“How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.”
My Notes
What Does Jeremiah 5:7 Mean?
Jeremiah 5:7 is God's anguished rhetorical question — and the anguish is that the very generosity He showed became the fuel for their betrayal.
"How shall I pardon thee for this?" — the Hebrew 'ey lazoth 'eslach-lakh (how/for what reason shall I forgive you for this?) opens with God asking Himself: on what basis can I pardon? What grounds exist for forgiveness? The Hebrew salach (pardon, forgive) is the word reserved exclusively for divine forgiveness. God is asking whether the conditions for His own forgiveness exist — and the answer implied is: they don't.
"Thy children have forsaken me" — the Hebrew banayikh 'azavuni (your children have abandoned/forsaken me) uses 'azav — to leave, to abandon, to forsake, to desert. The same word used for a spouse abandoning a marriage. God's complaint is relational, not legal: your children left me.
"And sworn by them that are no gods" — the Hebrew vayyishshavĕ'u bĕlo' 'elohim (and they swore by non-gods) identifies the replacement: they took oaths — the most solemn possible act of allegiance — in the names of entities that aren't even gods. The Hebrew lo' 'elohim (non-gods, not-gods) is contemptuous: the things they swore by don't even qualify for the category they're being invoked under.
"When I had fed them to the full" — the Hebrew va'asbi'a 'otham (and I satisfied/filled them) uses sava' — to fill, to satisfy, to give abundance until there's no more want. God fed them until they were full. The generosity was complete. The provision was total. And the fullness became the platform for the betrayal.
"They then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses" — the Hebrew vayyina'aphu uveyth zonah yithgodadu (and they committed adultery and at the house of a harlot they gashed themselves/assembled in troops). The Hebrew na'aph (commit adultery) continues the marital metaphor. The Hebrew zonah (harlot, prostitute) identifies where they went after God fed them. And yithgodadu (gashed themselves, assembled in troops — from gadad, to cut, to band together) may describe either ritual self-laceration (Baal-worship involved cutting — 1 Kings 18:28) or crowding into the brothel in groups.
The sequence is the indictment: God fed them. They were full. And from the fullness, they went to the harlots' houses. The abundance that was supposed to produce gratitude produced adultery instead. The provision that was meant to draw them closer drove them to someone else's bed.
Reflection Questions
- 1.God fed them until full, and from the fullness they went to the brothel. When has God's abundance in your life become the platform for pursuing something other than Him?
- 2.'How shall I pardon thee?' — God asks on what basis forgiveness is possible. What does it tell you about divine grief that God Himself wrestles with the question of how to forgive?
- 3.They swore by 'non-gods' — things that don't even qualify for the category. What 'non-gods' in your life receive the allegiance that belongs to God?
- 4.The generosity preceded the betrayal. How do you prevent God's provision from becoming the foundation for spiritual complacency or wandering?
Devotional
I fed them until they were full. And from the fullness, they went to the brothel.
God's question in this verse isn't angry. It's bewildered. How shall I pardon this? What basis exists for forgiveness? The children He raised abandoned Him. The people He satisfied with abundance used the satisfaction as the springboard for adultery. The very fullness God provided became the energy they spent on betrayal.
The sequence is what makes the verse devastating: "when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery." The provision precedes the sin. The generosity is the context for the betrayal. God didn't fail to provide. He over-provided. And the people took the full stomach and the settled life and the abundant resources and walked to the harlot's house.
This is the specific pain of generosity exploited. Not the pain of being rejected by someone you neglected. The pain of being abandoned by someone you lavished with everything. The spouse who poured out love and found the partner in someone else's bed. The parent who gave everything and watched the child walk away. God's bewilderment isn't that they sinned. It's that they sinned from fullness — from the very abundance He provided.
The "non-gods" they swore by add insult to injury. They didn't leave God for something impressive. They left Him for nothing — lo' 'elohim, things that don't even qualify as gods. The replacement is inferior in every way. And they swore oaths to it — the most binding commitments a person can make.
If God has been generous with you — if your life has been full, if the provision has been abundant, if you've been satisfied — this verse asks: what did the fullness produce? Gratitude or wandering? Worship or adultery? Did the abundance draw you closer to the one who provided it, or did it become the fuel for pursuing something else?
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
How shall I pardon thee for this?.... Because of their manifold transgressions, and multiplied backslidings; or…
Rather, Why, “for what reason” should “I pardon thee?” When ... - Or, “though I bound them to me by oath, yet they…
Here is, I. A challenge to produce any one right honest man, or at least any considerable number of such, in Jerusalem,…
If the MT. be right, the transition to Jehovah's words is an abrupt one. Du., however, considers that an abbreviation of…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture