Bible Strands
Jeremiah 2:11
Has a nation ever changed its gods? (Yet they are not gods at all.) But My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The Lord speaks through Jeremiah to Israel, contrasting their actions with the historical practices of other nations. This indictment occurs within a prophetic call for the heavens to witness Israel's breach of covenant.
The words — The Hebrew verb הֵמִיר (hemir) means "to exchange" or "to change," appearing twice to frame the comparison. The noun כְּבוֹד (kavod), rendered "Glory," denotes the divine honor and majesty that Israel has traded away.
The thread — The motif of trading divine glory for created forms recurs in Romans 1:23 and Psalm 106:20. It aligns with Isaiah 37:19's declaration that foreign idols are merely wood and stone, not gods.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Israel's idolatry was not a search for new deities but a deliberate trade of divine honor for worthless substitutes. It requires the reader to confront the irrationality of abandoning the covenant source for what cannot save.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
Cross-references
- Romans 1:23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
- Isaiah 37:19 They have cast their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods, but only wood and stone—the work of human hands.
- Psalms 106:20 They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.
- Jeremiah 16:20 Can man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!”
- Micah 4:5 Though all the nations may walk in the name of their gods, yet we will walk in the name of the LORD our God forever and ever.
- Psalms 115:4 Their idols are silver and gold, made by the hands of men.
- Jeremiah 2:8 The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.
- 1 Corinthians 8:4 So about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world, and that there is no God but one.
- Deuteronomy 33:29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
- Psalms 3:3 But You, O LORD, are a shield around me, my glory, and the One who lifts my head.