Commentary on Jeremiah Volume 1 John Calvin (continued)
JOHN CALVIN
introduce what is contained in the next verse: his object was to compare the Jews to adulterous women, who being led away by unbridled lust, follow wanton lovers. As then he intended to bring this charge against the Jews, he spoke expressly of the ornaments of young women; and hence it follows — Jeremiah 2:33 33. Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
33. Cur bonificas (id est, paras, concinnas) vias tuas ad quaerendum amorem? itaque etiam pravitates docuisti in viis tuis.
This verse is differently explained: but the Prophet simply means; that the Jews were like lascivious women, who not only despise their husbands at home, but ramble here and there in all directions, and also paint their faces and seek for themselves all the charms of wantonness. He says that the Jews had acted in this way; and hence he says that they made beautiful their ways The verb in Hebrew has a wide meaning: it means to prepare, to conciliate favor. But its import here is, as though the Prophet had said, "Why dost thou disguise and paint thyself like strumpets, who use many artifices to allure young men and to inflame their lusts? why then dost thou undertake so much labor to gain a meretricious hire?" We shall hereafter see why he says this; for he upbraids them for applying to the Assyrians and the Egyptians.
It was a common thing with the Prophets to compare the people to lovers; for the Jews, while they ought to have been firmly attached to God, (like a chaste woman, who does not turn her eyes here and there, nor gad about, but has respect to her husband alone,) thought to seek safety now from the Assyrians, then from the Egyptians. This sinful disposition is then what the Prophet here condemns; and hence he speaks of them metaphorically as of an adulterous woman, who despises her husband and rambles after any she can find, and seeks wanton and silly young men in all places, and subjects herself to the gratification of all. We now then understand what the Prophet means.
The words must be noticed: he says, Why makest thou fine thy ways? But he refers here to the care which a wanton woman takes to adorn her person, as though he had said, "Why dost thou thus prepare thyself? and why dost thou seek for thyself what is splendid and elegant, that thy appearance may deceive the eyes of the simple?" For the Jews might have remained safe and secure under God's protection, and might have been so without any calamity. As a husband is content with the beauty of his wife, and seeks no adventitious and refined elegancies; so God required nothing from that people except fidelity, like a husband, who requires chastity in his wife. The meaning then is, — "As a wife, really attached to her husband, has no need is the version of the Septuagint; the Arabic and the Vulgate are the same. Parkhurst considers that ``head-bands'' are meant.
The word is found also in Isaiah 3:20; where the Septuagint render it ``{δακτυλίοις}-rings,'' and the Targum, ``murenulas --- chains,'' which were of gold, and worn around the neck. For any practical purpose it is only necessary to know that they were embellishments which young women delighted in: and women in every age are too fond of such things, and men too; but the case is introduced here only for the sake of illustration. --- Ed