English Standard Version
Jeremiah 2:33
33"How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways.
Jeremiah 2:33 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
- New International Version (NIV)How skilled you are at pursuing love! Even the worst of women can learn from your ways.
- New King James Version (NKJV)“Why do you beautify your way to seek love? Therefore you have also taught The wicked women your ways.
- New Living Translation (NLT)“How you plot and scheme to win your lovers. Even an experienced prostitute could learn from you!
Context of Jeremiah 2:33
31And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, 'We are free, we will come no more to you'? 32Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me days without number. "How well you direct your course to seek love! So that even to wicked women you have taught your ways. 34Also on your skirts is found the lifeblood of the guiltless poor; you did not find them breaking in. Yet in spite of all these things 35you say, 'I am innocent; surely his anger has turned from me.' Behold, I will bring you to judgment for saying, 'I have not sinned.'
Read all of Jeremiah 2Jeremiah 2:33 word by word
מַה־תֵּיטִ֥בִי דַּרְכֵּ֖ךְ לְבַקֵּ֣שׁ אַהֲבָ֑ה לָכֵן֙ גַּ֣ם אֶת־הָרָע֔וֹת לִמַּ֖דְתְּ אֶת־דְּרָכָֽיִךְ׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Jeremiah 2:33
- Jeremiah 2:23How can you say, 'I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals'? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there,
- Jeremiah 3:1"If a man divorces his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's wife, will he return to her? Would not that land be greatly polluted? You have played the whore with many lovers; and would you return to me? declares the Lord.
- Isaiah 57:7On a high and lofty mountain you have set your bed, and there you went up to offer sacrifice.
- Hosea 2:5For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'
- 2 Chronicles 33:9Manasseh led Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem astray, to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the people of Israel.
- Ezekiel 16:27Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you and diminished your allotted portion and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.
Commentaries on Jeremiah 2:33
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 33Why trimmest thou thy way - Ye have used a multitude of artifices to gain alliances with the neighboring idolatrous nations. Hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways - Ye have made even these idolaters worse than they were before. Dr. Blayney translates, "Therefore have I taught calamity thy ways." A prosopopoeia: "I have instructed calamity where to find thee." Thou shalt not escape punishment.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 33Why trimmest thou thy way - literally, “Why makest thou thy way good,” a phrase used here of the pains taken by the Jews to learn the idolatries of foreign nations. The wicked ones - Or, “therefore thou hast taught” thy ways wickednesses.”Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 29-37Verses 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!…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 33-34The Israelites made plans with their "lovers" , their neighbor who had strong armies, by forming treaties for protection. God had already promised them protection. God saw this as an act of betrayal that tainted Israel's character. Like their pagan neighbors, Israel harmed its own innocent and poor people (Jeremiah 7:6; 2 Kings 21:16; 24:4).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 3333. Why trimmest--Maurer translates, "How skilfully thou dost prepare thy way," &c. But see 2Ki 9:30. "Trimmest" best suits the image of one decking herself as a harlot. way--course of life. therefore--accordingly. Or else, "nay, thou hast even," &c. also ... wicked ones--even the wicked harlots, that is, (laying aside the metaphor) even the Gentiles who are wicked, thou teachest to be still more so [Grotius].Read the comment
Topics related to Jeremiah 2:33
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Jeremiah 2
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries