Jeremiah 2:21
◄  Jeremiah 2:21  ►
New International Version (©2011)
I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine?

New Living Translation (©2007)
But I was the one who planted you, choosing a vine of the purest stock--the very best. How did you grow into this corrupt wild vine?

English Standard Version (©2001)
Yet I planted you a choice vine, wholly of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate and become a wild vine?

New American Standard Bible (©1995)
"Yet I planted you a choice vine, A completely faithful seed. How then have you turned yourself before Me Into the degenerate shoots of a foreign vine?

King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.)
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?

Holman Christian Standard Bible (©2009)
I planted you, a choice vine from the very best seed. How then could you turn into a degenerate, foreign vine?

International Standard Version (©2012)
I planted you myself as a choice vine, from the very best seed. How did you turn against me into a degenerate and foreign vine?

NET Bible (©2006)
I planted you in the land like a special vine of the very best stock. Why in the world have you turned into something like a wild vine that produces rotten, foul-smelling grapes?

GOD'S WORD® Translation (©1995)
I planted you like a choice grapevine from the very best seed. Now you have turned against me and have become a wild vine.

King James 2000 Bible (©2003)
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a wild vine unto me?

American King James Version
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me?

American Standard Version
Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine unto me?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Yet I planted thee a chosen vineyard, all true seed: how then art thou turned unto me into that which is good for nothing, O strange vineyard?

Darby Bible Translation
And I, I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed; how then art thou turned into the degenerate shoots of a strange vine unto me?

English Revised Version
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?

Webster's Bible Translation
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 to me?

World English Bible
Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

Young's Literal Translation
And I planted thee a choice vine, wholly a true seed, And how hast thou been turned to Me, To the degenerate shoots of a strange vine?

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.

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).

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.''

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.

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The Results of Israel's Sin
…20For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when on every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot. 21Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then are you turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine to me? 22For though you wash you with nitre, and take you much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, said the Lord GOD.

Exodus 15:17 You will bring them in and plant them on the mountain of your inheritance-- the place, LORD, you made for your dwelling, the sanctuary, Lord, your hands established.
Psalm 44:2 With your hand you drove out the nations and planted our ancestors; you crushed the peoples and made our ancestors flourish.
Psalm 80:8 You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.
Isaiah 5:2 He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
Isaiah 5:4 What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
Isaiah 27:2 In that day-- "Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
Jeremiah 11:17 The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the people of both Israel and Judah have done evil and aroused my anger by burning incense to Baal.