Jeremiah 2:21

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(21) A noble vine.—Literally, a Sorek vine. Elsewhere rendered choice or choicest (Genesis 49:11; Isaiah 5:2). The word “Sorek” points primarily to the dark purple of the grape, and then to the valley of Sorek, between Ascalon and Gaza (Judges 16:4).

Wholly a right seed.—Literally, a seed of truth, parallel with the “good seed” in the Parable of the Tares. Here, however, as in Isaiah 5:1-7, which Jeremiah seems to have in his mind, stress is laid not on the mingling of the evil with the good, but on the degeneration which had changed the character of that which God had planted.

Art thou turned . . .?—Better, hast thou changed thyself . . .?

Plant.—Better, branches.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

2:20-28 Notwithstanding all their advantages, Israel had become like the wild vine that bears poisonous fruit. Men are often as much under the power of their unbridled desires and their sinful lusts, as the brute beasts. But the Lord here warns them not to weary themselves in pursuits which could only bring distress and misery. As we must not despair of the mercy of God, but believe that to be sufficient for the pardon of our sins, so neither must we despair of the grace of God, but believe that it is able to subdue our corruptions, though ever so strong.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A noble vine - Properly, a Sorek vine (see Isaiah 5:2), which produced a red wine Proverbs 23:31, and had a lasting reputation Genesis 49:11.

A right seed - literally, "a seed of truth," i. e., true, genuine seed, not mixed with weeds, nor with seed of an inferior quality. Compare Matthew 13:24.

How then art thou turned - Or, "How then" hast thou changed thyself "unto me" (i. e., to my hurt or vexation) "into the degenerate" branches "of a strange vine?" The stock, which was God's planting, was genuine, and of the noblest sort: the wonder was how such a stock could produce shoots of a totally different kind Deuteronomy 32:32.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

21. The same image as in De 32:32; Ps 80:8, 9; Isa 5:1, &c.

unto me—with respect to Me.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

A noble vine; a usual metaphor for the church, Psalm 80:8,9, &c. See Poole "Isaiah 5:1". The Hebrew is Sorek, and may refer to the place or to the plant. With reference to the place, it may be taken either for a proper name, as Carmel for any fruitful place; so here noting either the place whence, viz. a vine of the same kind with those that come from Sorek; possibly that country where Samson saw Delilah, Judges 16:4: or, the place where planted, viz. in a fruitful land, Exodus 15:17. See Poole "Isaiah 1:2". If it be referred to the plant, then it points at the excellency of its kind; and this the next clause seems to favour: and thus it notes both God’s care; he had as great a care of it as of the choicest plant; see on Isaiah 27:2,3; and also his expectation, that it should prove so, Isaiah 5:4. And the sense is, I planted thee, that thou shouldst bring forth choice fruit to me.

A right seed; a right seed of true believers, as ill the days of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Or supposing with to be understood before right seed, (as it often is in the Hebrew,) we may understand it of the ordinances of his church, which are said to be the plants or seed that God furnisheth it withal, Matthew 13:24; and these are called right, Nehemiah 9:13, not false or counterfeit.

The degenerate plant: though there be only degenerate or declining in the Hebrew text, yet the supplement is necessary in regard of the metaphor.

Strange: this must here be taken in a bad sense, as the word

degenerate going before intimates, though it be sometimes for what is rare and excellent: here it notes their apostacy and infidelity, and other wickednesses, where God speaks after the manner of man, both in a way of wonder and reproof.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed,.... It is usual to compare the people of the Jews to a vineyard, and to vines; and their settlement in the land of Canaan to the planting of vines in a vineyard; see Isaiah 5:1. Kimchi says this is spoken concerning Abraham; no doubt respect is had to the Jewish fathers, such as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the twelve patriarchs, Moses, Joshua, and Caleb, and the like; who, having the true and right seed of grace in them, became like choice and noble vines, and brought forth much fruit, and were deserving of imitation by their posterity:

how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? like a vine that grows in the woods, and brings forth wild grapes; so these, their sons, degenerating in practice from their fathers, became corrupt in themselves, and unprofitable to God. The Targum of the whole is,

"I set you before me as the plant of a choice vine, all of you doing truth; but how are you changed before me in your corrupt works? ye have declined from my worship, ye are become as a vine in which there is no profit.''

Geneva Study Bible

Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

21. The fault did not lie in Jehovah’s planting, but in Israel’s perversity. Hosea 10:1 has the same illustration. Jeremiah has probably a reminiscence also of Isaiah 5:1 ff., where, however, Israel is not as here the vine, but the vineyard in which it is planted.

a noble vine] a Sorek vine, the word Sorek probably referring to the colour of the fruit, a vine bearing dark-purple grapes. It is the “choice vine” of Genesis 49:11.

how then art thou turned] That which had been sown, in other words the people, when first chosen to be God’s, was uncorrupt. How is it then, He asks, that such “right seed” can have produced such degenerate shoots?

degenerate plant] The Hebrew is harsh, and suggested emendations are rendered either (with LXX) bitterness, or (with Dr.) evil smell.

strange] foreign. For the word in this sense cp. Genesis 42:7; Exodus 21:8; Psalm 114:1 and so

And palmers for to seeken straunge strondes.

Chaucer, Cant. Tales, prol.

unto me] to my grief—a frequent use of the dative case.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 21. - A noble vine. Jeremiah means the choicest kind of Oriental vine, called sorek (from the dark-red color of its grapes), and mentioned again in Isaiah 5:2. The figure of the vine is one endeared to us by its association especially with our Lord; it was endeared to the Jews by the annual festivities of the vintage. The sacred writers are never afraid of its palling on the ear by repetition (comp. Jeremiah 5:10; Jeremiah 6:9; Jeremiah 12:10; Isaiah 5:1-7; Isaiah 27:2, 3; Ezekiel 17:6; Psalm 80:8-16). A right seed; i.e. a vine-shoot of the genuine sort. "Seed" for "shoot," as in Isaiah 17:11 (scrap. ver. 10). The degenerate plant; rather, degenerate shoots (if at least the text is right). Jeremiah 2:21

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

In this whoring with the false gods, Israel shows its utter corruption. I have planted thee a noble vine; not, with noble vines, as we translate in Isaiah 5:2, where Israel is compared to a vineyard. Here Israel is compared to the vine itself, a vine which Jahveh has planted; cf. Psalm 80:9; Hosea 10:1. This vine was all (כּלּה, in its entirety, referred to שׂורק, as collect.) genuine seed; a proper shoot which could bear good grapes (cf. Ezekiel 17:5); children of Abraham, as they are described in Genesis 18:19. But how has this Israel changed itself to me (לי, dativ. incommodi) into bastards! סוּרי is accus., dependent on נהפכתּ; for this constr. cf. Leviticus 13:25; Psalm 114:8. סוּרים sig. not shoots or twigs, but degenerate sprouts or suckers. The article in הגּפן is generic: wild shoots of the species of the wild vine; but this is not the first determining word; cf. for this exposition of the article Jeremiah 13:4; 2 Samuel 12:30, etc., Ew. 290, a3); and for the omission of the article with נכריּה, cf. Ew. 293, a. Thus are removed the grammatical difficulties that led Hitz. to take ' סוּרי וגוquite unnaturally as vocative, and Graf to alter the text. "A strange vine" is an interloping vine, not of the true, genuine stock planted by Jahveh (Jeremiah 2:10), and which bears poisonous berries of gall. Deuteronomy 32:32.