Jeremiah 2:33

Sin

³¹ O generation, see ye the word of the LORD. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

³² Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

³⁴ Also in thy skirts is found the blood of the souls of the poor innocents: I have not found it by secret search, but upon all these.

³⁵ Yet thou sayest, Because I am innocent, surely his anger shall turn from me. Behold, I will plead with thee, because thou sayest, I have not sinned.

This was said to Israel at a particular time, so it is wise to read it together with the surrounding text. Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.

Compare

BSB: How skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.
KJV: Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
WEB: How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways.
ASV: How trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women hast thou taught thy ways.
DARBY: How dost thou trim thy way to seek love! Therefore hast thou also accustomed thy ways to wickedness.
BLB: “Why do you beautify your way to seek love? So even the wicked you have taught your ways.

ÅB: Hvor vel vet du ikke å legge din vei for å søke kjærlighet! Derfor har du også vent dine veier til det onde.
OTB: Hvor dyktig du er til å forfølge kjærlighet! Selv de verste av kvinner kan lære av dine veier.
B1930: Hvor vel vet du ikke å legge din vei for å søke kjærlighet! Derfor har du også vent dine veier til det onde.

Study notes (Tyndale)

Original text and word study

Cross references

Isaiah 57:7–10
Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice.
Read in context
Ezekiel 16:47
Yet hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after their abominations: but, as if that were a very little thing, thou wast corrupted more than they in all thy ways.
Read in context
Hosea 2:5–7
For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
Read in context
Jeremiah 2:23
How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done: thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways;
Read in context
Jeremiah 3:1–2
They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.
Read in context
2 Chronicles 33:9
So Manasseh made Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to err, and to do worse than the heathen, whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel.
Read in context
Jeremiah 2:36
Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.
Read in context
Ezekiel 16:27
Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
Read in context