Jeremiah 2 · Verse 33

Jeremiah 2:33

Why trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.
Jeremiah 2:33, King James Version

Jeremiah 2:33 in other translations

BSBHow skillfully you pursue love! Even the most immoral of women could learn from your ways.
WEBHow well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways.
ASVHow trimmest thou thy way to seek love! therefore even the wicked women hast thou taught thy ways.
YLTWhat--dost thou make pleasing thy ways to seek love? Therefore even the wicked thou hast taught thy ways.
DARBYHow dost thou trim thy way to seek love! Therefore hast thou also accustomed thy ways to wickedness.
BBEWith what care are your ways ordered when you are looking for love! so... your ways.
WebsterWhy trimmest thou thy way to seek love? therefore hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways.

What does Jeremiah 2:33 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown
33. Why trimmest--Maurer translates, "How skilfully thou dost prepare thy way," &c. But see 2Ki 9:30. "Trimmest" best suits the image of one decking herself as a harlot. way--course of life. therefore--accordingly. Or else, "nay, thou hast even," &c. also ... wicked ones--even the wicked harlots, that is, (laying aside the metaphor) even the Gentiles who are wicked, thou teachest to be still more so [Grotius].

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary
Verse 33 Why trimmest thou thy way - Ye have used a multitude of artifices to gain alliances with the neighboring idolatrous nations. Hast thou also taught the wicked ones thy ways - Ye have made even these idolaters worse than they were before. Dr. Blayney translates, "Therefore have I taught calamity thy ways." A prosopopoeia: "I have instructed calamity where to find thee." Thou shalt not escape punishment.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Jeremiah 2:29-37

The nation had not been wrought upon by the judgements of God, but sought to justify themselves. The world is, to those who make it their home and their portion, a wilderness and a land of darkness; but those who dwell in God, have the lines fallen to them in pleasant places. Here is the language of presumptuous sinners. The Jews had long thrown off serious thoughts of God. How many days of our lives pass without…

Read the full comment on Jeremiah 2:29-37 →

Jeremiah 2:33 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

מַה\־mah-how!H4100
תֵּיטִ֥בִיtei.Ti.viyou make goodH3190
דַּרְכֵּ֖ךְdar.Kekhway yourH1870
לְבַקֵּ֣שׁle.va.Keshto seekH1245
אַהֲבָ֑ה'a.ha.VahloveH160
לָכֵן֙la.Khen<to> thereforeH3651
גַּ֣םgamalsoH1571
אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853
הָרָע֔וֹתha.ra.'ot<the> wicked womenH7451
לִמַּ֖דְתְּli.mad.tiyou have taughtH3925
אֶת\־'et-<obj.>H853
דְּרָכָֽיִךְ\׃de.ra.Kha.yikhways yourH1870

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Jeremiah 2:33

  • Isaiah 57:7-10

    Upon a lofty and high mountain hast thou set thy bed: even thither wentest thou up to offer sacrifice. Behind the doors also and the posts hast thou set up thy remembrance: for thou hast discovered thyself to another than me, and art gone up; thou hast enlarged thy bed, and made thee a covenant with them; thou lovedst their bed where thou sawest it. And thou wentest to the king with ointment, and didst increase thy perfumes, and didst send thy messengers far off, and didst debase thyself even unto hell. Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way; yet saidst thou not, There is no hope: thou hast found the life of thine hand; therefore thou wast not grieved.

  • 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.

  • 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. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

  • 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;

  • 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. Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Ezekiel 16:51-52

    Neither hath Samaria committed half of thy sins; but thou hast multiplied thine abominations more than they, and hast justified thy sisters in all thine abominations which thou hast done. Thou also, which hast judged thy sisters, bear thine own shame for thy sins that thou hast committed more abominable than they: they are more righteous than thou: yea, be thou confounded also, and bear thy shame, in that thou hast justified thy sisters.

  • Hosea 2:13

    And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the Lord.

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Why.
23,36; 3:1,2; Isa 57:7-10; Ho 2:5-7,13
hast.
2Ch 33:9; Eze 16:27,47,51,52

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Jeremiah 2:32

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

  • Jeremiah 2:33

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

  • Jeremiah 2:34

    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.

Read all of Jeremiah 2

Jeremiah 2:33 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909
¿Por qué abonas tu camino para hallar amor, pues aun á las malvadas enseñaste tus caminos?
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885
Comme tu es habile dans tes voies pour chercher l’amour! C’est pourquoi aussi tu as accoutumé tes voies aux choses iniques.
German
Elberfelder 1871
Wie schön richtest du deinen Weg ein, um Liebe zu suchen! Darum hast du auch an Übeltaten deine Wege gewöhnt.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate
Quid niteris bonam ostendere viam tuam ad quærendam dilectionem, quæ insuper et malitias tuas docuisti vias tuas,