Jeremiah 4:22 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 4:22
For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
to be (causative) make well · conjunction + preposition + verb, hiphil infinitive construct
knowledge
יָדָֽעוּya.Da.'u
H3045
to know (properly · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person common plural
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
1 Corinthians 14:20 Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
Romans 16:19 For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, a…
Jeremiah 5:21 Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding; which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:
Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest t…
Romans 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Romans 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
Hosea 5:4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LO…
Micah 2:1 Woe to them that devise iniquity, and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 4:19–end
The prophet is here in an agony, and cries out like one upon the rack of pain with some acute distemper, or as a woman in travail. The expressions are very pathetic and moving, enough to melt a heart of stone into compassion: My bowels! my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; and yet well, and in health himself, and nothing ails him. Note, A good man, in such a bad world as this is, cannot but be a man of sorrows. My heart makes a noise in me, through the tumult of my spirits, and I cannot hold my peace. Note, The grievance and the grief sometimes may be such that the most prudent patient man cannot forbear complaining.
Now, what is the matter? What is it that puts the good man into such ag…
Jehovah's reply; they cannot be otherwise than miserable, since they persevere in sin. The repetition of clauses gives greater force to the sentiment.
wise . . . evil . . . to do good . . . no knowledge--reversing the rule (Rom 16:19) "wise unto . . . good, simple concerning evil."
John Gill on Jeremiah 4:22
For my people is foolish,.... This, as Kimchi says, is the answer of the Lord to the prophet; for not the prophet says this, but the Lord to the prophet, giving a reason why this sore destruction came upon the people of the Jews, and so reconciling his mind to the providence; seeing those whom he had chosen to be his people, above all people upon the face of the earth, and who professed themselves to be his people, had acted such a foolish part as they had done, in backsliding from him, revolting from his ways and worship, rebelling against him, and in committing such gross idolatries as they had been guilty of. So a people may be a professing people, and yet a foolish one; there are foolish…
Jeremiah 4:22
22. For my people is foolish, they have not known me; they are sottish children, and they have none understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.
22. Quoniam stultus populus meus, me non cognovit; filii insipientes ipsi, et non intelligentes ipsi (sunt; chmh demonstrativum pronomen ponitur vice verbi:) astuti ipsi (vel, sapientes) ad malum; sed ad benefaciendum non intelligunt.
The Prophet again teaches us, that the cause of these evils arose from the people themselves, and was to be found in them, so that they could not transfer it to anybody else. Hence he says, My people are foolish. He speaks here in the person of God; for it immediately…
The Church Fathers
In the beginning, God commanded that you do these things because of your wickedness. In the same way, because of your determination to remain wicked, or rather, because you are increasingly prone to do it, he uses the same precepts to call you to remember it or come to know it. But you are a people hard-hearted and without understanding, both blind and lame, children without faith, as he himself says, honoring him only with your lips, far from him in your hearts, teaching doctrines that are your own and not his.
And therefore the scribes and Pharisees, too, who from the times of the law had begun to despise God, did not receive His Word, that is, they did not believe on Christ. Of these Esaias says: "Thy princes are rebellious, companions of thieves, loving gifts, following after rewards, not judging the fatherless, and negligent of the cause of the widows." And Jeremiah, in like manner: "They," he says, "who rule my people did not know me; they are senseless and imprudent children; they are wise to do evil, but to do well they have no knowledge."
The ancient and pious doctrine that defended the Trinity was abolished, by setting up a fort and battering down the incarnation. They opened the door to impiety by means of what is written, using as their pretext their reverence for Scripture and for the use of approved terms but really introducing unscriptural Arianism. For the phrase "like, according to the Scriptures," was a bait to the simple, concealing the hook of impiety, a figure seeming to look in the direction of all who passed by, a boot fitting either foot, a winnowing with every wind, gaining authority from the newly written wickedness and tool against the truth. "They were wise to do evil, but they had no knowledge to do good."
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
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Blindness · 21:14;22:13,14; — 21:14;22:13,14;
Condescension Of God · Expostulates with backsliding Israel — Expostulates with backsliding Israel
Fools · Exemplified: Israel — Exemplified: Israel
Titles And Names Of The Wicked · Sottish children — Sottish children
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).
Grief at the desolation of the land the infatuation of the people. - Jer 4:19. "My bowels, my bowels! I am pained! the chambers of my heart - my heart rages within me! I cannot hold my peace! for thou hearest (the) sound of the trumpet, my soul, (the) war-cry. Jer 4:20. Destruction upon destruction is called; for spoiled is the whole land; suddenly are my tents spoiled, my curtains in a moment. Jer 4:21. How long shall I see (the) standard, hear (the) sound of the trumpet? Jer 4:22. For my people is foolish, me they know not; senseless children are they, and without understanding; wise are they to do evil, but to do good they know not. Jer 4:23. I look on the earth, and, lo, it is waste and…
When Jeremiah heard . . . trumpets and the battle cries of the invaders who brought desolation, he realized that his own family and other people he knew were being killed or left homeless. Jeremiah could not escape the effects of God’s judgment even though he was faithfully serving the Lord (9:1, 19; 10:19-20; 20:9; 2 Kgs 25:11; 2 Chr 36:20; Ps 42:7; Isa 15:5; 16:11; 21:3; 22:4; Ezek 7:26).
Rashi on Jeremiah 4:21
How long will I see these groups carrying the standard to come to wage war.
