Bible Strands
Jeremiah 2:9
Therefore, I will contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your children’s children.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Israel following the prophet’s catalog of priestly neglect, legal corruption, and idolatrous leadership. The declaration occurs immediately after the description of covenant violation and precedes the rhetorical challenge to distant nations in the following verse.
The words — אָרִ֥יב ('a.Riv) translates literally as "I will contend," paired with עֹ֛ד ('od) meaning "again." These terms frame the divine response as a formal legal prosecution rather than a simple warning.
The thread — The motif of God’s legal contention appears in Ezekiel 20:35, where judgment occurs face to face in the wilderness, and in Jeremiah 2:35, where self-claimed innocence triggers divine reckoning. Exodus 20:5 establishes the pattern of iniquity visiting subsequent generations.
Why it lands — The text demands acknowledgment of collective guilt and rejects the presumption of personal innocence. It requires readers to recognize that covenant rebellion produces concrete consequences that extend beyond the immediate generation.
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
Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your children’s children will I plead.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the nations, where I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
- Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- Jeremiah 2:35 you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’
- Micah 6:2 Hear, O mountains, the LORD’s indictment, you enduring foundations of the earth. For the LORD has a case against His people, and He will argue it against Israel:
- Leviticus 20:5 then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech.
- Isaiah 3:13 The LORD arises to contend; He stands to judge the people.
- Isaiah 43:26 Remind Me, let us argue the matter together. State your case, so that you may be vindicated.
- Jeremiah 2:29 Why do you bring a case against Me? You have all rebelled against Me,” declares the LORD.
- Hosea 2:2 Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.