Text: Jeremiah 2:23
OT Text Referred to: Numbers 5:11-31
Subject: defilement and denial of guilt in covenant unfaithfulness
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Jeremiah 2:23 addresses Israel's brazen denial of idolatrous defilement — "How can you say, 'I am not defiled (לֹא נִטְמֵאתִי, lo nitmeiti); I have not run after the Baals'?" — which echoes the legal framework of Numbers 5:11-31, the "trial of jealousy" (קִנְאָה, qin'ah) for a wife suspected of unfaithfulness. In Numbers, the suspected wife undergoes a ritual to determine whether she has been "defiled" (נִטְמְאָה, nitme'ah); in Jeremiah, Israel is the unfaithful wife who protests her innocence despite overwhelming evidence. The prophetic use of marital-unfaithfulness language to describe idolatry transforms the Mosaic legal procedure into a theological metaphor: Yahweh as the jealous husband has grounds for the covenant accusation that Israel denies. The evidence is visible — "Look at your behavior in the valley" — rendering the denial absurd.