Therefore I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish: for they know not the way of the LORD, nor the judgment of their God.
So I said to myself, 'Well, these people are just poor and uneducated. They don't know any better because they haven't learned God's ways or understand how He judges things.'
The writer is initially making excuses for people's disobedience, thinking their ignorance might be due to poverty and lack of education about God's ways.
📚 Historical Context
Jeremiah was observing the moral and spiritual corruption in Jerusalem before its destruction by Babylon. He was searching through the city trying to find righteous people, hoping that God might spare the city if he could find even a few faithful ones. This verse shows Jeremiah's initial assumption that perhaps the common people's sins were due to their lack of education about God's law.
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