather here the whole of the remnant still left in their own land, that is, Judah. "How comes it…

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John Gill on Jeremiah 2:14

Is Israel a servant?.... That he does not abide in the house, in his own land, but is carried captive, becomes subject to others, and is used as a slave; so the Targum, "as a servant;'' is he not the Lord's first born? are not the people of Israel called the children of the living God? how come they then to be treated not as children, as free men, but as servants? this cannot be owing to any breach of covenant or promise on God's part, or to the failure of the blessing of national adoption bestowed on them; but to some sin or sins of theirs, which have brought them into this miserable condition: is he a home born slave? or born in the house, of the handmaid, and so in the power of the mas…

The Church Fathers

(Verse 14) Is the Israelite a servant or a native? I believe that from this place, the Jews who were filled with pride said to the Savior: We are the seed of Abraham and have never served anyone. How do you say, 'You will be free' (John 8:33)? Ignorant that everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin, and each one serves the one by whom they are overcome. Therefore, the ones born from the friend of God, Abraham, by their own vice, became like the sons of Ham, to whom it was said: 'Cursed be Canaan; a servant shall he be to his brothers' (Genesis 9:25).
— Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah

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

Slave — Jer. 2:14 (A.V.), but not there found in the original. In Rev. 18:13 the word “slaves” is the rendering of a Greek word meaning “bodies.” The Hebrew and Greek words for slave are usually rendered…
Servant · .Rights of those born to a master — .Rights of those born to a master
Servants · Slaves or bond: By birth — Slaves or bond: By birth

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 2:14

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 2:14-19

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 2:14

John Gill on Jeremiah 2:14

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Jeremiah 2:14

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 2:14-19

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Jeremiah 2:14

John Gill on Jeremiah 2:14

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

John Calvin on Jeremiah 2:14-17

Keil & Delitzsch on Jeremiah 2:14-19

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Jeremiah 2:14-22

Rashi on Jeremiah 2:14