Matthew Poole and continuators on Jeremiah 2:31

31 ¶ O generation , see ye the word of the LORD : have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness ? Wherefore say my people, We are lords , we will come no more unto thee.

Or, Oh ye men of this Generation, a note of admiration, or rather, O Generation, a note of compellation, it is to you I speak,

i. e. Look well to it, consider it, as the rod is to teach, and therefore ought to be heard, Mic. 6.9. So the word is to be considered of, and therefore ought to be looked into chap. 2.19.

He speaketh here, not so much of the doctrine of the word, as of the thing it self, q. d. you shall see the thing with your eyes, because you give the Doctrine the hearing onely, as we use to say, i. e. your ears are shut against it.

Here God challengeth them again to tell him, what unkindness he had shewed them, as before ver. 5. have I been like the Wilderness of Arabia, have not I accommodated you with all necessaries at all times, Deut. 32.13, 14. Ezek. 34.13, 14, 15. nay in the Wilderness it self I was not a Wilderness unto you, an account whereof Nehemiah gives Neh. 9.15. to 23. and you have the story of it, Psal. 78.

Diverse interpreters derive this word from a different root, and accordingly render the sense variously. Some from a root that signifies to fade or sall, as a Land where fruits fall off before it be ripe bringing nothing to perfection, and so Tremelius, and Iunius translate it, Isa. 28.1, 4. q. d. have you found me to fail your expectations in any thing, that I have promised you, Iosh. 21.45. and 23.14. Others derive it from a word that signifies late, as a Land that brings forth its fruit late in the year, which either ripeneth not or ripeneth unkindly, q. d. have you found me backward in any thing to do you good? Have I not fed you to the full? Others from darkness, properly thick darkness, Exod. 10.22. Ioel 2.2. and it is the more significant because jah the name of God is added to it, q. d. the darkness of God as a sleep of God, for a deep sleep, 1 Sam. 26.12. flame of God for a ve[illegible: 1 letter]ement flame, Cant. 8.6. as if it were a Land uninhabitable, because of the total want of light, q. d. have I been a God of no use or comfort to them, that they thus leave me? Have they had nothing from me but misery and affliction? As this notion of darkness may import, Isa. 8.22. Lam. 3.2. Hence the LXX express it by a Land bringing forth thorns. Or this expression a Land of darkness may be put by apposition to the former.

i. e. In their heart.

Words of pride and boasting: God had endeavoured to make them sensible, that all their happiness they owed to him, and now q. d. you rule as Lords without us, see 1 Cor. 4.8. now you cast me off, or rather we are well enough established in our Government by forreign aides, and compacts with the Egyptians, and Assyrians, &c. and have rulers of our own; we have no such great need of thee, hence the LXX render it in the passive voice we will not be ruled, which agrees with the next words of the verse Deut. 32.15, 16. something of this appeared in Vzziah, 2 Chron. 26.15, 16. and Hezekiah, 2 Chron. 32.25. neither was David wholly clear, Psal. 30.6.

Marginal references: Heb. we have dominion.