"Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob" (Jeremiah 2:4). Not the word of Jeremiah. Not the word of the priesthood. The word of the Lord — direct, unmediated, demanding attention from the whole house of Jacob at once. And what did the house of Jacob do with it? "They denied the Lord" (Jeremiah 5:12). "For your gods, O Israel, were as numerous as your cities" (Jeremiah 2:28).
The midrash uses the Ten Commandments as a checklist. "I am the Lord your God" — they denied Him. "You shall have no other gods before Me" — their gods were as numerous as their cities. "You shall not take the name of the Lord in vain" — they swore falsely. "Remember the Sabbath" — they violated it. The covenant was not subtle. The violations were systematic. The midrash is not making a general observation about human weakness — it is making a specific case about a specific generation that heard "the word of the Lord" and closed its ears.
Isaiah provides the antidote: "By the word of the Lord the heavens were made" (Psalm 33:6). The same word that created the universe is the word being refused in Jeremiah's generation. To hear the word of the Lord is to stand in the presence of the force that holds existence together. To deny it — to replace it with local gods as numerous as local cities — is to exchange the source for the copy. Jeremiah said it plainly. The house of Jacob had made that exchange. The exile was the consequence.