Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children’s children will I plead.
Parallel translations
- WEB “Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says Yahweh, “and I will contend with your children’s children.
- BSB Therefore, I will contend with you again, declares the LORD, and I will bring a case against your children’s children.
- NKJV “Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,” says the Lord, “And against your children’s children I will bring charges.
- NASB ¶“Therefore I will still contend with you,” declares the Lord, “And I will contend with your sons’ sons.
- NLT Therefore, I will bring my case against you,” says the Lord. “I will even bring charges against your children’s children in the years to come.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
God declares He will press His legal case against them and their descendants. The covenant lawsuit will continue.
Overview
Yahweh announces He will contend with Israel and even their children's children. The language is that of a sustained legal dispute over broken covenant. God's persistence here reflects both His justice in confronting sin and His commitment to His people across generations.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ezek 20:35–36And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
- Jer 2:35Yet 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.
- Exod 20:5Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
- Mic 6:2Hear ye, O mountains, the LORD’s controversy, and ye strong foundations of the earth: for the LORD hath a controversy with his people, and he will plead with Israel.
- Isa 3:13The LORD standeth up to plead, and standeth to judge the people.
- Lev 20:5Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.
- Jer 2:29Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me, saith the LORD.
- Hos 2:2Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
- Isa 43:26Put me in remembrance: let us plead together: declare thou, that thou mayest be justified.
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 2:9 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.