2Ki 17:15, Jer 2:5, Jon 2:8 | JFB

2 Kings 17:15

Jeremiah 2:5

5. iniquity—wrong done to them (Isa 5:4; Mic 6:3; compare De 32:4).

walked after vanity—contrasted with "walkest after me in the wilderness" (Jer 2:2): then I was their guide in the barren desert; now they take idols as their guides.

vanity . . . vain—An idol is not only vain (impotent and empty), but vanity itself. Its worshippers acquire its character, becoming vain as it is (De 7:26; Ps 115:8). A people's character never rises above that of its gods, which are its "better nature" [BACON] (2Ki 17:15; Jon 2:8).

Jonah 2:8

8. observe lying vanities—regard or reverence idols, powerless to save (Ps 31:6).

mercy—Jehovah, the very idea of whom is identified now in Jonah's mind with mercy and loving-kindness. As the Psalmist (Ps 144:2) styles Him, "my goodness"; God who is to me all beneficence. Compare Ps 59:17, "the God of my mercy," literally, "my kindness-God." Jonah had "forsaken His own mercy," God, to flee to heathen lands where "lying vanities" (idols) were worshipped. But now, taught by his own preservation in conscious life in the fish's belly, and by the inability of the mariners' idols to lull the storm (Jon 1:5), estrangement from God seems estrangement from his own happiness (Jer 2:13; 17:13). Prayer has been restrained in Jonah's case, so that he was "fast asleep" in the midst of danger, heretofore; but now prayer is the sure sign of his return to God.