Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 8:1
At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
Jer 8:1 . they shall bring out ] Not, apparently, with the hope of finding spoil, treasures and ornaments of value being often buried with the dead (cp. Darius’s fruitless visit to the tomb of Nitocris, Herod. I. 187), but that the objects of their former devotion might look down on the indignities to which those who had served them were subject, as a cause of painful disquiet to their shades in the unseen world.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Not the living only but the dead shall be exposed to the ruthless violence of the enemy, who will ransack the graves of the wealthier classes.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
CHAPTER VIII
The judgments threatened in the last chapter are here declared
to extend to the very dead, whose tombs should be opened, and
the carcasses treated with every mark of indignity, 1-3.
From this the prophet returns to reprove them for their
perseverance in transgression, 4-6;
and for their thoughtless stupidity, which even the instinct of
the brute creation, by a beautiful contrast, is made to
upbraid, 7-9.
This leads to farther threatening expressed in a variety of
striking terms, 10-13.
Upon which a chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their
terror on the news of the invasion, 14, 15;
which is greatly heightened in the next verse by the prophet’s
hearing the snorting of Nebuchadnezzar’s horses even from Dan,
and then seeing the devastation made by his army, 16,
whose cruelties God himself declares no entreaties will soften,
17.
On this declaration the prophet laments most bitterly the fate
of the daughter of his people, changing the scene unawares to
the place of her captivity, where she is introduced answering
in mournful responses to the prophet’s dirge, 18-22.
The variety of images and figures used to diversify the same
subject is equally pleasing and astonishing. The dress is
generally new, always elegant.
NOTES ON CHAP. VIII
Verse 1. They shall bring out the bones] This and the two following verses are a continuation of the preceding prophecy, and should not have been separated from the foregoing chapter.
In order to pour the utmost contempt upon the land, the victorious enemies dragged out of their graves, caves, and sepulchres, the bones of kings, princes, prophets, priests, and the principal inhabitants, and exposed them in the open air; so that they became, in the order of God’s judgments, a reproach to them in the vain confidence they had in the sun, moon, and the host of heaven-all the planets and stars, whose worship they had set up in opposition to that of Jehovah. This custom of raising the bodies of the dead, and scattering their bones about, seems to have been general. It was the highest expression of hatred and contempt. Horace refers to it: –
Barbarus, heu, cineres insistet victor, et urbem
Eques sonante verberabit ungula:
Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini
(Nefas videre) dissipabit insolens.
Epod. xvi. 11.
“Barbarians fell shall wanton with success,
Scatter the city’s flaming ruins wide;
Or through her streets in vengeful triumph ride,
And her great founder’s hallowed ashes spurn,
That slept uninjured in the sacred urn.”
FRANCIS.
See this judgment referred to, Baruch 2:24, 25.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
This chapter being a continuation of the former, he proceeds in carrying on the threatening with higher aggravations of the judgment, viz. that when the time shall come spoken of Jer 7:32, the Chaldeans rage shall reach, not only to the living, but even against those that are in their graves, and that sparing none of any degree or quality.
They shall bring out the bones of the nobles and princes, as Manasseh and others, possibly led to it out of greediness, supposing to find great treasure in their sepulchres; of the
priests and prophets, principally the false ones, as a just judgment of God against them for deceiving the people; of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their spite and fury kindled against them, as soldiers, or in contempt and ignominy: and this notes the utter desolation of the city, not only razing the walls, but turning up the very sepulchres, which were accounted sacred, and not to be violated.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. The victorious Babylonianswere about to violate the sanctuaries of the dead in search ofplunder; for ornaments, treasures, and insignia of royalty wereusually buried with kings. Or rather, their purpose was to do thegreatest dishonor to the dead (Isa14:19).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
At that time, saith the Lord, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah,…. That is, either the Chaldeans or the Romans would do this; for this refers to the destruction of Jerusalem, either by the former or the latter; and it is certain that Jerusalem was ploughed up by the Romans, whereby the prophecy in Mic 3:12 was accomplished; when it is highly probable the graves were dug up, and the bones of the dead brought out, and scattered abroad by way of revenge; or it may be that graves were opened, especially the graves of kings and great men, for the sake of finding treasure in them: it follows,
and the bones of his princes; of the princes of Judah:
and the bones of the priests; that sacrificed to idols:
and the bones of the prophets: the false prophets; though this might be the case of the priests and prophets of the Lord; whose bones, in this general devastation, might be exposed as well as others; which of all might be thought to be the most sacred: and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves; high and low, rich and poor, male and female; their graves, in common, were without the city.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
But even then the judgment has not come to a height. Even sinners long dead must yet bear the shame of their sins. “At that time” points back to “days come” in Jer 7:32. The Masoretes wished to have the before deleted, apparently because they took it for consec. But it here stands before the jussive, as it does frequently, e.g., Jer 13:10, Exo 12:3. They will take the bones of the kings, princes, priests, and prophets, the rulers and leaders of the people (cf. Jer 2:26), and the bones of the other inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves, and spread them out before the sun, the moon, and the stars, i.e., expose them under the open sky to the influence of the heavenly bodies, so that they shall rot away, become “dung on the face of the earth.” The worst dishonour that could be done to the dead, a just return in kind for their worship of sun, moon, and stars: cf. Exo 7:18; 2Ki 21:5; 2Ki 23:11. This worship the prophet describes in its various stages: “Inclination of the heart, the act of devoting and dedicating themselves to the service, the frequenting of gods’ sanctuary in order to worship and to obtain oracles; while he strives to bring out in strong relief the contrast between the zeal of their service and the reward they get by it” (Hitz.). They shall not be gathered, i.e., for burial: cf. 2Sa 21:13.; 1Sa 31:13. The dead shall suffer this at the hands of enemies despoiling the land. The reason for so doing was, as Jerome observes, the practice of burying ornaments and articles of value along with the dead. Seeking for such things, enemies will turn up the graves (cf. acts of this kind the case of Ibn Chaldun, in Sylv. de Sacy, Abdollat. p. 561), and, in their hatred and insolence, scatter the bones of the dead all about.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| Indignities Threatened to the Dead. | B. C. 606. |
1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: 2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. 3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
These verses might fitly have been joined to the close of the foregoing chapter, as giving a further description of the dreadful desolation which the army of the Chaldeans should make in the land. It shall strangely alter the property of death itself, and for the worse too.
I. Death shall not now be, as it always used to be–the repose of the dead. When Job makes his court to the grave it is in hope of this, that there he shall rest with kings and counsellors of the earth; but now the ashes of the dead, even of kings and princes, shall be disturbed, and their bones scattered at the grave’s mouth, Ps. cxli. 7. It was threatened in the close of the former chapter that the slain should be unburied; that might be through neglect, and was not so strange; but here we find the graves of those that were buried industriously and maliciously opened by the victorious enemy, who either for covetousness, hoping to find treasure in the graves, or for spite to the nation and in a rage against it, brought out the bones of the kings of Judah and the princes. The dignity of their sepulchres could not secure them, nay, did the more expose them to be rifled; but it was base and barbarous thus to trample upon royal dust. We will hope that the bones of good Josiah were not disturbed, because he piously protected the bones of the man of God when he burnt the bones of the idolatrous priests, 2 Kings xxiii. 18. The bones of the priests and prophets too were digged up and thrown about. Some think the false prophets and the idol-priests, God putting this mark of ignominy upon them: but, if they were God’s prophets and his priests, it is what the Psalmist complains of as the fruit of the outrage of the enemies, Psa 79:1; Psa 79:2. Nay, those of the spiteful Chaldeans that could not reach to violate the sepulchres of princes and priests would rather play at small game than sit out, and therefore pulled the bones of the ordinary inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves. The barbarous nations were sometimes guilty of these absurd and inhuman triumphs over those they had conquered, and God permitted it here, for a mark of his displeasure against the generation of his wrath, and for terror to those that survived. The bones, being dug out of the graves, were spread abroad upon the face of the earth in contempt, and to make the reproach the more spreading and lasting. They spread them to be dried that they might carry them about in triumph, or might make fuel of them, or make some superstitious use of them. They shall be spread before the sun (for they shall not be ashamed openly to avow the fact at noon day) and before the moon and stars, even all the host of heaven, whom they have made idols of, v. 2. From the mention of the sun, moon, and stars, which should be the unconcerned spectators of this tragedy, the prophet takes occasion to show how they had idolized them, and paid those respects to them which they should have paid to God only, that it might be observed how little they got by worshipping the creature, for the creatures they worshipped when they were in distress saw it, but regarded it not, nor gave them any relief, but were rather pleased to see those abused in being vilified by whom they had been abused in being deified. See how their respects to their idols are enumerated, to show how we ought to behave towards our God. 1. They loved them. As amiable being and bountiful benefactors they esteemed them and delighted in them, and therefore did all that follows. 2. They served them, did all they could in honour of them, and thought nothing too much; they conformed to all the laws of their superstition, without disputing. 3. They walked after them, strove to imitate and resemble them, according to the characters and accounts of them they had received, which gave rise and countenance to much of the abominable wickedness of the heathen. 4. They sought them, consulted them as oracles, appealed to them as judges, implored their favour, and prayed to them as their benefactors. 5. They worshipped them, gave them divine honour, as having a sovereign dominion over them. Before these light of heaven, which they had courted, shall their dead bodies be cast, and left to putrefy, and to be as dung upon the face of the earth; and the sun’s shining upon them will but make them the more noisome and offensive. Whatever we make a god of but the true God only, it will stand us in no stead on the other side death and the grave, nor for the body, much less for the soul.
II. Death shall now be what it never used to be–the choice of the living, not because there appears in it any thing delightsome; on the contrary, death never appeared in more horrid frightful shapes than now, when they cannot promise themselves either a comfortable death or a human burial; and yet every thing in this world shall become so irksome, and all the prospects so black and dismal, that death shall be chosen rather than life (v. 3), not in a believing hope of happiness in the other life, but in an utter despair of any ease in this life. The nation is now reduced to a family, so small is the residue of those that remain in it; and it is an evil family, still as bad as ever, their hearts unhumbled and their lusts unmortified. These remain alive (and that is all) in the many places whither they were driven by the judgments of God, some prisoners in the country of their enemies, others beggars in their neighbour’s country, and others fugitives and vagabonds there and in their own country. And, though those that died died very miserably, yet those that survived and were thus driven out should live yet more miserably, so that they should choose death rather than life, and wish a thousand times that they had fallen with those that fell by the sword. Let this cure us of the inordinate love of life, that the case may be such that it may become a burden and terror, and we may be strongly tempted to choose strangling and death rather.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 8
THE PUNISHMENT
OF A BACKSLIDING PEOPLE
Vs. 1-3: THE AWFUL PUNISHMENT OF ASTRAL WORSHIP
1. In Judah’s desolation the bones of her kings, nobles, prophets, priests, and the citizens of Jerusalem, will be exhumed and, with insult and contempt, spread out before the sun, moon and all the starry hosts.
2. Though Judah has loved, worshipped, followed, consulted, and done obeisance before these astral bodies, they, in turn, look down with cold unconcern upon the desecration of her graves.
3. Their bones will not be buried again, but will be left to decay under the sun – fertilizing the soil which they desecrated by their abominable practices.
4. Those, of this evil family, who are driven to some foreign land, and permitted to live, will come to prefer death to life; they cannot escape the wretched consequences of their SIN!
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
I Have said that Jeremiah repeats in the first verse what he had before said, — that the Jews would be deprived of their graves, in order that there might be on the dead a mark of God’s vengeance; as though he had said, that after having been destroyed by the hand of enemies, they would have their punishment extended farther by having their dead bodies exposed to the wild beasts and birds. The faithful, as I have said, suffer no loss, when burial is denied them; but yet they do not disregard burial, inasmuch as it is a badge of the resurrection. Though God suffers them to be involved in this disgrace with the reprobate, yet this does not hinder but that God should execute his vengeance on the wicked by such a temporal punishment as turns to a blessing to the faithful. It is therefore no unmeaning denunciation, when the Prophet says that the time was at hand, when their bones would be taken out of their graves.
He mentions the bones of kings, and of priests, and of prophets, and of the whole people The kings thought that as soon as they were hid in their graves, their dead bodies would be deemed sacred: the same notion prevailed as to rulers, priests, and prophets: but he says that no grave would be untouched or free from the outrage of enemies; and thus he shews, that the city would be rooted up from its foundations. Were the city to remain safe, the graves would be spared. Hence this punishment could not have been inflicted, without the very foundations of the city being dug up by the enemies. In short, he points out here a dreadful and final overthrow; and at the same time he shews the reason why God would manifest such severity towards the Jews.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.Chronology and History, as in chap. 7. Observe, however, that a new section in this extended prophetic address commenced with Jer. 8:4, which continues to chap. Jer. 9:22.
1. Geographical Reference. Jer. 8:22. Gilead: a mountainous region, bounded on the west by Jordan, east by high plateau of Arabia, north by Bashan, south by valley of Heshbon; covering an area of cir. 60 miles by 20. The mountains of Gilead have an elevation of between 2000 and 3000 feet. The valleys of Gilead are richly wooded, presenting all the noble features of forest scenery. The torrent-beds are filled with oleanders. The district so charmed the Reubenites and Gadites that they asked it for their inheritance rather than pass over Jordan (Num. 32:1-5).
2. Personal Allusions. Jer. 8:8. Scribes: the Sopherim, students and interpreters of the written law, who probably owed their elevation into a distinctly-recognised order to Shaphan (2Ch. 34:13; 2Ch. 34:15); their employ was to write out the law, classify its contents, enumerate its clauses and letters, with every jot and tittle (cf. Jer. 2:8). Jer. 8:9. The wise men: specified also in chap. Jer. 18:18 as a distinct class; but probably here used of those who prided themselves on their knowledge, learned men of all orders of society (cf. Jer. 9:23).
3. Natural History, Jer. 8:7. Stork: Chasidah, a name suggestive of piety and benevolence, from , zeal, benignity; specially careful for her young and her aged parents, makes her nest on high (Psa. 104:17), soars very loftily (in the heaven), far above the range of human vision, annually migrates as soon as cold warns her of winters approach; arrives in Palestine about the middle of March, where it rests for about six weeks. Turtle, i.e., turtle-dove, Thor: heralds the spring (Son. 2:12) with sweet voice (Son. 2:14), yet mournful tones (Nah. 2:9); its plumage rich (Psa. 68:13), nestles in rocks (Psa. 68:28), has eyes of peculiar softness and lustre (Son. 1:15; Son. 5:12), migratory. Crane: Sus, means the swift, also a bird of passage, very noisy, with a harsh note; in appearance resembling the stork. Swallow: here Agr [the words Sus and Agur are used interchangeably in Scripture for swallow and crane; difficult, therefore, to fix the name on either]; the swallow prefers populous scenes, and builds her nest in dwellings of mankind; her note is quick and querulous (Isa. 38:14), her migration is annual. Jer. 8:13. Grapes on the vine: Anabim, cluster of grapes (Gen. 40:10). (See notes on chap. Jer. 2:21, Jer. 6:9.) Figs: Tenim, three kinds in Palestinethe early, the summer, and the winter fig; tree grows to vast dimensions, and abounds throughout the land (Deu. 8:8). (See notes on chap. Jer. 5:17.) Jer. 8:14. Water of gall, i.e., poisonous water; lit. water of the poisonous plant, , Gesenius pronounces it the poppy; but Speakers Com. refers to the same word in Deu. 32:32, where the further description, their grapes are grapes of gall, necessitates the abandonment of the poppy, which has no berries (grapes); and concludes, probably it was the belladonna or nightshade, to the berries of which the grapes of Israel were compared. In Hos. 10:4, rsh is rendered hemlock, and in Job. 20:16, poison of asps. The Targum renders it the cup of malediction. Jer. 8:17. Serpents, cockatrices, i.e., serpents, even cockatrices, or vipers: Tsiphoni, small but very venomous vipers, basilisks which cannot be charmed. Its name, Tsiphoni, given to it on account of its remarkable hissing; its sting deadly (Pro. 23:32, where rendered adder). So fatal is its wound, that natural historians assert that all other serpents hurry away and hide themselves at its hiss, and that its very breath will blast plants and poison the air. This dreadful snake is not a native of Canaan, but abounds in the miry fields of Egypt (Dr. Porter). Jer. 8:22. Balm in Gilead: this balsam early mentioned in Scripture (Gen. 37:25) as an article of commerce with Midianitish merchants, who carried it to Egypt; sufficiently valued as to be among the presents sent by Jacob to Joseph (Gen. 43:11), and possessed of acknowledged medicinal properties. It cannot be identified with any particular tree. Pliny and Strabo attest the celebrated virtue of the opobalsamum or myrobalanus; but Bochart selects the resin drawn from the terebinth as the balm here alluded to. There is now no tree in Gilead which yields such balsam, but it may be found in Arabia and Egypt. A fragrant and medicinal balsam is used and sold among Turks which is obtained from Mecca.
4. Manners and Customs. Jer. 8:1. They shall bring out the bones, &c.: ornaments and treasures were buried with the dead; the enemies, knowing this, would ransack the sepulchres, and plunder the dead of their insignia and valuables. Refer to Josephus, Antiq. vii. ch. 15, 3, for account of Hyrcanus rifling the sepulchre of David, robbing it of 3000 talents; and to Heredotus i. 187, for statement of like act of Darius with grave of Nitocris. A customary arrangement for crown, sceptre, and royal insignia to be interred with kings; nobles and the wealthy imitated this by burying other treasures and valuables. Jer. 8:8. Pen of the scribes: the pen or style was of iron, pointed (cf. Jer. 7:1), though this iron pen, or graver of steel, was probably used only for tracing letters upon stone or metallic plates. When tablets of wood covered with wax, skins, and parchments received the writing, a metal stylus or a reed formed the pen. Jer. 8:22. Is there no physician there? The inquiry suggests that practitioners in the medical art had established themselves in Gilead, who both collected the balm, and applied it to the suffering who resorted thither for healing.
5. Literary Criticism. Jer. 8:1. At that time: points back to chap. Jer. 7:32, the days come. Jer. 8:4. Shall they fall shall he turn? More correctly, Shall men fall and not arise! shall one turn, &c.? An appeal to the general experience and conduct of menviz., that it is customary for men to arise after having fallen, &c. Jer. 8:6. No man repented him, &c.: lit. No man has pity upon his wickedness; the sinner would compassionate and commiserate himself did he fully realise his sin and its consequences. Jer. 8:8. Certainly in vain made he it, &c. Margin, The false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood. Lange also, taking the verb as emphatically to work, translates thus: Behold he has worked for a lie, i.e., has done lying work; the pen of the scribes has produced lies. Keil and Speakers Com. render the words: Lo! the lying pen of the scribes bath made it (the law of the Lord) into a lie. The Vulgate has, Verily, falsehood has the false pen of the scribe wrought. Jer. 8:10-12. The LXX. omits from the words, for every one from the least, &c., to the end of Jer. 8:12. They are a repetition of words from chap. Jer. 6:12-15. Jeremiah frequently quotes his former utterances; hence Hitzigs suggestion that they are an interpolation is without force. Jer. 8:13. And the things that I have given them shall pass away from them: the old translators (Chald., Syr., Vulg.) render the passage, What I have given them they have trangressed. Ewald sustains this. The A.V. translation suggests the meaning, they should lose Gods beneficent gifts. Umbriet, Venema, Keil, and Speakers Com. render the words, So I appoint unto them those that shall pass over them: , to appoint; and , to overrun (cf. Isa. 8:8). Hitzig and Graf., I deliver them up to mem who pass over them. Jer. 8:14. Be silent, from, the Niphil form (), meaning to perish; then put to silence, from , Hiphil form (), meaning to destroy: hence, Jehovah hath decreed our ruin. Jer. 8:18. When I would comfort myself, &c.: lit., Oh, my comfort in the sorrow! my heart within me is faint; an outcry of anguish. Noyes renders it, Oh, where is consolation for my sorrow? Jer. 8:19. Behold the voice because of them in a far country. More correctly, Behold! the sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land; her cry being, Is not the Lord in Zion! &c., from which she is now an exile. To this question God returns the counter-question, Why have they provoked Me? &c. Jer. 8:21. I am hurt, am broken, i.e., in heart. I am black, am in mourning (Keil); I go mourning (Speakers Com.). Jer. 8:22. The health, &c. Why, then, has no bandage (of balsam) been laid upon my people? (So Keil, Speakers Com.) But health is the more uniform rendering of the word (cf. Jer. 30:17, Jer. 33:6). Hend. remarks, , health, properly means length, from the circumstances of long linen bandages being employed in binding up wounds.
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 8
Section
Jer. 8:1-3.
The dead: their graves dishonoured.
Section
Jer. 8:4-12.
The living: their unabashed iniquity.
Section
Jer. 8:13-17.
Maledictions: Gods messages of doom.
Section
Jer. 8:18-22.
Lamentations: the prophets dismay.
Jer. 8:1-3. THE DEAD: THEIR GRAVES DISHONOURED
This would be done by the Chaldean hordes in search for booty. Jeremiah, however, suggests not the motive of this sacrilegious disturbance of the dead; he regards only the fact as the punitive judgment of an offended God. Even plunderers may carry into effect the righteous displeasure and retribution of the Most High.
At the time of the siege of Jerusalem, not only will they bury in Tophet (Jer. 7:32-34) till there be no more room, such will be the carnage; but they who bury there will also open the graves of those who are buried, the kings and princes of Judah, and expose them to public contumely and shame. Perhaps the corpse of King Jehoiachim was then disinterred (Jer. 22:19).Wordsworth.
Their dead bodies should lie unburied in the sight of these their deities (Jer. 8:2), whom these idolaters had worshipped while they were alive, and thought they could never do enough for, but who could do them no good either alive or dead.Trapp.
In their reckless search, the barbarians would never think of replacing the bones which they had disturbed, but would leave them exposed to open gaze. The objects of idolatrous worship are here introduced with admirable effect, as unconcerned spectators of the indignity offered to their former worshippers. The condition of survivors (Jer. 8:3) would be more pitiable than that of the dead.Henderson.
I. The sanctuaries of the dead profaned (Jer. 8:1). What a conception does this fact supply of the barbarity of the Chaldean hordes! Nothing sacred in their esteem. War lets loose the worst passions of the best armies, but never did an army equal in lawless badness this Babylonian host. Lust and greed drove them on to ruthless violation of everything they met. (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:1, Graves disturbed.)
II. The pitiless indifference of idol deities (Jer. 8:2). How does this statement set before these idolaters the worthlessness of their gods! In their most evil hour their chosen deities will neither commiserate or help them. Suggestive of mans treatment from those he substitutes for the true and gracious Lord; contemptuous unconcern in his day of calamity.
III. The horror and anguish of survivors (Jer. 8:3). There is something worse than death; yea, than a dishonoured burial: life, when itself evil; when driven away by God; when abandoned to places of exile, among foes and scoffers and cruel despots. To live experiencing and enduring Gods vengeance is the direst calamity man can bear (comp. Job. 3:21-22; Rev. 9:6). (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:3, Death desired.)
Jer. 8:4-12. THE LIVING: THEIR UNABASHED INIQUITY
I. They would not attend to the dictates of reason (Jer. 8:4-5). The most careful traveller may miss his way; but then, as soon as he is aware of it, will he not return? No man in his wits will go on in a way that he knows will never bring him to his journeys end: why then has this people slidden back with a perpetual blacksliding? The nature of sin: it is(1.) backsliding; (2.) perpetual, unless Divine grace prevent it; (3.) a cherished deceit; (4.) of which its dupes refuse to be undeceived.
II. They would not attend to the dictates of conscience (Jer. 8:6). Observe: 1. What expectations there were from them, that they would bethink themselves: I hearkened and heard. (Comp. Job. 33:27.) 2. How these expectations were disappointed: They spake not aright; and the only speaking aright would have been in words of repentance of wickedness; but this was refused. (a.) They did not take even the first step towards repentance: None said, What have I done? (b.) They were so far from repenting that they went on resolutely in their sins: Every one turned to his course, &c.
III. They would not attend to the dictates of Providence (Jer. 8:7). Though they are my people, yet, 1. They were heedless of Gods dealings with them: Know not the judgments of the Lord. 2. The inferior creatures around them showed more sagacity. (Addenda on Jer. 8:7. Stork, Turtle, &c.)
IV. They would not attend to the dictates of the written Word (Jer. 8:8-9). Many enjoy abundance of the means of grace, but they do not answer the end of their having them. Those who are wise yet do no better for their souls with their wisdom than they who pretended to none, will have reason to be ashamed, and will be taken in their own snare. 1. He threatens the judgments of God against them (Jer. 8:10). 2. He gives a reason for those judgments: they were greedy of wealth, given to covetousness; they made no conscience of speaking truth, every one dealeth falsely; they flattered people in their sins (Jer. 8:11); they were lost to all sense of virtue and honour (Jer. 8:12), they could not blush. Such as these were ripe for ruin.Henry.
Jer. 8:13-17. MALEDICTIONS: GODS MESSAGES OF DOOM
A succession of varied images and ideas; vine, stronghold, trouble, invasion, serpents: Jeremiahs quick transitions from figure to fact is characteristic. Also observe the frequent change of speakers in this section: God speaks in Jer. 8:13, the people in Jer. 8:14-15; Jeremiah himself, Jer. 8:16; Jehovah again, Jer. 8:17; a style indicative of the passion and intensity of the prophet. Both the varied imagery and the interchange of speakers denotes the deep emotion under which Jeremiah now speaks: the dreadful theme harrows his own spirit. Behind his impetuous thoughts and words lay this great grief: How can I endure to see the destruction of my people? To announce glad tidings of good things is a far easier and happier task than to bear messages of wrath. Yet we must not say, Peace, peace, where there is no peace (Jer. 8:11); but tell fully what God bids. A series of maledictions under varied images.
I. The vine: Fruitless things God will consume (Jer. 8:13). There are no grapes, &c. (not, there shall be). Fruitlessness is the reason why God will consume. Keil translates Jer. 8:13 : Away, away will I sweep them, saith Jehovah: no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig-tree, and the leaf is withered; so I appoint unto them those that shall pass over them. And the Speakers Com. thus comments: These intermediate clauses describe the present state of the Jews, and not, as in the Authorised Version, the result of Gods judgment. Judah is a vine which bears no fruit, a tree which makes even no profession of life, for her leaf is dry. Others regard the words as threatening the Jews with the deprivation of the fruits of the earth; but the former interpretation has fuller authority and significance.
II. Strongholds: Defences cannot exclude the penalties of sin (Jer. 8:14). The people awake at length to the urgency of the case: would shelter themselves in fortified cities; yet withal they realise their sure destruction: Let us perish (be silent) there. Strong walls cannot exclude Gods judgments: The Lord our God hath decreed our destruction. (See Literary Criticisms on ver. supra.) Sin must eventuate in overthrow: Because we have sinned, &c. Though they rally one another to flee, yet they are conscious they cannot escape; they are irremediably lost. It is mournful abandonment to despair.
III. Trouble: Sinners false hopes assuredly shattered (Jer. 8:15). False prophets had beguiled them to look for peace; now they experience the utter reverse: no good, for where can good be found when God is lost? and behold trouble, properly terror; so overwhelming would the calamity prove. Suggestive of the sinners anguish of dreadin death, in judgment.
IV. Invasion: Terrible forces of retributive justice (Jer. 8:16). (See on chap. Jer. 4:15.) The border-line crossed by the foe. Health may be our border-line, or a carnal confidence; the enemy will pass that line, and then, oh our dismay! There are strong ones, rushing cavalry, which scour the land; no resisting their fury or checking their impetuous speed. The result: devoured.
V. Serpents: Alleviation and avoidance of misery impossible (Jer. 8:17): not be charmed, and they will bite you. No incantation, devices, or persuasives will disarm the attack of the foe; the venomous bite will inevitably bring death. Such is the issue of the Serpents bite. No crafty measures will avert the miseries which follow upon sin: At last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Jer. 8:18-22. LAMENTATIONS: THE PROPHETS DISMAY
As Jeremiah regards his peoples ruin, his heart is sorely oppressed with grief and horror. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:18. Bitter lamentations.) He was wholly unlike those fastidious philanthropists
Who sigh for wretchedness, yet shun the wretched,
Nursing in some delicious solitude
Their dainty loves and slothful sympathies.
COLERIDGE, Religious Musings.
I. A disastrous event (Jer. 8:19). The invaders have carried the people into a far country. (See Lit. Crit. supra.) From the scene of their exile their bitter laments come ringing upon the prophets troubled ear. Yet their complaining cry, Is not the Lord in Zion? is answered by Gods accusing inquiry concerning their prolonged and provoking apostasy.
II. A grievous reflection (Jer. 8:20). The day of hope and remedy is irretrievably gone! This is the bitter outcry of the wretched exiles themselves. Sinners will one day see and bewail their impiety and folly. (Addenda, chap. Jer. 8:20. Opportunity lost.)
III. A stricken mourner (Jer. 8:18; Jer. 8:21). He can lay hold on no comfort in his sorrow; calls after it as lost, and his burdened heart is sick within him; while also he himself suffers (Jer. 8:21) the agonies which he witnesses his people bear. In this Jeremiah was a type of Him who was stricken and afflicted; for surely He hath borne our griefs.
IV. A bewildered inquiry (Jer. 8:22). (1.) A remedy existed; balm. (2.) Skilled administrators of the remedy could be found: physicians there (these physicians were her priests and prophets, scribes and wise men; comp. Jer. 8:8-11); yet she had suffered many things of many physicians, without being healed of any. For there is but one True Physician for the maladies of sin, and to Him she had not applied. Why? The prophet is staggered at Judahs neglect of Him: what is her reason? Neglect of the great salvation is therefore unreasonable, unjustifiable, astounding. For because of such neglect unutterable miseries and grievous wounds remain, and must continually be borne. Verily, mans wilful repudiation of the Divine remedy is appalling, and he thereby wrongs his own soul.
HOMILETIC TREATMENT OF SELECTED VERSES IN CHAPTER 8
Jer. 8:1-3. Theme: THE DEAD DIS-HONOURED, YET DEATH DESIRED. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:1; Jer. 8:3, Dead molested; Death desired.)
Note: Burial is an expression of our hope of resurrection; hence our common reverence for places of sepulture, and our horror at sacrilegious violation of the grave.
The dreadful desolation which the Chaldean army would make in the land would strangely alter the property of death itself, and for the worse too:
I. Death shall not now be, as it always used to be, the repose of the dead. Threatened in former chapter that slain should be unburied, but here the graves of the buried are to be maliciously opened.
II. Death shall now be, what it never used to be, the choice of the living. And this, not in a believing hope of happiness in the other life, but in an utter despair of any ease in this life.Henry.
Jer. 8:2. Theme: PHASES OF IDOLATROUS HOMAGE.
There is great force in the piled-up verbs by which their worship of the heavenly bodies is described.
1. With their hearts they loved them. 2. With costly offerings they served them. 3. With submissive following they walked after them. 4. Frequenting their temples, in order to gain their favour, they sought them. 5. Bowing down before them and publicly honouring them, they worshipped them.
Yet these gods, thus served with heart and hand, do nothing whatever for their worshippers, except to aid their bones to decay. Hitzig well points out how the prophet, beginning with the heart (loved), describes their worship in the various stages of development, and then contrasts its fulness with the miserable reward which ensues.Speakers Com.
I. Progressive stages of idolatrous service.
II. Absolute entirety of idolatrous self-subjection.
III. Pitiless abandonment by idols of their votaries.
IV. Melancholy doom of idolatrous victims.
Jer. 8:4. Theme: THAT MEN HABITUALLY TRY TO RIGHT THEMSELVES.
When they fall, they are not so senseless as to lie there; they can and they do get up. When they err and lose their way, they do not madly resolve to accept their mistake and continue to go wrong; they refuse to proceed along a road which leads they know not where, but certainly where they do not wish to go; and they retrace their steps.
Basil uses the text as a motive for repentance.
Chrysostom finds in it an argument that no sinner need despair of repentance.
It suggests: i. The sinners power to help himself. ii. The stupidity of doing nothing to better his case. iii. The extent to which his self-help can attain. iv. The common proneness of man to fall and err. v. The necessity for direction, that he may not continue to wander and so be lost. vi. That God approves mans efforts to retrace his errors. vii. Grace will certainly avail for those who desire to tread the right way.
Jer. 8:5. Theme: PERPETUAL BACKSLIDING. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:5.)
I. The causes of backsliding.
1. Fear of man. 2. Intercourse with worldly society. 3. Presumption. 4. Secret sin. 5. Neglect of prayer.
II. The symptoms of backsliding.
1. Absence of pleasure in attending to the secret exercises of religion. 2. Irregular and unprofitable attendance on public ordinances. 3. Unwillingness to act or suffer for the honour of Christ. 4. Uncharitable feelings toward fellow-Christians. 5. Indulgence in sins once abandoned.
III. The forms of backsliding.
1. Declension into error. 2. Into unbelief. 3. Into lukewarmness or want of love. 4. Into prayerlessness. 5. Into immorality. 6. Into open rejection of a Christian profession.
IV. The evils of backsliding.
1. Its evils to the backslider: (1.) It diminishes his happiness. (2.) It arrests his progress. (3.) It destroys his usefulness.
2. Its evils to others: (1.) It staggers the anxious inquirer. (2.) Seduces the weak Christian. (3.) Embarrasses all the friends of religion. (4.) Supplies materials to the mocker.
V. The cure of backsliding.
1. Let the backslider remember from whence he has fallen. 2. Let him reflect on his guilt and danger. 3. Let him return to God, from whom he has wandered. 4. Let him live near Christ. 5. Let him forsake the sin into which he has fallen. 6. Let him learn to depend on the promised aid of the Holy Spirit.Brooks, Plans.
Jer. 8:6. WHAT HAVE I DONE? (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:6, Self-interrogation.)
1. In reference to God. 2. To myself. 3. To Christ. 4. To Christians. 5. To the unconverted.Brooks.
The thought expressed here is best explained by what St. Paul says in 1Co. 11:31 : For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.Speakers Com.
Jer. 8:6-7. Theme: MAN ON EARTH.
Text leads us to look upon man on earth in three aspects:
I. As the special object of Divine attention. I hearkened and heard, says God; expressing deep interest Two things show His special interest in man on earth:
(a) The language He employs in the Bible. As I live, saith the Lord, &c. Lo, these three years I came seeking fruit, &c.
(b.) The provision He has made in the Bible. Why this special attention?
i. We may imagine that mans spiritual infirmities on earth would draw towards him the special notice of his Maker. The diseased child attracts most parental sympathy and attention. This world is the invalid member of Gods family.
ii. We may imagine that mans critical position on earth would draw towards him, &c. Here, he has practically to decide his destiny.
iii. We may imagine that mans social influence on earth would draw, &c. Who can tell the influence, for good or evil, of one man on this earth? One may send thousands to hell, or turn many to righteousness.
II. As the probationary subject of redemptive discipline.
Under this system three things are required of him:
1. Rectitude of language. They spake not aright, i.e., in accordance with moral truth.
2. Contrition of heart. No man repented of his wickedness. Repentance is essential to his recovery.
3. Self-searching thought. What have I done? in relation to my soul, the universe, God? When prodigal began to think he came to himself.
III. As the wicked abuser of the system under which he lives.
In two ways, as here specified:
1. Reckless obstinacy. Every one turned to his course. And the way of each was from God; as infidel; drunkard, &c. As the horse rusheth (Job 29.)
2. Unnatural ignorance. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth, &c. (1.) These creatures have remarkable instincts, suitable to the external circumstances of their nature. So have you. They have instincts of perceiving coming changes, and of adjusting themselves to those changes. (2.) These creatures invariably render obedience to their instincts. You do not. How unnatural!Homilist. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:7, Stork, &c.).
Jer. 8:8. Lying pen of the scribes. (cf. Personal Allusions, on ver. supra, and Addenda.)
Jer. 8:8-9. Theme: INTELLECTUAL VANITY PERVERTING REVELATION.
The law of the Lord is with us; that was the state of their case; but what did they do with it, and what did it do for them? What we have is of subordinate importance to the use we make of it and the advantage it secures to us. Men now have the Word of God; how do they treat it, what does it profit them?
I. Sources of sacred wisdom. Law of Lord is with us. They knew the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make wise unto salvation. The Jews, having in there possession these sacred oracles, might have attained to the wisdom which is from above, and consequently been the wisest people on earth. We possess a revelation which makes the simple wise, and teaches holiest and most precious truth to man.
II. Perversion of the sources of sacred wisdom. Pen of scribes made it a lie. (See Lit. Crit. supra, on Ver.). By false interpretation, and delusive application of the law. This is the constant result of:
1. Wilful trifling with the Scriptures. 2. Intellectual conceit, which reverses and mutilates Scripture language. 3. Narrow bigotry, which will bend revelation to its own shibboleth. 4. Blind hostility, which rebels against the plain Word, and hence explains away literal teachings. 5. Dainty sentimentalism, which softens and practically neutralises distasteful teachings, strong anathemas, and bold declarations.
III. Arrogant pretension to the possession of sacred wisdom. We are wise; for no other reason than that they had the Scriptures, and knew the letter. The law of the Law is with us, is a boast of more than outward possession of it, but also of inward acquaintance with it, mastery of its contents. Such a familiarity did not, does not, always engender reverence, or lead to obedience. It fostered vanity of mind, intellectual conceit, and became a snare. These scribes rose, indeed, to be wise above what is within.
IV. Delusion resulting from the arrogance of wisdom (Jer. 8:9). Thus, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. God will refute such irreverent and merely literary wisdom. Christ thanked the Father that from the wise and prudent He had hid the precious truth. God denies real light to the intellectually proud, as they exclude themselves from a saving knowledge of the truth. Lowliness and submissiveness are qualifications for Divine enlightenment,revealed them unto babes.
V. Refutation of mans vaunted wisdom. God asks, What wisdom is in them? With all their knowledge and their satisfied vanity, they had practically rejected the word of the Lord. It is he that doeth His will shall know of the doctrine: hence God repudiates their boast,denounces them as inflated fools, wise (only) in their own conceits, and predicts their coming shame. Intellectual vanity easily leads to tampering with and perverting Gods Word; and then the condemnation is inherited with which the volume of the book closes (Rev. 22:18-19).
Comments:
Jer. 8:10-12. Almost identical with chap. Jer. 6:12-15; yet some distinctive dissimilarities exist sufficient to refute Hitzigs suggestion that they are an interpolation. The LXX. omit them. Jeremiah, however, frequently reproduces his figures and phrases: e.g. (comp. Jer. 5:15 with Jer. 14:19).
To those that shall inherit them (Jer. 8:10). Rather to those that shall take possession of them, i.e., to conquerors who shall take them by force. To inherit is to obtain legally, but the verb here used is that applied to Ahabs seizure of Naboths vineyard (1Ki. 21:15), to the subjugation of Palestine by the Israelites (Lev. 20:24), to the Babylonian conquests (Isa. 14:21).Speakers Com.
Jer. 8:13. Theme. THREATENING OF COMING PUNISHMENT. i. Severity of the visitation. (a.) Certain: surely. (b.) Desolating: consume. (c.) Agonising: consume. ii. Reason of the visitation. (a.) Fruitlessness: no grapes, no figs: i.e., there are none. (b.) Decay: leaf is withered. In consequence of barrenness Christ cursed the fig-tree. iii. Selected agency of the visitation. Read, I appoint those who will pass over them. (a.) God regulates punishment: I appoint. (b.) Unconscious agents fulfilling His word: them that shall pass over them. Note: 1. God has fixed and serious designs concerning men. 2. He has His agents ready and able to carry them out. 3. When we talk of peace and safety, see no invader, suspect no foe; yea, while the enemy himself is without plan of attack, the design for our overthrow stands complete. 4. Hence, the certainty that the wicked shall not go unpunished, and the urgency of our forsaking evil, and seeking reconciliation with God.
Jer. 8:14-15. Theme: DEFIANCE REDUCED TO DESPAIR
Until now, Judah had resented Gods warning and messages: had carried on the war of resistance against His Word; entrenched in her carnal security and insolent indifference, had refused to repent or yield. This verse shows her vaunted confidence gone; she must flee to defenced cities: and her proud spirit broken; she must be silent there. Yet the opening sentence, Why sit still? may be, not a panic cry, that her peril is imminent, but a summons of her dejected soul to self-help: one more effort to keep above surrender and despair.
I. A rallying-call to action and self-defence. Why sit still? Let us go to defenced cities. (See Homily on Jer. 4:5.)
Calvin remarks that these words show that they (as hypocrites are wont to do) had recourse to expedients, by which they thought to protect themselves against Gods wrath. They (hypocrites) indeed feel their evils, and seek to apply remedies; but they stop at the nearest reliefs, without seeking to pacify God, and to return into favour with Him; and think themselves to be safe if they betake themselves to this or that hiding-place.
1. Self-chiding: Why do we sit still? 2. Self-reliance: Assemble yourselves, and let us enter. 3. Self-delusion: enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there. Silent there: some render the words, rest there: , to rest or be silent. Merely defend ourselves in quiet, until the storm blow over.
II. A despairing recognition of their woful case. Let us be silent there; for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink. Authority determines the word silent to mean perish, lit. be put to silence, from . All that they can promise themselves, in fleeing to fortified cities, is a little respite. 1. Salvation is beyond hope: the defenced cities will fall; they cannot expect, therefore, to be saved, but only to put off a little longer the inevitable ruin. 2. Destruction is determined for them: Jehovah hath put us to silence, i.e., hath decreed our destruction, and there is now no escape. And hath given us water of gall; i.e., of poison. (See Natural History on verse.) This simile suggests the bitter suffering incident to their nearing ruin. Horsley renders the words, And let us sit there in despair, since the Lord our God hath brought us to despair, &c. For God had at last reduced their defiance of Him, and their self-confident indifference, to utter despair. (Addenda, chap. Jer. 8:14, Defiance issuing in despair.)
III. A paralysing acknowledgment of sins merited judgment. The Lord hath put us to silence, &c., because we have sinned against the Lord. Suggests
1. God is against sin: He will not condone it.
2. Sin hath entailed death. God decrees destruction, and gives the poisonous cup to the sinner,which is the decree brought home to the transgressor against whose sin that decree has gone forth. Flee where they might, they would carry their impiety with them, and, therefore, Gods decree against iniquity would follow them into their fortifications, and wrath Divine would fall upon them there. There is no escaping the sentence and doom which sin entails, for there is no evading God, nor shutting off from us the operation of His omnipresent laws. Men will realise this at last.
IV. A melancholy confutation of the sinners vain hopes (Jer. 8:15).
1. Flattering expectations are easily cherished. By (1.) The sinners own foolish vanity. (2.) By the false counsellors to whom he listens. (See Notes on chap. Jer. 4:10, and also Jer. 8:11.)
2. Experience scatters our false expectations. Man has the making of his expectations; God of his experiences. Our expectations are what we desire; our experiences what we deserve.
Jer. 8:18. Theme: COMFORT IN SORROW. I. Need of comfort. II. Attempt to comfort ourselves. III. Such attempt vicious and vain.J. Farren. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:18, Bitter lamentations.)
Jer. 8:19-20. Theme: A BITTER CRY FROM SCENES OF EXILE.
This verse should be translated thus:Behold the voice of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land! Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her King there? Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, with foreign vanities? The invaders have not merely wasted the land (Jer. 8:16), but carried the remnant into captivity. The prophet seems to hear their loud cry for help, but their complaint, Is there no Jehovah in Zion? is met by God demanding of them the reason why, instead of worshipping Him, they have set up idols.Speakers Com.
Because they have chosen the empty idols from abroad (strange, foreign vanities), Jehovah, the Almighty God of Zion, has cast them out into a far country amidst strange people.Keil.
The common cant was; Is not the Lord in Zion? And will not Zions God protect Zions king and kingdom? This outcry of theirs reflects upon God, as if His power and promise were broken or weakened; and, therefore, He returns an answer to it immediately, Why have they provoked Me? &c. They have withdrawn from their allegiance to Him, and so have thrown themselves out of His protection.Henry.
In the midst of their bitterness and woe, they remember the God whom they had forgotten in their prosperity; but this remembrance is not a gracious one,they do not remember Him to humble themselves before Him, but to bring accusations against Him.
I. We have a cry: That is how the prayer is described. 1. It had in it a meaning: the voice of their cry. 2. The matter of the voice: for them that dwell in a far country [interpreting the words as Zions agonising appeal to God for those afar-off, like the prodigal in a far country]. 3. Their settled estrangement from God is implied, them that dwell in a far country. 4. This prayer for those long estranged is from Gods own people: the cry of the daughter of my people.
II. The question: Is not the Lord in Zion? is not her king in her? Surely, yes. Then if the Lord be in the midst of Zion, 1. Why do we pray as if He were not? Rather pray, knowing Him near to answer as by fire. 2. Why do you despond because of your weakness? God is all-sufficient. 3. Why those great fears about the prosperity of the Church? The battle is the Lords: let us go on and conquer.
III. Another question: Why have they provoked Me? &c. 1. Here is a question for the Lords people. It is a very solemn thing when God is in His Church, how that Church behaves herself. 2. This text has a particular voice to sinners. You have been saying, God is amid His people; how is it I remain unblessed, unsaved? Because of your vanities, your idols, your sins.
IV. Another cry: The harvest is past, &c. (Jer. 8:20). We thought God would keep us in the days of harvest; but the harvest is past. We dreamed He would chase away our enemies when the summer months had come; but the summer is ended, and still Chaldea has her foot upon Judahs neckstill we drink the wormwood and the gall: we are not saved.
What harvest, what summers (spiritually) we have had: ingathering of souls; yet you are not saved! Some in your home converted, &c., but you not saved. The day is near when you will have to cry in the sight of the approach of death, The harvest is past, &c., and I not saved! Yes, a day comes when, being in torments, you will cry those words! We are looking for Christs coming: and then, seeing Him gather His harvest into the sky, the cry again will rise, Harvest past: we not saved!Spurgeon.
Jer. 8:20. Theme: THE LOST HARVEST. Harvest is past, &c.
Language descriptive of the awful position of those who, having trifled away gracious opportunities, are found at close of life unforgiven and unrenewed. Consider:
I. That the means and opportunities of securing salvation are graciously afforded to men.
II. That these means and opportunities will soon pass away.
III. That when once past, they will have disappeared for ever. Irretrievable despair!Sunday at Home.
Theme: THE UNAVAILING LAMENTATION. Bethink:
I. That God has given you the gracious seasons of summer and harvest. 1. The summer (a.) of life; (b.) of reason; (c.) of opportunities. 2. The harvest (a.) of knowledge; (b.) of privileges; (c.) of blessings.
II. That these may pass away unimproved 1. Many do not think. 2. Will not forsake their sins. 3. Will not believe. 4. Will procrastinate.
III. That the regrets of such will be awful and unavailing. 1. Sometimes their regrets are expressed in this world. 2. They will surely be uttered in eternity. Regrets (1.) of intense agony, of recollection, of self-condemnation; (2.) regrets will be unavailing,no space for repentance, no ear for prayer, no fountain, no cross! (3.) of black despair, harvest past, &c.
1. None would choose this portion. 2. Who would risk it? 3. Who will flee from it? Now is the harvest, &c.Jabez Burns.
Theme: LIFES SOLEMN OPPORTUNITY.
I. What considerations involved. 1. The object: harvest. 2. The opportunity: summer. 3. The limitation: past, ended. 4. The neglect irreparable: We not saved.
II. To what circumstances applicable. 1. Neglect of decision for God. 2. Neglect of spiritual culture. 3. Neglect of Christian service.
III. What lessons enforced. Importance of1. Present opportunity. 2. Present dedication.J. Farren.
Theme: CAUTIONS AND CONSOLATIONS.
Text may be accommodated so as to admit of a general application, and be interpreted in a spiritual sense. Then this lamentation may be understood as the
I. Language of final and absolute despair. That, having neglected means, wasted opportunity, resisted Spirit, hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord, now they have no longer hope of mercy: nothing to expect but judgment and misery! Let us dread the doom of the foolish virgins.
II. Language of deep and humbling conviction. That, having abused their only opportunity for seeking salvation, for attending to the one thing needful, for fulfilling the solemn object of life, it is gone for ever; their day of grace is over, they must therefore perish without remedy! Awakened at last to the interests of their souls, but awakened too late. Redeem the time.
III. Language of distressing and gloomy despondency. Such despondency as the afflicted and tempted servants of Jesus Christ sometimes experience: their minds clouded, peace gone, hope perished, they take up unrighteously the melancholy cry of text: After all we have thought and felt, we find we have been deceiving ourselves, we have not really known and loved the Lord, our present gloom is proof against our being His; we are undone; harvest is past! &c. They are in heaviness through manifold temptations.
Some have a well-assured hope that their harvest is not passed, that they are saved! For they have fled to Christ for refuge, have in themselves the witness of the Spirit. Remember, that for these who have reasons for hope and joy, the term of life is the summer in which they must labour in the service, and for the glory, of their Lord.Rev. Ed. Cooper, A. D. 1816.
Theme: NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES.
I. There are certain seasons which may be called the souls harvests. 1. Times of religious privilege. 2. Times of special religious action. 3. In a sense, the whole of life is a harvest time. 4. Now is emphatically a season of harvest.
II. These seasons have their period of close. 1. By national judgments. 2. By providential removal. 3. By the withdrawing of the Holy Ghost. 4. By death.
III. That these seasons may pass without due impression. 1. Proved from the fact that many take no heed concerning their souls at all. 2. Many are convicted, but never converted. 3. Exhort all to seek the Lord without delay, for
IV. The remorse of those who allow such seasons to pass without due impression, will be1. Fearful. 2. Unavailing.A. F. Barfield, Christian World Pulpit.
Theme: SEASONS OF GRACE UNIMPROVED AND LOST.
Summer and harvest are proper seasons of action; opportunities for armies to take the field, subdue enemies, and bring about deliverance of an oppressed people. The winter that follows is not a fit season for action. An awful thing when favourable seasons for saving a people from temporal enemies and calamities are lost; but infinitely more alarming to lose favourable seasons of saving their souls. This is ground for deepest lamentation when forced to say, Harvest is past, &c. Consider:
I. Favourable seasons, which we should be careful to improve to the salvation of our souls.
1. The summer days of youth. Hopeful season: God loves first ripe fruits: young prayers, young tears, young faith, love, &c. (Ecc. 12:1).
2. When persons enjoy lively means and ordinances; when Christ crucified is set before them with holy fervour and feeling.
3. When there is a noise and shaking among the dry bones: work of conviction and conversion is going forward, &c.
4. When Satans power is restrained, and churches have rest from evil: this is a calm summer day.
5. When God is visiting mankind with alarming providences: then the inhabitants of the earth should learn righteousness.
II. Who may be said to have lost their summer days and favourable seasons of grace? We cannot be positive as to any while life remains, yet of some, sad grounds to fear.
1. Those who have had the Spirit long striving with them, but have resisted His striving and repelled Him (Eze. 24:13).
2. Those who persist in sinful courses and harden themselves against the reproofs of the Almighty (Pro. 29:1).
3. Those who sin presumptuously, sin in the face of light, in hopes of repentance and pardon (Num. 15:30).
4. Those who are so determinately bent on sin that God, their own consciences, and Gods ministers cease to reprove them (Eze. 3:27, Hos. 4:17).
5. Those who deliberately relapse into sin after having been Divinely corrected and aroused to resolutions (Isa. 1:5).
6. Those who give themselves up to commit sin with greediness, and glory in it (Eph. 4:19, Php. 3:19).
7. Those who mock the offers of the Gospel, and despise those who bring them (2Ch. 36:16). Harvest is past, &c.
III. The causes why men lose their hopeful seasons.
1. Unbelief; did men believe Gods Word, threatenings, and wrath to come, they would improve their seasons of grace, and flee to Christ.
2. Promise themselves time; leisure to attend to work of salvation; regard death and eternity as distant.
3. Indulge sloth; do not give all diligence to the duties of religion, public and private.
4. Love of carnal company and sensual delights: amid sinful pleasures they trifle away their summer days.
Application:
(1.) How dreadful will be the end of those who have lost all their opportunities of salvation! Remembrance of them will not ameliorate but embitter their case.
(2.) Such characters act as if devoid of reason (Jer. 8:7, Pro. 6:8); worse than the brutes that perish.
(3.) Let us endeavour to improve Gospel seasons, the summer and harvest for our souls, with greatest care.Hannum.
There is in this text
I. The acknowledgment of opportunity.
II. The confession of neglect.
III. The anticipation of doom.
J. W. W., from Lange. (Addenda to chap. 8 Jer. 8:20, Opportunity Lost.)
Jer. 8:21. Comments:
For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. The hopeless case of the people and kingdom moves the seer so deeply that he bursts forth with the cry, For the breaking of my people I am broken (the Hophil form = the breaking of the heart). I am black: used of wearing mourningin other words, to be in mourning (cf. Psa. 35:14; Psa. 38:7). Astonishment hath taken hold: horror hath taken hold on me (Jer. 6:24, Mic. 4:9). Help is nowhere to be found.Kiel.
Because of the breaking I am broken: the words of the prophet, whose heart is crushed by the sad cry of his countrymen.Speakers Com.
Astonished: the astonishment with which he was seized he no doubt sets down as being the opposite of the peoples torpor and insensibility; for they had no fear for themselves.Calvin.
I am contemned for bewailing my peoples misery, who neither feel nor fear hurt.Trapp.
Observe here:
i. How great his griefs were (Jer. 8:21). For their sin, and the miseries incurred by it. It becomes us to lament the miseries of our fellow-creatures, much more to lay to heart the calamities of our country, and especially of the Church of God. Jeremiah had prophesied the destruction of Jerusalem, yet he did not rejoice in the proof of the truth of it by its accomplishment, preferring the welfare of his country before his own reputation. If Jerusalem had repented and been spared, he would have been far from fretting, as Jonah did. Jeremiah had many enemies in Judah and Jerusalem, that hated, reproached, and persecuted him; and in the judgments brought upon them God reckoned with them for it, and pleaded His prophets cause; yet he was far from rejoicing in it, so truly did he forgive his enemies and desire that God would forgive them.
ii. How small his hopes were (Jer. 8:22). No medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom; no skilful, faithful hand to apply the balm. He looks upon the case to be deplorable and beyond relief. The desolations made are irreparable, and the disease has come to such a height that there is no checking it.Henry.
Our connection with those who hear us continually is so full, so intimate, so tender, no one can understand it who has not experienced it. We get love, we get somewhat from the heart which was broken for its enemies, and which could cry on the cross: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.Zinzendorf.
Jer. 8:22. Theme: A CURE FOR DISEASED SOULS.
I. That mankind universally are in a diseased state.
The soul of man is meant, hence the diseases are those of the soul. That the distempers of the mind are compared to wounds, disease, and sickness, will appear from Psa. 38:5; Psa. 103:3; Eze. 34:4; Mat. 9:12. Point out some of these diseases:
1. Atheism, infidelity, or unbelief of Divine truths.
2. Ignorance of God and Gospel truths, even among those who profess to know Him (Hos. 4:6). They may be cured (Rev. 3:17-18).
3. Hardness of heart. (Eze. 36:26; Php. 1:6).
4. Earthly mindedness. Other plagues kill their thousands, this kills its tens of thousands. Pharaohs woods are true of them (Exo. 14:3). Yet there is help for this (Col. 3:12).
5. Aversion to spiritual duties. Many would rather toil their bodies a whole day than spend a quarter of an hour on their knees in secret with God. (Mal. 1:13). Relief for this (Psa. 110:3; Isa. 40:31; Eze. 36:27).
6. Hypocrisy and formality in Gods service (Isa. 29:13). This also may be healed (Jer. 31:33; Pro. 4:18; 2Co. 4:16).
7. Trusting to our own righteousness (Rom. 10:10).
8. Indwelling corruption (Psa. 65:3; Isa. 64:6). Yet there is help for this (Mic. 7:19; Rom. 7:24-25).
9. Backsliding. This is a spiritual consumption, yet may be cured (Deu. 30:6; Hos. 14:4-6).
There are several symptoms which seem to render our diseases almost desperate and incurable.
. When the body is universally affected, and with a complication of diseases, the case is truly alarming: and this is the state of the soul (Isa. 1:5-6). Still we may be recovered; David was (Psa. 103:2-3).
. When diseases are of long continuance (Psa. 51:5; Deu. 28:59). Yet the Lord can make dry bones live (Ezekiel 37).
. When all around consider their case desperate. Often the case with sinners (Eze. 37:3; Eze. 37:11). Yet see the promise (Jer. 30:17).
. When its threatening symptoms are not observed, so as to provide timely remedies. Our case not unlike Israels (Isa. 57:17).
. When the patient becomes lethargic, loses his senses, and cannot be awakened (Isa. 26:11; Isa. 29:10). Still there is hope (Jer. 33:6).
II. That there is a physician who can cure all diseases.
God Himself (Exo. 15:26). Our cure is the work of the whole Trinity, but especially of Jesus Christ (Luk. 4:18; Mat. 9:12-13). In this office of Healer, He was typified by the brazen serpent (Joh. 3:14); by the Sun of Righteousness (Mal. 4:2); by the Tree of Life (Rev. 22:2). Being God-man, He is nobly qualified: for
1. He is infinite in knowledge, and understands all diseases, with the proper remedies, so that He never can err (Joh. 21:17).
2. He has sovereign authority, and almighty power, so that He can command diseases to obey (Mat. 9:2).
3. He has infinite pity, ready to help the distressed, even unasked, hence represented as Good Samaritan (Luk. 10:33).
4. He has wonderful patience towards the distressed; bears with their ingratitude, and works their perfect cure.
III. The remedy which He applies to effect the cure.
It is His own blood. This is the true Balm of Gilead (Isa. 53:5). Scripture speaks of other means of healing, subservient to the blood:
1. The Spirit of God, with His gracious operations on the soul (Gal. 3:13-14).
2. The word and ordinances of Christ; these are the leaves of the Tree of Life, &c. (Rev. 21:2; comp. Psa. 107:20).
3. Afflictions: making us mourn our wounds, and apply for remedy (Isa. 22:9).
4. Faithful ministers. The Great Physician sends them to dispense wholesome doctrines (1Ti. 6:3; Tit. 2:1).
5. Pious Christians help by their prayers (Jas. 5:15).
The Physicians method of applying the remedy. He
. Makes sinners sensible that they are sick (Mat. 9:12). This implies discovery of the nature of sin, grief over it (Psa. 38:6; Psa. 38:18), despair of healing ourselves (Hos. 14:3), and willingness to submit to the Physicians prescriptions (Act. 9:6).
. Works faith in the soul, by His Holy Spirit: i.e., persuades and enables him to embrace Christ as his Saviour, and apply the balm to his wounded soul. Then danger is over (Joh. 5:24).
. Accomplishes and perfects the cure by the sanctifying influences of the Spirit (Mat. 5:8).
IV. The reasons why so few are healed, notwithstanding there is balm in Gilead, and a physician there. Cause in us: for
1. Many are ignorant of their disease, and wilfully so.
2. Many are in love with their disease, more than with their physician. God may say of them (Psa. 52:3).
3. Many neglect the season of healing (Jer. 8:20)
4. Many will not trust Christ wholly for healing.
5. Many will not submit to the prescriptions of Christ; to self-examination, repentance, godly sorrow, mortification; therefore are unhealed. To conclude:
. Let those in a diseased state see their danger, for it is great; if they do not apply to this Physician, they cannot be healed.
. Balm of Gilead is freely offered in the Gospel (Isa. 45:22; Eze. 18:32).
. Consider how long you have slighted this balm already. Now improve your day, like the people of Capernaum (Luk. 4:40; 2Co. 6:2).
. Those whom Christ has healed, manifest their gratitude by living to His glory.Hannum.
(Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:22. Balm of Gilead.)
Jer. 8:22. Theme: REASONS FOR THE IRRELIGION OF THE MASSES.
Why health of my people not recovered?
Prophet referring to degeneracy and misery of Jews. Ask same question respecting the moral state of the masses of our own nation. Necessary to look.
I. At our moral and evangelical resources.
1. No country in the world in all respects equal in privileges.
2. No age comparable to this: (a.) Plenitude of Gods Word. (b.) Good books. (c.) Evangelical ministry. (d.) Rich variety of social institutions; for Young Men; Temperance; City Missions; Open Air Services, &c.
II. The fearful evils which still exist. Of these:
1. Avowed infidelity. Every form of scepticism.
2. General neglect of Divine worship.
3. Prevailing crime.
4. Juvenile precocity and profligacy.
5. Overwhelming intemperance.
III. The affecting inquiry presented. Why then, &c.
Three classes of reasons:
1. In the Church: (i.) Prevalence of spiritual indifference. (ii.) Sectarian contentions. (iii.) Fewness of workers. (iv.) Want of spiritual self-denial. (v.) Coldness in prayer. No sense of the ruin of souls. (vi.) Feeble faith; not proving God.
2. Reasons in the persons themselves. Feel they are separated from other classes; neglected; despised on account of their poverty, &c.
3. Reasons in the world. Seductive temptations, dissipating scenes, especially on Lords day. So Gospel is not heard and believed. Souls lost. Sin uncured. Crowds perishing.
Application:
1. We appeal to Church of Christ. Great responsibility.
2. Sinners are inexcusable. Every man must give account.
3. Gods mercy and grace are all-sufficient.
4. The provisions of the Gospel are freely published.Rev. Jabez Burns.
NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 8
Topic: INTERROGATING OUR CONDUCT. Text: What have I done? (Jer. 8:6.)
How attentive God is to us and our actions! He sees His prodigals when yet a great way off; to Him there is music in our sigh, and beauty in a tear. In this verse He represents Himself as looking upon mans heart, and listeningif possibly He may hear something good. And how amiable God is, that turns aside, with grief in His heart, exclaiming, I did listen, but no man spake aright, &c. Never do we have a desire towards God, or breathe a prayer to heaven, but God has been watching and hearkening for it: it was but one tear on the cheek, yet the Father noticed it as a hopeful sign; but one throb went through the heart, yet He heeded it as an omen that not quite hardened by sin. Text, What have I done? calls for
I. Words of earnest persuasion, urging all, and especially the unconverted, to ask this question, each for himself, and solemnly answer it. Few men like to take the trouble to review their own lives. Like silly ostrich, when hard pressed by hunters, bury their sight from real evils and danger. But remember.
1. Searching yourself can do you no hurt. Little can be lost by taking stock. You cannot be any worse for a little self-examination. 2. You may be a great deal better for the process: for, if your affairs are all right with God, you may cheer and comfort yourself; but there are many probabilities that they are wrong; so many are deceived, and anything rather than self-delusion. 3. The time for self-examination is short: soon you will know the secret, death will rend off the mask. 4. Though you may deceive yourself, you cannot God. The everlasting Jehovah will grasp the balances of justice, put His law in one scale and the sinner in the other: Weighed and found wanting!
Various excuses will arise to check this inquiry: you will plead you are members of churches, have often received the sacramental bread and wine. Easy thing in this age to make profession of religion. Christ had one hypocrite in His twelve! Rest on no profession. Neither put off this question because too busy to attend to spiritual concerns. Know not how near death is to thee. May the Lord prepare each for death and judgment by leading all to ask, What have I done?
II. Words of assistance in trying to answer the question.
1. To Christians: What hast thou done? You reply, Nothing to save myself; that was done for me. Nothing to make a righteousness for myself; Christ said, It is finished! Nothing to merit heaven; Jesus did that for me before I was born! Yes, but say; What hast thou done for Him? for His Church? for the salvation of the world? to promote thine own spiritual growth in grace?
2. To moralists: What hast thou done? You answer, All I ought to have done! You may tell me of sins, but I have done my duty: observed Sabbath, said prayers, given to poor, &c.; and if good works have any merit, I have done a great deal! True, if any merit; but very unfortunate that they have not, for our good works, if we do them to save ourselves by them, are no better than our sins. Christ will never go shares with you in the work of salvation. Your morality is no help to you whatever as to eternal things.
3. To the worldly: What done? It is very little I do amiss; now and then just a little mirth. Stop; let us have the right name for that mirth. What do you call it in any one else? Drunkenness. I have been a little loose in talk sometimes! Write it down, Lascivious conversation. Sometimes you have been out on the Sabbath? Sabbath-breaking. You may have quoted texts of Scripture to make jokes of them, and used Gods name in foolish talk? Swearing. Did you ever adulterate in your trade? Stealing. Wished you could get your neighbours prosperity? Covetousness, which is idolatry. Ever really prayed? Prayerlessness. Neglected God and Bible? Despising Him. Few but will feel these sins lie at their door. May the Spirit touch your consciences, and convince you of your sins!
4. To the unconverted: What done? By your sins you have destroyed your soul, resisted the gospel, spurned Christ. Yes; and think what you have done to your children: taught them the ways of spiritual ruin. To your companions: tempted some to take the first stray step into folly, indulgence, iniquity. Doth not your heart quail within you because of self-ruin and ruin of others?
III. Words of affectionate admonition to those who have had to answer the question against themselves.
1. Solemn that the years roll on and yet you are unsaved. You, not altogether hardened, yet done nothing to determine for Christ, and lay hold on eternity. 2. There will be a time when you will ask the question, but it will be too late. On the death bed? No, not too late there; but when breath has gone out of your body. After the suicide has taken the fatal leap, he may cry, What have I done? but too late! Some mocking spirit in mid-air echoes, Lost, lost, lost! In the dreadful judgment, too, the soul will ask that question, as the eye of the Judge fixes itself upon him: He turns to your page in the book, but it has never been blotted with His blood. If you only knew what they feel, and could see what they endure, who have lost opportunity and lost themselves, you would, ere too late, pause and ask, What have I done? As immortal spirits, bound for endless weal or woe, fly ye to Christ, seek for mercy at His hand, trust in Him, and be saved.Spurgeon. (Comp. Addenda to chap. Jer. 8:6, Self-interrogation.)
Topic: THE RAVAGES OF SIN: A PATHETIC REMONSTRANCE. Text: Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Why, then, is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? (Jer. 8:22).(Addenda, Balm of Gilead.)
Astonishment (Jer. 8:21) over health not recovered (Jer. 8:22) is followed by lament for the slain (Jer. 9:1). (1.) Between the two there is a distinction: health lacking, the soul diseased, impotent, suffering, prostrate, perishing, but not slain. (2.) Between the two there is a connexion; let the disease go unchecked, unhealed, the plague not stayed, and the issue will bethe suffering victim of sin slain. That sad word slain suggests the destroyers work done; the ruin of the daughter of my people is complete. Therefore, the prophet lifts his voice in the cry of anguish in which there sounds no strain of hope (Jer. 9:1). But, in this text, the case is less severe; the malady rages, but recovery is possible, health may be restored. To such as have lost spiritual health, and all as yet unsaved, come the hopeful tidings of balm in Gilead and a physician there. Four topics:
I. A malady. Health not recovered: needed balm and physician.
The malady which has devastated the health of humanity is sin. What is sin but a disease of soul? Analogy:
1. In the manner of its development. Disease lies concealed in blood before it assumes visible signs. Began in thought, grew into a desire, advanced into an intention, issued in act.
2. In the rapidity of its progress. Bursts forth into fierce forms, whole system inflamed. Malady quickly spreads through the whole nature, vitiating mind, corrupting character, consuming goodness, till yield members to uncleanness, and from iniquity unto iniquity.
3. In its contagious influence. Springs from one to another, speeding and spreading misery and death. Plague of London started from one person. So, by one man sin entered into world, &c. Broke out in Eden, pervaded earth, &c. Evil communications corrupt good manners. One sinner destroyeth much good.
4. In its fatal termination. Unless arrested, disease soon completes its ravages, and victim sinks to the dead. And what the termination of sin? Wages of sin is death. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
II. A remedy. Balm in Gilead. Remedy equal to the disease, for might have been recovered.
Gilead a mountain; balsam trees flourished; gum had medicinal properties, highly valued and widely celebrated. Thus extracted: Incision with axe or spear; issues a glutinous sap. Concerning its virtues, ancient botanists and physicians eloquent in praise.
Led by analogy from Gilead to Calvary; from balsam-tree to Cross; from issuing sap to Blood; from incision by axe to with spear pierced His side. Concerning its healing virtues, ten thousand times ten thousand tongues eloquent. Health restored: in heaven, never more sick!
1. It was highly precious. So valued that Pompey and Titus carried some back with them to Rome. Precious blood of Christ.
2. It had peculiar properties. Healing virtues in balm special to it. Makes wounded spirit whole, calms troubled breast.
3. It was easily obtained. Readily flowed forth. Seek, and ye shall find. Whosoever call on name of Lord shall be saved.
4. It was effectual in its operation. Whole head may be sick, &c. Yet healing virtue therein. Though sins be as scarlet, &c.
Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
Shall never lose its power.
III. A healer. There is a physician there. This a name which Jesus assumed: They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
1. He is acquainted with the nature of the disease. Knows the cause of its commencement, mode of development, phases it assumes, issues to which it leads. Knows seat of disease, and how to assail it: Out of heart proceed evil thoughts, &c. Familiar with the malady and mode of treatment.
2. He is skilful in administering the remedy. Has had long experience and extensive practice. Every land, every age. He went about doing good, and healing all manner of diseases and sickness among the people. (Comp. Rom. 7:24-25.)
3. He is willing to afford relief. Never wearied, waits to be gracious; desires not death of sinner, but that all come to repentance; chides with the dying, Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life; assures, I will in no wise cast out.
4. His ability to heal is widely attested. In our midst: Ye are washed, &c. In heaven: Great multitudes; made white in blood of Lamb.
IV. A remonstrance. Why their health not recovered? Many unhealed; what the explanation?
1. Some urge that they are not suffering from any malady. Not deny existence and ravages of sin as general truth, but repudiate charge of personal corruption, infection, and peril. Thus put balm and physician from them. For that is the issue; if men are not fatally diseased, Christ came not for them; they have no place in His redemptive mission. Because of this follyignoring their need of the Divine remedyhealth is not recovered.
2. Others urge that they are not in a condition of serious danger. Admit personal sin, need remedy, but no occasion for alarm; they know not that they are wretched, and poor, and miserable, and blind, and naked. Delusion is a symptom of this malady of sin. They hold fast deceit (Jer. 8:5). And because of this self-flattery health is not recovered.
3. Others urge that they can secure healing at any time. Dreadful procrastination! Deliberate trifling with grace. Surely there is no certainty of finding salvation just when men determine. Death waits not upon our convenience. Melancholy presumption. Yet because of it health is not recovered.
4. Others urge that they are too near perishing for recovery. Write hard things against themselves. (See Jer. 8:20.) But what state surpasses the Almighty Physician? Have any proved Him unable? Able to save to uttermost. Yet because of despair health is not recovered.
Sorrow for misery, surprise at hesitancy, indignation over trifling, remonstrance with despairall are expressed in this plaintive interrogation, Why, then, is not health recovered! There is balm, a physician, and, therefore, health for all, for sinners, even the chief. He healed all them that had need of healing.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 8: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer. 8:1. GRAVES DISTURBED: DEAD MOLESTED. Dr. Pusey writes of this sacrilege, that it was a hatred carried beyond the grave, a hatred which is a sort of impotent grasping at eternal vengeance, hatred which, having no power to work any real vengeance, has no object but to show its hatred. (Note on Amo. 2:1.)
He (David) was buried by his son Solomon in Jerusalem, with great magnificence, and with all the other funeral pomp which kings used to be buried with; moreover, he had great and immense wealth buried with him, the vastness of which may be easily conjectured at by what I now say: for 1300 years afterwards, Hyrcanus, the high priest, when he was besieged by Antiochus, and was desirous of giving him money to get him to raise the siege, and draw off his army, and having no other method of compassing the money, opened one room of Davids sepulchre, and took out 3000 talents, and gave part of that sum to Antiochus, and by this means caused the siege to be raised. Nay, after him, and that many years, Herod, the king, opened another room, and took away a great deal of money.Josephus, Antiq. bk. vii. chap. 15 3.
For extremity of despite also, dead mens bones have been digged up. Pope Formosas was so dealt with by his successor, Stephanus VI.; and many of the holy martyrs by their barbarous persecutors.Trapp.
Jer. 8:3. DEATH DESIRED.
To die,to sleep,
No more; and, by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished.
Shakespeare.
Death! to the happy thou art terrible,
But how the wretched love to think of thee!
O thou true comforter, the friend of all
Who have no friend beside!
Southey.
A sleep without dreams, after a rough day
Of toil, is what we covet most; and yet
How clay shrinks back from more quiescent clay!
Byron.
Soon may this woe-worn spirit seek the bourne
Where, lulled to slumber, grief forgets to mourn.
Campbell.
Jer. 8:5. PERPETUAL BACKSLIDING.
They fall deepest into hell who fall backwards into hell.Bunyan.
Errare humanum est; perseverare diabolicum.Trapp.
Jer. 8:6. SELF-INTERROGATION. What have I done? The Pythagoreans once a day put this question to themselves. It is reported of Sextus that every night before he slept, he asked of his own heart, What evil hast thou this day amended? what vice hast thou shunned? what good hast thou done? in what part art thou bettered?
As it is an evidence that those tradesmen are embarrassed in their estates who are afraid to look into their books; so it is plain that there is something wrong within, among all those who are afraid to look within.Secker.
Thales, the Milesian philosopher, flourished about A.M. 3330, and was cotemporary with Josiah, king of Judah, and Jeremiah, our prophet; and he it was who gave birth to the wise admonition which was the basis of his philosophic teaching, Know thyself. Cicero, however, ascribes the maxim to Apollo himself, because, he says, it hath such weight of sense and wisdom in it as appear too great to be attributed to any man. It was emblazoned in golden letters over the door of the temple of Apollo at Delphos.
Jer. 8:7. Stork. The same individuals return to the same place year after year.
The stork-assembly meets; for many a day
Consulting deep and various, ere they take
Their arduous voyage through the liquid sky.
And now, their route designed, their leaders chose,
Their tribes adjusted, cleaned their vigorous wings,
in congregation full
The figured flight ascends, and riding high
The rial billows, mixes with the clouds.
Thomson.
Turtle.
The dove let loose in eastern skies,
Returning fondly home,
Neer stoops to earth her wing, nor flies
Where idle warblers roam.
But high she shoots, through air and light,
Above all low delay,
Where nothing earthly bounds her flight,
Nor shadow dims her way.
Moore.
Crane. Homer (Iliad, Jer. 3:2-3) alludes to the harsh sound of the crane in her flight:
The Trojans indeed advanced, with both clang and shout like birds,
Just in fact as is the noise of cranes in front of the sky.
Swallow. Its instinct is more true than mans reason or faith.
Bright bird of summer, what joys are thine!
Voice of the spring, if thy wings were mine,
My merry course should be with thee
To the orange grove and the banyan tree;
For who would dwell in the wintry chill,
And the gloom and cares of this world of ill,
If he could borrow thy wings, and stray
In chase of the summer, with thee away!
Anon (See Grays Topics.)
Crane and swallow. It is agreed by all philologists that our translators interchanged the words, and that in each case it should be swallow and crane, not crane and swallow. Soos, or ss, rendered swallow, scarcely can mean the swallow, for though a migrant it is hardly so in Palestine as to justify these words, the swallow observes the time of its coming. But the difficulty was solved, says Dr. Tristram, when we found that soos is to the present day the vernacular or provincial, though not the classical, Arabic name of the swift; and when we noted that, unlike the swallows, the swifts return to Palestine on a sudden in one day, and cover the land in countless myriads.Sunday at Home.
Jer. 8:8. SACRED WISDOM. Needed. Varro, a Roman writer of the first century B. C., states that in his day he had been at the pains to collect the various opinions on the question, What is the true object of human life?in other words, What is the supreme good? He had reckoned up as many as three hundred and twenty different answers! How needful is Divine revelation!Biblical Treasury.
LYING PEN OF THE SCRIBES. The mention of Scribes in this place is a crucial point in the argument whether or not the Pentateuch or Torah is the old law-book of the Jews, or a fabrication which gradually grew up, but was not received as authoritative until after the return from captivity. It is not until the time of Josiah that we find Scribes mentioned, except as political officers; here they are students of the Torah. But the Torah must have existed in writing before there could have been an order of men whose especial business it was to study it; and therefore Ewald, Hitzig, Graf, and others explain the verse away by saying that perhaps the Scribes were writers of books, and had published collections of false prophecies written in imitation of the true. But the Torah of Jehovah is mentioned in this very verse, and the whole gist of the passage is lost if what the Scribes turned into a lie was anything except that law, of which they had just boasted that they were the possessors. Jeremiahs whole argument depends upon the fact that there were in his days men who claimed to be wise, or rather learned men, because of their study of the Pentateuch, and is certainly inconsistent with the assumptions of the new critics, that Jeremiah wrote the book of Deuteronomy, and that Ezra wrote parts of Exodus and the whole of Leviticus.Speakers Commentary.
Jer. 8:14. DEFIANCE ISSUING IN DESPAIR. Francis Spira, an Italian apostate, exclaimed on his deathbed, My sin is greater than the mercy of God! I have denied Christ voluntarily. I feel now that He hardens me, and allows me no hope!
Hobbes, the infidel, before death, I am taking a fearful leap into the dark.
Jer. 8:18. BITTER LAMENTATIONS for others ruin. When our Redeemer wept over the city that was to perish, He considered it the more to be deplored as it knew not itself its deplorable condition. As many, therefore, as are set on fire by the torch of love weep over other mens sins as if they were their own. St. Augustine says, We mourn over the sins of others, we suffer violence, we are tormented in our minds. St. Chrysostom says that Moses was raised above the people because he habitually deplored the sins of others. He, says the same holy doctor, who sorrows for other mens sins, has the tenderness of an apostle, and is an imitator of that blessed One who said, Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?F. W. Faber.
Jer. 8:20. Harvest is past. OPPORTUNITY LOST. The mill cant grind with the water that is lost. Opportunities are importunities. Col. 4:3, is literally buying up the opportunity.
One of the most ingenious tortures of the Hohenslaufen family, in the height of their despotic control, was that of a cell which, at the prisoners first entrance, presented an air of comfort and ease; so that it was not till he had been a few days confined that he observed the dimensions of his chamber beginning to contract. But the discovery once made, the fact became more appalling every day. Slowly but terribly, the sides drew closer, and the unhappy victim was crushed to death. What an emblem does this suggest of the sinners contracting day of grace! Oh, what would the poor victim in such a cell have given to see the door open, and hear a voice, Escape for thy life! Would that sinners would escape as eagerly by the door of grace!Bowes Illustrative Gatherings.
Many do with opportunities as children do at the seashore; they fill their little hands with sand, and then let the grains fall through one by one till all are gone.T. Jones.
Jer. 8:22. BALM OF GILEAD. Gilead, where the balm was found, was on the wilderness side of promised land; the true Balm of GileadJesus Christis for our healing here, before we pass over Jordan. Men travelled far to get it, bought it at great price; but Jesus is nigh to heal us, and restores us without money and without price. Merchants conveyed the balm far and wide; missionaries travel far to make the free gift. The balsam tree had to be cut, pressed, &c., to yield the balm; Christ was wounded and bruised (Isa. 53:5). The supply of balm almost exhausted: Christ the same for ever.Topics.
Alexander the Great was dying of a wound, which did not seem very dangerous at first, but it baffled his physicians, and was rapidly becoming mortal. One night, however, it is said, he dreamed that some one had brought him a peculiar-looking plant, which, when applied to the festering sore, had cleansed and closed it. In the morning, when he awoke, he described the plant; and the historian informs us that it was sought for and found, and when applied to the wound, the fiery pain subsided, and he was speedily healed. Now your soul has received a deadly hurt; it has been stung by the old serpent, the devil. The wound gets worse. There is a tender plant which is able to heal youit is the Balm of Gilead.Dr. James Hamilton.
Compared with the virture and preciousness of the redeeming grace of Jesus, whose blood cleanses us from all sin.
Not balm, new bleeding from the wounded tree,
Nor blessd Arabia with his spicy grove,
Such fragrance yields.
Rowe.
So highly prized was the balsam that, during the war of Titus against the Jews, two fierce contests took place for the balsam orchards of Jericho, the last of which was to prevent the Jews from destroying the trees, which they would have done, in order that the trade might not fall into the enemys hand.
Not a root nor a branch of the balsam tree is now to be found in all Palestine.
Twice was a balsam-tree exhibited in triumph to the Romans in their streets. The first time was B. C. 65, when Pompey returned from his conquest, and Judea became a Roman province; and the last time was after a lapse of 144 years, when the spoils of the temple of Jerusalem were borne in triumph through the imperial city, and, as a sign of the subjection of the whole country, the precious balm-tree was exhibited with pride by Vespasian.
Bruce saw the balsam-tree in Arabian valleys. The most considerable gardens of them is in a recess of the mountains, between Mecca and Medina.
The balm of Gilead is a small evergreen; at five feet from the ground it branches out something like an old hawthorn; bark is smooth, shining, of a whitish grey colour, with brown blotches; leaves are of a bright green, foliage is scanty and rugged. The greatest quantity of balsam flows from the wounded bark; but there are three kinds procured by art; best is the opobalsam, expressed from the green berry; second, from the ripe nut or berry; the last is obtained by bruising and boiling the young wood.Scripture Herbal.
The balm of the soul is prayer, saith the Chaldee paraphrast; is repentance, saith Jerome; is Christ applied by faith, say we. Sanguis medici est curatio phrenetici.Trapp.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
B. The Future Destruction Jer. 7:32 to Jer. 8:3
TRANSLATION
(32) Therefore behold, days are coming (oracle of the LORD) when it shall no longer be called the Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of Slaughter; for they shall bury in Topheth for lack of place to bury. (33) And the carcasses of this people shall become food for the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and no one shall cause them to be afraid. (Jer. 8:1) In that time (oracle of the LORD) they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his princes and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. (2) And they shall spread them to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of the heavens which they loved and served and went after and which they sought and which they worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall become dung upon the face of the ground. (3) Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the remnant of this evil family who remain in all the places where I have driven them (oracle of the LORD of hosts).
COMMENTS
The polluted worship of the people of Judah will be punished in a most decisive way. A disaster will befall Judah in which so many people will be slain or die that even the pagan shrines will be converted to cemeteries. The valley of the son of Hinnom will be renamed the valley of slaughter because of the vast numbers that will be buried there (Jer. 7:32). The very spot where they had tried to court the favor of a pagan deity by offering their own children as burnt offerings will become a permanent monument to the folly of idolatry. But even this huge valley will not provide enough room for burial places for all the slain. Many corpses will be left unburied. The birds and beasts of prey will come and feast upon the decaying flesh and no one will be left to drive them away (Jer. 7:33).[185] In antiquity the lack of proper burial was the worst indignity which could befall a man. The thought of a corpse exposed to the elements of nature horrified the ancient Hebrews.
[185] Jer. 7:33 echoes the threat of Deu. 28:26.
The cities of Judah met the same fate as Topheth. All the normal sounds of joy and mirth will be removed. The entire land becomes a desolation (Jer. 7:34). The word translated desolation is used only of places which, having once been inhabited, have fallen into ruin. It is a gloomy picture indeed which the prophet paints of the future destruction.
Not only will the enemies of Judah leave the dead unburied (Jer. 7:33) they will also violate the graves of those who had been interred. In search of valuables the Babylonians will ransack the sepulchers of the leading citizens of Jerusalem (Jer. 7:1) and scatter their bones across the face of the ground. All the hosts of the heavens which the men of Judah had worshiped in life will helplessly look down upon this act of desecration (Jer. 7:2). The Biblical account of the fall of Jerusalem does not record the fulfillment of this particular prediction; but there can scarcely be any doubt that the ruthless Babylonians acted in the manner here described. The apocryphal book of Baruch (Jer. 2:24 f.) does allude to acts of desecration at the fall of Jerusalem.
For those who escape the destruction of Jerusalem and go into exile life will be so miserable that they will wish they were dead (Jer. 7:3). Practically nothing is known about the Jews who scattered into the neighboring countries of Syria-Palestine during the war with Babylon. Something of the despair of the Jewish exiles in Babylon shortly after 587 B.C. can be seen in Psalms 137. Time, of course, softened the utter despair of the exiles. The deportation to Babylon was for them a tremendous religious shock. They were forced to rethink their whole theology. As the exiles changed their mind and their heart in respect to God their lot improved. They adjusted to their surroundings and many of them actually prospered in exile. Jer. 7:3 must be describing the initial reaction of those who were carried away captive.[186]
[186] Laetsch views Jer. 7:3 as a conditional threat which was unfulfilled because of the repentance of the exiles.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
VIII.
(1) At that time.There is, it is obvious, no break in the discourse, and the time is therefore that of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldans, and of the burial of the slain. Not even the dead should sleep in peace. With an awful re-iteration of the word, so as to give the emphasis as of the toll of a funeral bell, the prophet heaps clause upon clause, the bones of the kings, the bones of the princes, and so on. The motives of this desecration of the sepulchres might be either the wanton ferocity of barbarian conquerors, bent, after the manner of savage warfare, on the mutilation of the dead, or the greed of gain and the expectation of finding concealed treasures. So Hyrcanus, to the great scandal of the Jews, broke open the sepulchre of David (Joseph., Ant. vii. 15).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
RETRIBUTION, Jer 8:1-3.
1. They shall bring out the bones Thus to complete the dreadful picture. Even the grave is not a safe covert from the avenging justice of God. The victorious enemy shall violate the sanctuaries of the dead in their search for plunder, or to express their hatred and contempt.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
SECTION 1. An Overall Description Of Jeremiah’s Teaching Given In A Series Of Accumulated, Mainly Undated, Prophecies, Concluding With Jeremiah’s Own Summary Of His Ministry ( Jer 2:4 to Jer 25:38 ).
From this point onwards up to chapter 25 we have a new major section (a section in which MT and LXX are mainly similar) which records the overall teaching of Jeremiah, probably given mainly during the reigns of Josiah (Jer 3:6) and Jehoiakim, although leading up to the days of Zedekiah (Jer 21:1). While there are good reasons for not seeing these chapters as containing a series of specific discourses as some have suggested, nevertheless they can safely be seen as giving a general overall view of Jeremiah’s teaching over that period, and as having on the whole been put together earlier rather than later. The whole commences with the statement, ‘Hear you the word of YHWH O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel, thus says YHWH —.’ It is therefore directed to Israel as a whole, mainly as now contained in the land of Judah to which many northerners had fled for refuge. We may divide up the main subsections as follows, based partly on content, and partly on the opening introductory phrases:
1. ‘Hear you the word of YHWH, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel —’ (Jer 2:4). YHWH commences by presenting His complaint against Israel/Judah because they have failed to continue to respond to the love and faithfulness that He had demonstrated to them in the wilderness and in the years that followed, resulting by their fervent addiction to idolatry in their losing the water of life in exchange for empty cisterns. It ends with a plea for them to turn back to Him like an unfaithful wife returning to her husband. This would appear to be mainly his initial teaching in his earliest days, indicating even at that stage how far, in spite of Josiah’s reformation, the people as a whole were from truly obeying the covenant, but it also appears to contain teaching given in the days of Jehoiakim, for which see commentary (Jer 2:4 to Jer 3:5).
2. ‘Moreover YHWH said to me in the days of King Josiah –’ (Jer 3:6). This section follows up on section 1 with later teaching given in the days of Josiah, and some apparently in the days of Jehoiakim. He gives a solemn warning to Judah based on what had happened to the northern tribes (‘the ten tribes’) as a result of their behaviour towards YHWH, facing Judah up to the certainty of similar coming judgment if they do not amend their ways, a judgment that would come in the form of a ravaged land and exile for its people. This is, however, intermingled with a promise of final blessing and further pleas for them to return to YHWH, for that in the end is YHWH’s overall purpose. But the subsection at this time ends under a threat of soon coming judgment (Jer 3:6 to Jer 6:30).
3. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1). In this subsection Jeremiah admonishes the people about the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, and warned that like Shiloh they could be destroyed. He accompanies his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would be dispersed and the country would be despoiled (Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:21), and seeks to demonstrate to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness. In a fourfold comparison he then vividly brings out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors (Jer 9:22 to Jer 10:25).
4. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 11:1). He now deprecates their disloyalty to the covenant, and demonstrates from examples the total corruption of the people, revealing that as a consequence their doom is irrevocably determined (Jer 11:1 to Jer 12:17). The section closes with a symbolic action which reveals the certainty of their expulsion from the land (13).
5. ‘The word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1). “The word concerning the drought,” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile. A promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is, however, once more incorporated (Jer 16:14-15) although only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1 to Jer 17:4). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced by observing the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27).
6. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 18:1). Chapters 18-19 then contain two oracles from God illustrated in terms of the Potter and his handiwork, which bring out on the one hand God’s willingness to offer mercy, and on the other the judgment that is about to come on Judah because of their continuance in sin and their refusal to respond to that offer. The consequence of this for Jeremiah, in chapter 20, is severe persecution, including physical blows and harsh imprisonment. This results in him complaining to YHWH in his distress, and cursing the day of his birth.
7. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 21:1). This subsection, which is a kind of appendix to what has gone before, finally confirming the hopelessness of Jerusalem’s situation under Zedekiah. In response to an appeal from King Zedekiah concerning Judah’s hopes for the future Jeremiah warns that it is YHWH’s purpose that Judah be subject to Babylon (Jer 21:1-10). Meanwhile, having sent out a general call to the house of David to rule righteously and deal with oppression, he has stressed that no hope was to be nurtured of the restoration of either Shallum, the son of Josiah who had been carried off to Egypt, nor of Jehoiachin (Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim who had been carried off to Babylon. In fact no direct heir of Jehoiachin would sit upon the throne. And the reason that this was so was because all the current sons of David had refused to respond to his call to rule with justice and to stamp down on oppression. What had been required was to put right what was wrong in Judah, and reign in accordance with the requirements of the covenant. In this had lain any hope for the continuation of the Davidic monarchy. But because they had refused to do so only judgment could await them. Note in all this the emphasis on the monarchy as ‘sons of David’ (Jer 21:12; Jer 22:2-3). This is preparatory to the mention of the coming glorious son of David Who would one day come and reign in righteousness (Jer 23:3-8).
Jeremiah then heartily castigates the false shepherds of Judah who have brought Judah to the position that they are in and explains that for the present Judah’s sinful condition is such that all that they can expect is everlasting reproach and shame (Jer 23:9 ff). The subsection then closes (chapter 24) with the parable of the good and bad figs, the good representing the righteous remnant in exile who will one day return, the bad the people who have been left in Judah to await sword, pestilence, famine and exile.
8. ‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah –’ (Jer 25:1). This subsection contains Jeremiah’s own summary, given to the people in a sermon, describing what has gone before during the previous twenty three years of his ministry. It is also in preparation for what is to follow. He warns them that because they have not listened to YHWH’s voice the land must suffer for ‘seventy years’ in subjection to Babylon, and goes on to bring out that YHWH’s wrath will subsequently be visited on Babylon, and not only on them, but on ‘the whole world’. For YHWH will be dealing with the nations in judgment, something which will be expanded on in chapters 46-51. There is at this stage no mention of restoration, (except as hinted at in the seventy year limit to Babylon’s supremacy), and the chapter closes with a picture of the final desolation which is to come on Judah as a consequence of YHWH’s anger.
While the opening phrase ‘the word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah’ will appear again in Jer 30:1; Jer 32:1; Jer 34:8; Jer 35:1; Jer 40:1 it will only be after the sequence has been broken by other introductory phrases which link the word of YHWH with the activities of a particular king (e.g. Jer 25:1; Jer 26:1; Jer 27:1; Jer 28:1) where in each case the message that follows is limited in length. See also Jer 29:1 which introduces a letter from Jeremiah to the early exiles in Babylon. Looking at chapter 25 as the concluding chapter to the first part, this confirms a new approach from Jer 26:1 onwards, (apparent also in its content), while at the same time demonstrating that the prophecy must be seen as an overall unity.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Subsection 3. In This Subsection Jeremiah Admonishes The People Concerning The False Confidence That They Have In The Inviolability Of The Temple, And In Their Sacrificial Ritual, And After Chiding Them, Calls On Them To Recognise The Kind Of God That They Are Dealing With ( Jer 7:1 to Jer 10:25 ).
Commencing with what will be the standard introductory words up to chapter 25, ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1; compare Jer 11:1; Jer 14:1; Jer 18:1; Jer 21:1), Jeremiah in this section admonishes the people concerning the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, accompanying his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would have to be dispersed and the country would have to be despoiled (Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:21), and demonstrates to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness, vividly bringing out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Having Described His People As Having Deceived Minds And Stiff Necks YHWH Now Calls On Them To Mourn Over Their Rejection By Him Because Of Their Doings, And Illustrates In Detail How Far They Have Gone From Him, Whilst Warning Again Of The Consequences ( Jer 7:29 to Jer 8:3 ).
YHWH now turns from the question of their general disobedience and idolatry, to their particular disobedience in reference to their especially evil behaviour with regard to idols in that they have set up their abominations in the House of YHWH, and have done even worse (if that were possible) in the Valley of Topheth where they have offered their children as sacrifices to idols, something which He had not commanded and had not (and would not have) even remotely considered. He calls on them to lament because, as a result, He was going to make the Valley of Topheth a place of slaughter and death in that it would become a place for burying huge numbers of dead and a place where the bones of kings and princes, priests and prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, would be exposed before the sun, moon and stars that they had worshipped, as though they were criminals, whilst those evil people who survived the massacre and went into exile would seek death rather than life.
Jer 7:29
“Cut off your hair (O daughter of Zion) and cast it away,
And take up a lamentation on the bare heights,
For YHWH has rejected and forsaken,
The generation of his wrath.”
The command to ‘cut off’ is in the feminine, suggesting that here the call is to ‘the daughter of Zion’ (Jer 6:23), that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem. YHWH calls on her to mourn and lament by cutting off her hair (her ‘crown’ – nzr – compare Numbers 6 where it indicates consecration) and casting it away. This may signify that she is to do this because she has already cast away her glory (her crown) or that, having been rejected by YHWH, she is to cast off the sign of her consecration to Him, in the same way as a Nazarite cut off his hair and cast it away when he had broken his vow. Either way it is a way of signifying great loss.
And she is to take up her lamentation on the ‘bare heights’, the very place where they had offered incense at their high places (Jer 3:2). In other words instead of indulging in their riotous sex-ridden festivals they were to humiliate themselves and mourn and weep (compare Job 1:20), because rather than facing blessing their future was dismal. And this was because YHWH had rejected and forsaken them, as a result of the fact that they were the generation at which His wrath was directed. ‘The generation of His wrath’ probably signifies the generation on which YHWH had decided the punishment must fall for all the failures of the past which had aroused His wrath, because they had now reached the point of no return.
Jer 7:30
“For the children of Judah have done what is evil in my sight, the word of YHWH, they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.”
The fault of the children of Judah was depicted as threefold:
Firstly they had done evil in His sight, including their worship of the Queen of Heaven, something confirmed by the infallible word of YHWH.
Secondly they had set their abominations (Asherah images/poles; etc.) in the very house that was called by His Name, an act of great blasphemy.
Thirdly they had built high places in Topheth in order to offer their children as sacrifices to the gods, thus committing mass murder and sacrilege.
The three activities together indicated a totality of evil.
‘They have done evil in His sight.’ They had turned after other gods, they had worshipped Baal on the high hills, they had worshipped the Queen of Heaven in their houses, and they had regularly broken the covenant by their ways, and it had all been done in front of His very eyes. ‘For all things are open to the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do’ (Heb 4:13).
‘They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My Name.’ They had even gone so far as to set up abominations in His house, the house that bore the very Name of YHWH. It is clear from this that (unless it is simply referring to their past history, which is not likely as otherwise the fact that it was ion the past might have been commended) they had images or pagan pillars or pagan altars in the Temple itself, which suggests that this was written in the time of Jehoiakim (or Zedekiah) because Josiah had previously cleared the Temple of such things in the twelfth year of his reign (2Ch 34:4) prior to Jeremiah’s call. This was thus a new act, causing gross offence to YHWH, and demonstrating that they had failed to learn the lessons of the past, but were instead repeating them.
Jer 7:31
“And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into my mind.”
But even worse they had built the high places of Topheth. ‘Topheth’ may mean ‘the hearth’ (tephath with the vowels altered to the vowels of bosheth = shame) indicating that it was a place of burning. The high places were erected there for the purpose of offering their children as human sacrifices ‘in the fire’. This was against all that YHWH had taught. It was ‘beyond His imagination’. He had of course once called Abraham to sacrifice his son, but only so that He could teach the lesson that such sacrifice was not required (Genesis 22).
Topheth was in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, an ancient valley known by that name in the time of Joshua (Jos 15:8; Jos 18:16), probably after its owner. This valley was also used for the burning of refuse, something which eventually made it a symbol of God’s fiery judgment (Gehenna = ge hinnom = the valley of Hinnom). To look over the walls of Jerusalem at night at the refuse fires continually burning far below in the valley must have been an awesome sight and readily recalled God’s fiery judgment.
Elsewhere Jeremiah linked these sacrifices with the worship of Baal (‘lord’), see Jer 19:5, although in most of the Old Testament they are connected with the fierce Ammonite god named Molech (melech = king, altered to take the vowels of bosheth = shame) who was worshipped throughout the area (e.g. 2Ki 23:10). This suggests a certain syncretism between the two gods, which may well have taken place because Molech was called ‘Lord Melech’ = Baal Melech = ‘Lord King’.
Jer 7:32
“Therefore, behold, the days come, the word of YHWH, that it will no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter, for they will bury in Topheth, until there is no place left for burying.”
Because of these evil sacrifices which took place there the name of the valley would in the future be changed to ‘the valley of Slaughter’. This would be because it would be used as a convenient burial ground, but so great would be the numbers to be buried there as a result of the coming invasion that it would be filled up with graves so much so that there would be no room for any more. It was certainly fitting that those who sacrificed their own children there in such a terrible manner should find themselves buried, or even left unburied, in the place where they had done it.
Jer 7:33
“And the dead bodies of this people will be food for the birds of the heavens, and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.”
But worse. Many alive at that time would be slain without there being room to bury them, with the result that their dead bodies would be flung on the ground and left for the vultures, and for scavenging beasts like the jackal. Such exposure was usually the fate of criminals and was looked on as the ultimate disgrace. And because the living would all be in exile there would be no one left to scare such scavengers away (contrast 2Sa 21:10). This would be a literal fulfilment of the curse in Deu 28:26, (which should be consulted).
Jer 7:34
“Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land will become a waste.”
At that time YHWH would remove all joy from the people. The voice of mirth and gladness, and the voice of the bride and bridegroom, would be heard no more in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, because the whole land would have been laid waste. Bride and bridegroom were especially mentioned because they were seen as representing the pinnacle of human happiness. But even they would have no cause for rejoicing. It was also at weddings that men knew the highest level of merriment, when the wine flowed freely, even for the poor. But there would be none now, for there would be nothing to celebrate. It may also be as an indication that life had come completely to a halt. Marriage would simply become a reminder of what had been.
Jer 8:1
“At that time, the word of YHWH, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves,”
Furthermore at that time the bones of those who had brought all these problems on Judah, the kings, the princes, the priests, the prophets, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem would be brought out of their graves and spread over the valley in order to desecrate them. The dishonouring of the dead in this way was a common practise in the Ancient Near East, although nor usually in such numbers. While we are not told anywhere that Nebuchadnezzar actually did this, it was, however, certainly compatible with someone who could kill a man’s sons before his eyes before blinding him permanently, as he did with Zedekiah (2Ki 25:7). Indeed, as we learn in Daniel, he was mentally ill (Dan 4:33) something which, despite superficial appearances, would not be something that just came and went. He had probably suffered from it in a milder form for many years, and was quite possibly a manic depressive (there are many traces of such an illness in his actions).
While the looting of grave treasures may have been part of the reason for the opening of graves, the widespread nature of what would happen indicates that that was not to be seen as the main reason. The main reason was probably so that the nations would see what happened to persistent rebels and would fear. Charles II of England inexcusably did the same thing to his enemies. Such evil was not limited to ancient Babylon. Compare also 2Sa 21:10, something which was the responsibility of revengeful Gibeonites.
Jer 8:2
“And they will spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped. They will not be gathered, nor be buried, they will be for dung on the face of the earth.”
The irony of the situation would be such that these people who had encouraged the worship of the sun, moon and stars, and had shown such devotion towards them, would themselves have their bones spread out before them, and would ‘discover’ that they could do nothing to help them. They had loved them and served them, and walked after them and sought them, and worshipped them. Now they would be shamed before them, while the sun, moon and stars shone blandly down on them, unable to offer any assistance. Nor would anyone gather up their bones. They would be left to lie there until they became so much compost to renew the soil.
Jer 8:3
“And death will be chosen rather than life by all the residue who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them, the word of YHWH of hosts.”
And the case would not be any better for those who survived. Any who survived the slaughter would be driven into exile in one way or another (into Egypt and Babylon), and many would then prefer death to life because of the misery of their situation (compare the vivid language in Deu 28:64-67). Life would be seen as worse than death. And all this would be in accordance with the sure word of YHWH of hosts.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 8:7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
Jer 8:7
Jer 8:8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
Jer 8:22 Jer 8:22
[15] Alex. Macalister, “Balm,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
“When I promised thee green pastures, I had not in mind religious activity. When I said, ‘Come, buy milk and honey without money nor price’, I was not challenging thee to fevered service, but to contemplative fellowship and collective communion. Only thus are souls made strong, and hearts made pure, and minds refreshed. Thy busyness wearies Me. Small wonder thou are thyself fatigued! Thy fretfulness grieveth Me. I long to take it from thee and give instead the balm of Gilead . By My ally. I will endue thee with life so dynamic that ye will serve Me before ye even have time to think to put forth the effort to do so” [16]
[16] Frances J. Roberts, Come Away My Beloved (Ojai, California: King’s Farspan, Inc., 1973), 136.
Jer 8:22 Comments Gilead was an agricultural area in the Transjordan that was known for its balm ( ISBE). [17] We see the Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with spices, balm and myrrh in Gen 37:25. Thus, the prophet is asking where the balm is, for the people are not healed and delivered after they have prayed unto their gods.
[17] W. Ewing, “Gilead,” in International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, ed. James Orr (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., c1915, 1939), in The Sword Project, v. 1.5.11 [CD-ROM] (Temple, AZ: CrossWire Bible Society, 1990-2008).
Gen 37:25, “And they sat down to eat bread: and they lifted up their eyes and looked, and, behold, a company of Ishmeelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt.”
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
Retribution upon the Jews
v. 1. At that time, saith the Lord, v. 2. and they shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, v. 3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jer 8:1-3
Punishment will even overtake the sinners who have long since been deceased.
Jer 8:1
They shall bring out the bones. Not only shall many of the dead bodies remain unburied, but the sepulchers of those who have till now “lain in honor, each one in his house” (Isa 14:18), shall be violated. The inhabitants of Jerusalem meant are evidently those of the upper class, for the others were buried, with but little regard to the security of the corpses, in the valley of Kedron (2Ki 23:6). According to some, the motive of this invasion of the chambers of the dead is avarice (comp. Herod; 1.187, Darius at the tomb of Nitocris); but the context, without excluding this view, rather suggests malice and contempt. Thus “the wrath of man” was to “praise” Jehovah (Psa 76:10).
Jer 8:2
And they shall spread them, etc. Not as an act of solemn mockery, for the agents are idolaters themselves, but God so overrules the passions of his unconscious instruments that no more effective ceremonial could have been devised. Whom they have loved, etc. The prophet is designedly diffuse in his description. With all their misspent zeal, these unhappy idolaters cannot even find tombs.
Jer 8:3
Which remain. The words are certainly to be omitted in the second place where they occur. In the Hebrew they stand after in all the places, and the word for “places” is feminine, whereas the participle, “the remaining,” is masculine. The Septuagint and Peshito have nothing corresponding. There is a clerical error in the Hebrew.
Verses 8:4-9:1
The incorrigible wickedness of the people, and the awfulness of the judgment.
Jer 8:4
Moreover thou shalt say, etc.; literally, and thou shalt say. The section is introduced by a formula which connects it with Jer 7:2, Jer 7:28. Shall they fall, etc.? rather, Do men fall doth a man turn away? One of those appeals to common sense in which the prophets delight. Who ever sees a fallen man stay quietly on the ground without attempting to rise? or a man who has wandered out of the path persist in going in the wrong direction?
Jer 8:5
Slidden back backsliding. The verb is the same verb (in another conjugation) as in Jer 8:4, and the noun is a derivative from it. The Authorized Version, therefore, has slightly weakened the force of the argument. They hold fast deceit. They cling to a false view of their relation to their God (comp. Jer 4:2; Jer 5:2).
Jer 8:6
I hearkened and heard. The Divine Judge condescends to speak after the manner of men. He will be his own witness; for it is his own people, Jeshurun, which is on its trial. Not aright. It is a compound expression, equivalent to “insincerely,” “untruly” (comp. Isa 16:6). Repented turned; rather, repenteth turneth (or, returneth). To his course. The Hebrew text, sometimes represented as having a different reading (“courses,” in the plural) from the margin, really gives the same reading with one letter misplaced. The singular stands in the parallel passage, Jer 23:19, and offers no difficulty. As the horse rusheth; literally, over-floweth. Both the Authorized Version and the Vulgate (impetu vadens) efface the second metaphor. The uncontrollable passion of both people and war-horse is compared to the all-subduing course of a winter stream or torrent.
Jer 8:7
The appeal to the regularity of animal instincts reminds us of Isa 1:3. Yea, the stork, etc. The minatory birds obey their instinct with the most unfailing regularity. Those referred to are:
(1) the stork, whose “regular and sudden return is one of the most interesting natural sights of Palestine. The expression ‘stork in the heavens’ refers to the immense height at which they fly during migration” (Tristram);
(2) the turtle, or turtle-dove, whose return is the sure sign of spring (Son 2:11);
(3 and 4) the crane and the swallow, or rather, “the swift and the crane.” These birds are again mentioned together in Isa 38:14 (the psalm of Hezekiah), where special reference is made to the penetrating quality of their note. “The whooping or trumpeting of the crane rings through the night air in spring, and the vast flocks which we noticed passing north near Beersheba were a wonderful sight.” The introduction of the swallow in the Authorized Version is misleading, as that bird is not a regular migrant in Palestine. The note of the swift is a shrill scream. “No bird is more conspicuous by the suddenness of its return than the swift,” is the remark of Canon Tristram, who saw large flocks passing northwards over Jerusalem, on the 12th of February. It is an interesting fact that the swift bears the same name (sus) in the vernacular Arabic as in the Hebrew of Jeremiah. The judgment; better, the law (see on Jer 5:4).
Jer 8:8
How do ye say, We are wise? Jeremiah is evidently addressing the priests and the prophets, whom he so constantly described as among the chief causes of Judah’s ruin (comp. verse 10; Jer 2:8, Jer 2:26; Jer 4:9; Jer 5:31), and who, in Isaiah’s day, regarded it as an unwarrantable assumption on the part of that prophet to pretend to instruct them in their duty (Isa 28:9). The law of the Lord is with us. “With us;” i.e. in our hands and mouths. (comp. Psa 1:1-6 :16). The word torah, commonly rendered” Law,” is ambiguous, and a difference of opinion as to the meaning of this verse is inevitable. Some think these self-styled “wise” men reject Jeremiah’s counsels on the ground that they already have the divinely given Law in a written form (comp. Rom 2:17-20), and that the Divine revelation is complete. Others that torah here, as often elsewhere in the prophets (e.g. Isa 1:10; Isa 8:16; Isa 42:4), simply means “instruction,” or “direction,” and describes the authoritative counsel given orally by the priests (Deu 17:11) and prophets to those who consulted them on points of ritual and practice respectively. The usage of Jeremiah himself favors the latter view (see Jer 2:8; Jer 18:18; and especially Jer 26:4, Jer 26:5, where “to walk in my Torah” is parallel to “to hearken to the words of my servants the prophets.” The context equally points in this direction. The most natural interpretation, then, is this: The opponents of Jeremiah bade him keep his exhortations to himself, seeing that they themselves were wise and the divinely appointed teachers of the people. To this Jeremiah replies, not (as the Authorized Version renders) Lo, certainly in vain made he it, etc.; but, Yea, behold I for a lie hath it wroughtthe lying pen of the scribes. Soferim (scribes) is the term proper to all those who practiced the art of writing (sefer); it included, therefore, presumably at least, most, if not all, of the priests and prophets of whom Jeremiah speaks. There are indications enough that the Hebrew literature was not entirely confined to those whom we look up to as the inspired writers, and it is perfectly credible that the formalist priests and false prophets should have availed themselves of the pen as a means of giving greater currency to their teaching. Jeremiah warns his hearers to distrust a literature which is in the set-vice of false religious principlesa warning which prophets in the wider sense of the term (‘The Liberty of Prophesyings’) still have but too much occasion to repeat, tit is right, however, to mention another grammatically possible rendering, which is adopted by those who suppose torah in the preceding clause to mean the Mosaic Law: “Yea, behold, the lying pen of the scribes hath made (it) into a lie;” i.e. the professional interpreters of the Scriptures called scribes have, by their groundless comments and inferences, made the Scriptures (especially the noblest part, the Law) into a lie, so that it has ceased to represent the Divine will and teaching. The objections to this are:
(1) the necessity of supplying an object to the verbthe object would hardly have been omitted where its emission renders the meaning of the clause so doubtful;
(2) that this view attributes to the word soferim a meaning which only became prevalent in the time of Ezra (comp. Ezr 7:6, Ezr 7:11).]
Jer 8:9
The wise men are ashamed. It is the perfect of prophetic certitude, equivalent to “the wise men shall certainly be ashamed.” And why? Evidently because they have not foreseen the calamities impending ever their nation. They have preached, “Peace, peace; when there was no peace” (Jer 8:11); and hence they find themselves “taken” in the grip of a relentless power from which there is no escape. What wisdom; literally, wisdom of what? i.e. in respect of what?
Jer 8:10-12
These verses are almost the same as Jer 6:12-15; the differences are in Jer 6:10. They are omitted in the Septuagint, and Hitzig regards them as an interpolation, at any rate from the point where the present passage coincides verbally with its parallel. His grounds are:
(1) that Jer 6:13 follows more naturally on Jer 6:10 (” them that shall inherit them”) than on Jer 6:12;
(2) that Jer 6:10 is deficient in symmetry; and
(3) that the deviations from Jer 6:13-15 sometimes loosen the connection of the clauses, sometimes sink into the colloquial style. The arguments seem to be inconclusive. Jeremiah is apt to repeat himself; and the element which is common to this paragraph and to ch: Jer 6:12-15 seems equally appropriate in both connections. It should be added, however, that the cautious and reverent block has come to the same conclusion as Hitzig. To them that shall inherit them; rather, to them that shall take possession of them, i.e. by violence.
Verses 8:13-9:1
Further description of the judgment; grief of Jeremiah.
Jer 8:13
There shall be no grapes, etc.; rather, there are no grapes and the leaf is faded. It is the actual condition of things which the prophet describes. Elsewhere Judah is compared to a vine with bad grapes (Jer 2:21); here the vine does not even pretend to bear fruit. Another figure is that of a barren fig tree (comp. Mat 21:19). And the things that I have given them, etc.; rather, and I gave them that which they transgress (viz. laws). The construction, however, which this rendering implies is not perfectly natural, though supported by most of the ancient versions, and it is better to alter a single vowel-point, and render “And I will give them to those who shall pass over them.” The phrase to pass away is constantly used of an invading host; e.g. Isa 8:7; Dan 11:10, Dan 11:40.
Jer 8:14
Why do we sit still? The prophet transports us by a stroke of his pea into the midst of the fulfillment of his prophecy. The people of the country districts are represented as urging each other to flight. True, it is the resource of despair. No defensed cities can defend them against the judgment of Jehovah. Let us be silent; rather, let us perish; literally, let us be put to silence. Hath put us to silence; rather, hath caused us to perish; i.e. hath decreed our destruction. Water of gall; a phrase characteristic of our prophet (see Jer 9:14; Jer 23:15). It is a little difficult to find a rendering which shall suit all the passages in which rosh (gall) is mentioned. In Deu 32:33 (and so Job 20:16) it is clearly used for “venom” in general; and yet in Deu 32:32 of the same chapter it obviously means a plant. Another general application of the term seems to have been to bitterness in general, the ideas of bitterness and poisonousness being taken as interchangeable. The Authorized Version may therefore stand.
Jer 8:15
Health; rather, healing. Another rendering is tranquility (same sense as in Ecc 10:4). Trouble; rather, terror.
Jer 8:16
The invader is introduced with the same mysterious indefiniteness as in Jer 4:13. From Dan; i.e. from the northern frontier (see on Jer 4:15). Trembled; rather, quaked (so Jer 49:21). His strong ones. The phrase “strong ones” generally denotes oxen, but here (as in Jer 47:3; Jer 50:11) horses.
Jer 8:17
A new image to intensify the impression of dreadfulness. Serpents, cockatrices; rather, serpents (even) basilisks. The second noun is in apposition to the more general “serpents.” “Basilisks” (Serpentes regulos) are the renderings of Aquila and the Vulgate. Some species of highly venomous serpent is clearly intended; more than this we cannot say. The root probably means “to hiss.” Canon Tristram thinks of “a very beautifully marked yellow serpent, and the largest of the vipers found in the Holy Land,” called the Daboia xantheina. He adds that it is one of the most dangerous.
Verses 8:18-9:1
The captivity of Judah and the deep sorrow of Jeremiah.
Jer 8:18
When I would comfort myself, etc. The text is here extremely difficult, and if there is corruption anywhere it is in the opening of this verse. Ewald and Graf suppose an ellipsis, and render, “(Oh for) my enlivening [i.e. an enlivening for me] in trouble!” Hitzig more naturally renders in the vocative, “My enlivener in trouble” which he supposes to be in apposition to my heart. Do Dieu wavers between this and the view that it is an address to his wife, “Quae marito solatio est.” (See, however, Jer 16:2.)
Jer 8:19
Because of them that dwell in, etc. The Hebrew simply has “from them,” etc. The prophet is transported in imam-nation to the time of the fulfillment of his prophecies. He hears the lamentation of his countrymen, who are languishing in captivity. Is not the Lord in Zion, etc.? is the burden of their sad complaints; “king” is a familiar synonym for “God” (comp. Isa 8:21; Isa 33:22; but not Psa 89:18, which is certainly mistranslated in Authorized Version). But why” in Zion?” “Zion” was properly the name of the eastward hill at Jerusalem, where lay the oldest part of the city (called “the city of David”), and the highest portion of which was crowned by the temple. Why have they provoked me to anger, etc.? is the reply of Jehovah, pointing out that their sufferings were but an exact retribution for their infidelity (comp. Jer 5:19).
Jer 8:20
The harvest is past, etc. For “summer,” read fruit-gathering. The people again becomes the speaker. The form of the speech reminds one of a proverb. When the harvest was over and the fruit-gathering ended, the husbandmen looked for a quiet time of refreshment. Judah had had its “harvest-time” and then its “fruit-gathering;” its needs had been gradually, increasing, and, on the analogy of previous deliverances (comp. Isa 18:4; Isa 33:10), it might have been expected that God would have interposed, his help being only delayed in order to be the more signally supernatural. But we are not saved (or rather, delivered).
Jer 8:21
For the hurt, etc.; literally, because of the breaking, etc; I am broken; comp. Jer 23:9, and the phrase “broken in heart” (Isa 61:1, etc.). The prophet feels crushed by the sense of the utter ruin of his people. I am black; rather, I go in mourning (so Psa 38:6; Psa 42:9). The root means rather “foulness” or “squalor” than “blackness” (comp. Job 6:16, where “blackish,” an epithet of streams, should rather be “turbid”).
Jer 8:22
No hope or remedy is left; again a proverbial expression. No balm in Gilead. Gilead appears to have been celebrated in early times for its balsam, which was expected by Ishmaelites to Egypt (Gen 37:25) and by Jewish merchants to Tyro (Eze 27:17). It was one of the most costly products of Palestine (Gen 43:11), and was prized for its medicinal properties in cases of wounds (comp. Jer 46:11; Jer 51:8). Josephus mentions this balsam several times, but states that it only grew at Jericho (‘Antiq.,’ 15.4,2), Tristram searched for balsam in its ancient haunts, but in vain; he thinks Jeremiah means the Balsamodendron gileadense or opobalsamum, which in Arabia is used as a medicine both internally and externally. But if Pliny (‘Hist. Nat.,’ 24.22) may be followed in his wide use of the term “balsam” so as to include the exudations of the “lentisens” or mastick tree, then “balm of Gilead” is still to be found; for the mastick tree “grows commonly all over the country, excepting in the plains and the Jordan valley”. Is there no physician there? We hear but little of physicians in the Old Testament. They are only mentioned again in Gen 1:2 (but with reference to Egypt, where medicine was much cultivated), and in 2Ch 16:12; Job 13:4. From the two latter passages we may, perhaps, infer that physicians were rarely successful; and this is certainly the impression produced by Ecclesiasticus 38:15, “He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hand of the physician.” The remedies employed in the Talmudic period quite bear out this strong saying. The physicians of Gilead, however, probably confined themselves to their one famous simple, the balsam. Is not the health recovered? Gesenius renders, less probably, “hath no bandage been applied to the daughter of my people?”
HOMILETICS
Jer 8:4-6
Persistent depravity.
I. PERSISTENT DEPRAVITY MUST BE DISTINGUISHED FROM A CASUAL LAPSE INTO SIN.
1. This is marked by a constant habit of sin, a falling without rising again. The best man is often guilty of mistakes, but he soon seeks to recover himself (Psa 37:24). His habit is upright, the direction he follows on the whole, though now and then he may lose ground for a short time, is right. But the man who is persistently depraved makes the wrong way his main course, and if he ever deviates from it does so accidentally or only under some temporary impulse, soon returning as by instinct to wallow in the mire, where only he feels at home (2Pe 2:22).
2. This is characterized by absence of repentance after sinning. No man is heard to repent (Jer 8:6). After a good man has fallen into sin he is overwhelmed with shame, plunged into dark depths of grief, tortured with bitter pangs of contrition, like Peter when he “went out and wept bitterly.” But the persistently depraved man feels no such distresses. The sun shines as brightly after he has contracted a new crime as before. His serene self-complacency is not ruffled by one spasm of inward revulsion.
3. This is characterized by an impetuous impulse to sin. A good man may fall into sin. One who is persistently depraved rushes into it. To the former sin comes as defeat after a battle in which his better nature has fought and failed; to the latter it comes unresisted, welcomed: he “returneth to his course” with eagerness, “as the horse rusheth into the battle.”
II. PERSISTENT DEPRAVITY IS FAR MORE CULPABLE THAN A CASUAL LAPSE INTO sin. All sin is culpable. Sin cannot be entirely accidental in any case, or it would cease to be sin. But persistent sin is by far the most evil form of sin.
1. A casual fall may be induced by powerful external temptation; persistent depravity must rise from an internal appetite.
2. A casual fall may come as a sudden surprise when a man is off his guard; persistent depravity must be clearly perceived and consciously cherished.
3. A casual fall may be the result of a sudden outburst of passion which results in something approaching temporary insanity; persistent depravity must be calm and cold-blooded, standing the test of reflection. This is altogether beyond what could be anticipated. You are not surprised that a man should stumble occasionally in the darkness of this world, amidst the snares and pitfalls of temptation, with the natural weakness of humanity, or that he should sometimes miss his way or be lured aside from the right road to pleasanter paths; but that he should not care to rise after falling, not think of returning when he sees the error of his way, but should keep to it with a consistency which would be heroic in a better course,such depravity is unnatural and monstrous.
Jer 8:7
A lesson from the birds.
It is interesting to observe that the Scripture references to natural history are hot directed so much to theological arguments as to moral lessons. While questions concerning the being and nature of God absorb almost the exclusive attention of the natural theologian, the prophet, who assumes the belief of his hearers in the immanence of God in Nature, is more concerned to show how she rebukes man for his own shortcomings and incites to goodness by her mute example. The scriptural treatment is, therefore, more nearly followed by the regard for the human and moral aspects of nature in the spirit of Wordsworth and Ruskin, which is characteristic of the better thought of our own age, than by the cold, prosaic examination of the physical world, as simply affording one section of the evidences of religion, which was pursued in the days of Paley.
I. THE BIRDS REMIND US THAT WE ARE SURROUNDED BY DIVINE ORDINANCES. Migratory birds have their appointed times. Every creature has its special vocation. To the lower animals this comes as a necessary law, as a course determined by unconscious instinct. To man it comes as a mandate of duty, an impulse in the conscience, a way to be clearly perceived and freely chosen. But, though the same method for exacting the performance of the Divine ordinances which obtains in nature is not enforced on man, those ordinances extend to him; to him also they come with Divine sanction. Though man is physically free to rebel, morally he is no more his own master than are the birds who are bound by the laws of their instincts. Freedom from compulsion is not freedom from obligation.
II. THE BIRDS REMIND US THAT IT IS AS WELL TO OBEY THE DIVINE ORDINANCES. In their migrations they find their welfare secured. Driven by the inward impulse of Divine law written on their instincts, they speed them over vast tracts of unknown lands, and at length find themselves in the clime and at the season which is beat suited for them. What an image of implicit faith I We are called to go forth, like Abraham, we know not whither, but like him to find a possession in the unknown land (Heb 11:8). The future is unseen, the way is wild and pathless, dark clouds as of brooding storms gather on the horizon; but if we take as our compass the known will of God, we too shall find sunny climes beyond the seas of trouble, a home at the end of our pilgrimage.
III. THE BIRDS, BY THEIR EXAMPLE, REBUKE OUR DISOBEDIENCE TO THE DIVINE ORDINANCES. Free to roam through illimitable regions of air, the high-flying stork, the turtle-dove, the swift, and the crane all keep to their true course, not dropping down, tempted by the attractions of leafy vales or fruitful gardens, not turned aside terrified by the horrors of high mountains, lonely deserts, or stormy seas, till they reach their destination in punctual obedience to the mysterious law of their nature. These migratory birds are representative of external liberty restrained by inward law. We are not under any outward compulsion nor any inward law of instinct like that of the birds. But we are capable of following a higher law. We have light which is denied to them, and high motives of fear and love to prompt to obedience. If we disobey, the obedience of the birds is an ever-recurring rebuke.
Jer 8:8, Jer 8:9
Untrustworthy literature.
I. LITERATURE MAY HAVE MANY ATTRACTIONS AND YET BE UNTRUSTWORTHY.
1. Authority. They were official prophets and teachers whom Jeremiah opposed. Errors gain power when they are pronounced ex cathedra. The belief in papal infallibility is but one instance of a common human weakness.
2. Pretentiousness. The self-styled wise men of Jeremiah’s age were confident and boastful. The world is too ready to take a man at his own estimate of himself. Vehement assertion is often accepted instead of solid proof.
3. Numerical force. Jeremiah stood as one against many. No mistake is greater than the assumption of so-called common sense, that truth may be presumed to reside with the majority. How often from the days of Noah downwards has it been found with the few!
4. Popular style. These “wise” men knew how to suit the taste of the multitude; they could prophesy smooth things. There is a fearful fascination in literary style. The great danger to the cultivated is that they should select for their guides those writers whose language is most pleasing in place of those whose arguments are most sound. Lies may be commended by brilliant epigrams, and unwholesome passions fostered by splendid poetry. The ease and fluency of Hume and the wit of Voltaire were effective with many persons who would not have been moved by bare arguments.
II. IF LITERATURE IS UNTRUE IT SHOULD BE TREATED AS WORTHLESS.
1. Style is but the vesture of thought, and thought is but idle fancy if it does not correspond to fact. The first question to be asked about a writer is not, “Are his ideas novel, original, striking? Are they beautiful, grand, imposing? are they pleasing, popular, acceptable?” but simply, “Are they true?” If this question in answered in the negative, all other recommendations may be considered as worse than worthless. The sweeter the bait, the more dangerous the trap.
2. The test of truth in religious literature is conformity to the Word of God. The Scripture is a guide and authority to the Christian. God’s word in nature, providence, and conscience must be heard and interpreted if men would speak truly on these subjects. The profession to be speaking Divine words founded either on a pretended revelation or a boast of superior intelligence, is vain unless the private words of the individual harmonize with the general truth of God’s world-wide revelations.
3. Experience will test the truth of literature. If literature concerns itself with serious subjects, it cannot be regarded as a trifle of idle hours. It will be brought into judgment. Experience will try it. No lie can be eternal. The self-styled “wise” men will “have to be ashamed,” “dismayed and taken,” when events contradict their untrue language.
Jer 8:11
(See on Jer 6:14.)
Jer 8:14, Jer 8:15
Despair.
I. DESPAIR WILL ARISE ON THE PERCEPTION THAT THERE IS NO WAY OF ESCAPE FROM RUIN. The miserable Jews are pictured as first sitting still helplessly, and then rousing themselves to enter the fenced cities, only to find that death awaits them there as surely as in the open plain. People are too ready to believe that “something will turn up,” and so hold on, in confidence and indifference, till their eyes are suddenly opened, and they see room for nothing but despair.
II. DESPAIR WILL ARISE ON THE RECOGNITION OF THE WRATH OF GOD. The Jews are to see that their God has put them to silence. Philistines, Egyptians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, might all be resisted; but who shall resist God? Men can only fight against God with confidence until they perceive him fighting against them. Then hope is madness.
III. DESPAIR WILL BE HEIGHTENED BY THE SENSE OF GUILT. The Jews are to see that their calamity is the punishment of sin. It is deserved. It is justly given. Men hope on while they refuse to admit their sin; but conviction of sin is fatal to hope.
IV. DESPAIR MAY FOLLOW A CONFIDENT HOPE. The Jews had looked for peace and for a time of health. Yet none came. Hope may be very bright and yet very delusive. The splendor of the sunrise contains little promise that the day will close without storms. Subjective confidence is no guarantee of objective truth. Things are not the more true because we believe them very firmly. We may feel safe and be in danger. A peaceful death is no security for a joyful resurrection. It is little that a man has overcome the fear of death; the important question is whether he has removed the ground for that fear. The faith that saves is not confidence in our own security, but submissive and obedient trust in Christ.
V. THE POSSIBILITY OF DESPAIR IS REVEALED, NOT TO PRODUCE IT, BUT TO WARN Us FROM IT. If it were inevitable, or, being experienced, invincible, it would be cruel to prepare any for it. Why not let the poor doomed wretch enjoy his brief hour of sunshine before he is sent “to dwell in solemn shades of endless night?” But the revelations of a possibly dark future are given in mercy to warn us from sowing the seeds of despair and to point to the way of escape. No soul need despair since there is One who “is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him” (Heb 7:25).
Jer 8:20
Harvest contrasts.
The seasons have their lessons for all of us, teaching both by analogy and by contrast; for the warnings suggested by the opposition of our own condition to that of the natural world may be as instructive as the encouragements arising out of the harmony between the two. To Jeremiah the harvest came in its brightness only to show the condition of the Jews in the deeper shadow. A similar experience may occur to those of us who have no harvest-song in the soul to respond to the harvest-gladness of the world without.
I. THE MOST HOPEFUL EXTERNAL EVENT IS NO SECURITY FOR DELIVERANCE FROM THE GREATEST TROUBLES OF LIFE. Even harvest did not bring deliverance. People are too ready to rest their confidence on various indications of God in the outside world.
1. Time. The harvest is a new waymark in the course of time. Many trust blindly to time to bring them some help, while they do not stir a finger to secure it.
2. Change. The harvest indicates a new season. The sanguine are too ready to believe that any change must be for the better.
3. Material prosperity. The harvest brings bread for the body. Must it not, therefore, lay the foundation of perfect and lasting good? To those men whose “god is their belly” the harvest would seem to promise complete satisfaction.
4. Indications of the merciful kindness of God. He sends the harvest. Then, it is reasoned, he wishes to bless, and therefore will permit no harm. But experience proves the error of these anticipations, and reflection should soon detect the fallacy which underlies them. Outward events do not always correspond to inward experiences; the latter have their own separate conditions. God may deal mercifully with us now and in earthly things, but his present forbearance is no proof that we shall never suffer from his righteous wrath in the season of judgment.
II. THE MOST HOPEFUL EXTERNAL EVENT DEEPENS THE SENSE OF THE INTERNAL DISTRESS WITH WHICH IT IS CONTRASTED. The harvest past, and yet undelivered!
1. A new stage of time has gone, and the deliverance is still delayed.
2. Outside events change, but the essential condition remains unchanged.
3. Material good is enjoyed while real good is still unattained, and this makes the minor blessing seem but a mockery.
4. God is merciful, and yet we are not delivered! Some fearful evil must be at the foundation of such a strange condition.
5. A time of rest is looked for but comes not. After harvest should come rest. Distress is heightened by the disappointment of expected deliverance.
6. Approaching troubles increase the gloom of present distress. The harvest is past. Now we look forward to chill autumn, to stormy winter. Not saved in harvest! What are we to expect in less propitious times?
Jer 8:22
Balm in Gilead.
I. THE WORLD NEEDS REMEDIES FOR MORAL AND SOCIAL HEALING. Jeremiah regarded the Jews as wounded by the cruel calamities which were to overwhelm them; but beneath the wounds he detected an unhealthy national condition which equally needed healing. Men suffer thus from the external wounds of adversity and from the internal disease of sin. How small a part of mankind can be considered in a thoroughly healthy condition! Men are not only imperfectly developed; they are suffering from positive disorders. The world needs medicine as well as foodthe physician as well as the farmer. Nations need healing for political disorganization within and wrongs of subjection to a foreign yoke without. Society sadly requires to be purified, even regenerated. Individual men suffer from the smart of sorrow and the disease of sinboth signs of an imperfect, disorganized condition, needing cure. The one disease which is at the root of all the chief maladies of mankind is moral evil. The forgiveness of sins must come as a healing of sickness (Mar 2:9).
II. MANY PROFESSED REMEDIES ARE FORTHCOMING. Gilead has her balm. Every new physician has his patent nostrum. The world does not suffer from the small number of remedies which have been proposed to cure all the ills that flesh is heir to. It is rather in danger of being poisoned by a superabundance of most incongruous drugs. Every religion brings its own remedy. Philosophy, in its highest ambition, aims at a practical cure of society. Political innovations, social reforms, education, sanitary improvements,all seek this result.
III. No EARTHLY REMEDIES SUFFICE FOR THE NEEDED CURE. The balm of Gilead is found in abundance, but, alas! it will not heal the smart of Israel. Physicians advise, but their advice is futile. Nothing could effect the deliverance of the Jews in the days of Jeremiah, though lying prophets and astute politicians did their best. No earthly remedy can heal the widespread evil of the world (Isa 1:6).
1. Earthly remedies are external. They may change the social order; they cannot cure the false ideas, unregulated passions, and vitiated conscience of which the habits of society are but symptoms. Spiritual disease must be treated with spiritual medicine. The physician for the body can do little in ministering to “the mind diseased.” You cannot make men moral by the strictest puritanical legislation.
(1) The disease of sin is in the heart, and the remedy must reach the heart.
(2) So the deepest distress of mankind cannot be cured by the amelioration of physical comforts. A princely legacy is no consolation to a mother for the loss of her child.
2. Earthly remedies partake of the character of the disease. Human religions bear on their faces the marks of that very moral corruption which they aim at destroying. Sin can only be cured by something outside the sinful world; sorrow, by something above the scene of human distresses. We must go further than Gilead for the true balm, for Gilead will share with Israel the trouble for which we seek a remedy.
IV. GOD HAS PROVIDED HIS OWN REMEDY FOR THE MORAL AND SOCIAL HEALING OF THE WORLD. Christ is “the good Physician.” The miracles of healing which he wrought on the bodies of men were signs of the work he came to effect for their souls.
1. Christ’s remedy comes from higher than human sources. The healing of the sinless One is not tainted with the corruption which marks all simply human attempts at cure.
2. Christ’s remedy goes to the root of the evil of mankind. His great work is not to effect an external revolution of society, but to cleanse the conscience (Heb 9:14) and heal the heart.
3. Individually, healing is brought to all, and the worst cases are just those for which Christ chiefly came (Mat 9:12). When all other remedies fail, his is most effectual, because it is
(1) most needed, and
(2) most glorified by the result.
4. Society must be healed by the application of Christian principles to politics, to commerce, to literature, to recreation, to domestic life.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 8:4-7
Apostasy an anomalous and incalculable thing.
I. THE ANALOGIES Or COMMON SENSE AND INSTINCT ARE FALSIFIED. (Jer 8:4-6.) If a man fall, he will rise again to his feet; if he has made a mistake or gone in a wrong direction, and discovers it, he will turn again, unless he be absolutely bereft of his senses. One might expect similar behavior in spiritual matters. But in the wickedness and defection of Israel it was not so; their apostasy seemed perpetual. The migratory birds are taught by instinct when to return. The season of their coming again is almost as calculable as that of their going. But the departure of the sinner is incomprehensible, and his return cannot with certainty be expected. Nay, the likelihood is he will continue in his sin, and pursue his own destruction to the hitter end. In this, as in many other instances, the career of the sinner can only be explained on the score of infatuation. His moral sense is perverted or destroyed. In place of that quick response which conscience ought to make to the voice of duty, there comes over his spirit an insensibility to moral considerations, and a growing ignorance of things Divine gradually deepening into outer darkness.
II. IT IS UNMOVED BY THE CONSIDERATIONS THAT OUGHT TO AFFECT IT. (Jer 8:5.) The growing misery and unhappiness which it occasions are not strong enough to check the tendency to sin, if indeed their connection with it is clearly perceived or acknowledged. The cravings of the spiritual nature have to give place to “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life.” By-and-by they are stilled, not by being satisfied, but by being stifled; and a curious heedlessness, which is deaf to all the voices of prophetic warning and entreaty, increasingly characterizes it. Under such circumstances it is difficult to discover any common point of contact or argument that shall be valid to both parties. When reason is left behind, it is not to higher, but to lower, susceptibilities that appeal has to be made.
III. THE CONCERN, THE CLAIMS, AND THE GRACIOUS PROVISION OF GOD ARE AS NOTHING. (Jer 8:6.) The saint in the times of his calamity calls upon God to incline his ear. In the fearful condition and moral insensibility of his people to Shelf wickedness and danger God is represented as of himself inclining his ear and listening attentively for the lightest sigh of repentance. He calls, but no notice is taken. The means of salvation he has provided are neglected, or abused. The form of godliness is cultivated when the spirit has fled and the exercises of religion are the chief foes to its reality. What can be the conclusion to all this? They are spiritually dead. There is neither power nor inclination to seek for better things. Nothing but supernatural grace and long-suffering love can avail to save them.M.
Jer 8:8-12
Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
The present condition of the country, the evils that lowered upon the horizon,these alike bore their message even to the natural conscience. If Israel was in the right way, and really understood the will of the Lord to do it, why these scandals, miseries, and impending evils? Again, the better to reach the perception of those who were thus unable to draw the inference for themselves, the condemnation was to be in kinda sort of elementary lesson in the “correspondences” that marked the Divine government of the world was to be read to them. The scribe who had prophesied “smooth things” would be confronted with his own writings and compelled to eat his own words.
I. DIVINE ILLUMINATION ALONE CAN GIVE TRUE UNDERSTANDING OF GOD‘S WORD. The priests and scribes, because of familiarity with holy things, claimed to be wise. They were satisfied with the spiritual state of Israel. Had they been wise, they would have anticipated what took place. The Holy Spirit alone bestows Divine insight and foresight.
II. THE DESPISERS OF DIVINE TRUTH, AND THOSE WHO FALSELY PRETEND TO ITS CUSTODY, WILL BE PUT TO SHAME. “Refuges of lies” will be swept away. The judgment, when it comes, will find them wholly unprepared and helpless. “Take heed that the light that is in thee be not darkness.” “Blind leaders of the blind,” the sorrowing comes to them in vain for comfort, or is deceived to his own hurt; at last the victim of a misplaced confidence, to find himself “of all men most miserable.” The sinner meets with no true correction or instruction; and in his desperation he receives from them no help. Their judgment is that they will share the fate of their victims and dupes.M.
Jer 8:13-15
False hopes ministering despair.
The lessons of life are not readily learned by most men. They require to be frequently repeated ere they produce an impression. God, therefore, deals severely with his people, whose delusion is the more unpardonable because of the piety of their fathers and the light of revelation which had been given. He will, therefore, make to “pass away from them” one by one the things that he had given: the fruits of the earth shall be cut off; the comforts of life shall be at an end; trouble and sorrow shall seize upon them.
I. HOW HARD IT IS FOR MEN TO REALIZE THAT THE OUTWARD BLESSINGS OF LIFE DO NOT OF THEMSELVES SATISFY, AND CANNOT BE RELIED UPON! Each of US can remember how, one by one, the things of life had to be taken from him ere he learnt their real littleness and insufficiency. This is often the way God seeks to bless us. He takes away the object whose possession is misunderstood and whose properties are abused, that he may remove the temptation from the heart and leave it free for heavenly affections. “We can do without happiness, and instead thereof find blessedness.” But to only a few is it given to know this. The multitude are as foolish scholars, “ever learning, and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.”
II. HOPE WHICH HAS BEEN SO MISPLACED AND BETRAYED TOO FREQUENTLY INTRODUCES TO DESPAIR. AS the lesson has not been learned, there is no perception of the real mistake. The old blunders are repeated until, in the sweeping away of all that we had held dear, we feel that life itself is not worth living, because we can see no real good within our reach. “Who will show us any good?” We are convicted, too, of unpardonable folly. The dissatisfaction with the things of life is gradually equaled, if not surpassed, by dissatisfaction with ourselves. We are conscious of needs that are not met and yearnings that refuse to be stilled. And beneath all these is the miserable consciousness that, in pursuits so trifling and tastes so mean, our true nature is being degraded. We grieve over our shattered idols and our vanished comforts, and yet more, are angry with ourselves that we should so grieve. The question will at last come, “If these things be our chief good, what security is left of ultimate happiness? If the real end of life has not been sought, we are not only unfortunatewe must be culpable.” For to seek the truth, etc; of life is not only a possible enjoyment we have missed, but a duty we have neglected. And yet of our own selves we feel unable to retrace our steps. Having the desires we have, which have been strengthened by years of indulgence, we cannot all at once or of our own motion replace them with better ones. A feeling of helplessness, convicted folly and sin, and indefinite denudation gradually dawns upon our affrighted conscience. How shall we escape from the consequences of our own actions? Whither shall we flee who, in seeking our good always in material things, have been living in practical atheism? We can do nothing else but, like the smitten Israelites, betake ourselves to our closets and sit still.
III. BUT THE JUDGMENTS OF HEAVEN UPON THE SINNER, HOWEVER TERRIBLE IN THEMSELVES, ARE NOT MEANT TO PRODUCE THIS DESPAIR. The false trust is removed, that we may find the true one. The worst calamities of life, and its grievous disappointments, will be more than compensated for if they lead us to the Savior. The prophet, speaking representatively for Israel, says, “Let us submit to God’s judgment, and confess our sin as its cause.” “Silence before the Lord” is the sure way to his restored favor and help.M.
Jer 8:20
Occasions of hoped-for salvation that have not availed.
Probably a proverbial expression. It is not admissible for us to understand the words of help expected from Egypt, which would be to make them an anachronism. They well describe the result of hoping against hope, and in this sense might be spoken by those who have been reduced to extremity by worldliness of spirit and unholiness of life. “It is plain that a great part of Israel imagined, like their heathen neighbors, that Jehovah had need of them as much as they had need of him; that their worship and service could not be indifferent to him; that he must, by a natural necessity, exert his power against their enemies, and save his sanctuaries from profanation. This, indeed, was the constant contention of the prophets who opposed Micah and Jeremiah (Mic 3:11; Jer 7:4, seq.; Jer 27:1, seq.); and from their point of view the captivity of Judah was the final and hopeless collapse of the religion of Jehovah, (W.Robertson Smith).
I. HOW MANY OCCASIONS HAVE THERE BEEN ON WHICH WE HAD EXPECTED AN IMAGINARY GOOD, OR LOOKED FOR A DELIVERANCE WHICH NEVER CAME! The man who has sought for wealth becomes rich only to find that his possessions fail to yield him the satisfaction he expected. False expectations have been entertained by the victims of misfortune that God would deliver them. True, they have no claim upon him, and they know that, if they were to be requited as they deserved, they would be left alone. The victim of unhallowed desires, hurried and driven as by an inward demon, fancies that, in his own nature or the course of life, he will come to a turning-point. He will “sow his wild oats” now; by-and-by he will settle down and marry and be respectable and virtuous. The events of life to which he looks forward take place, but there is no deliverance wrought by them. So many seek the Divine favor in formal religious observances, and do not find it. When many around us are being awakened from their indifference and converted to God, we are alarmed at our own spiritual deadness. The time of grace has slipped past unimproved. God has been gathering in his children, and we are left out.
II. To WHAT CONCLUSION OUGHT THIS TO LEAD US? That we ought to be anxious and in earnest there can be no question. Our chances appear desperate. Our power of moral recovery is greatly lessened as compared with the freshness of childhood’s days. But whilst there is life there is hope. We have reason to congratulate ourselves that we have not been cut off in the midst of our sins. The door is still open. Let us, as those “born out of due time,” awake to righteousness, and seek with tears an offended but loving Father. “Now is the accepted time; now is the day of salvation.”M.
Jer 8:22
Physician, heal thyself.
Gilead, an outlying district of Palestine, was celebrated for its aromatic balsam, of great virtue for wounds, sores, etc. The natives of the place doubtless became expert in the application of their famous herb. By virtue of its possession, Israel might be said to be the healer of the surrounding nations. Even more so in a spiritual sense it was the physician of men’s souls, holding for others and for all time the saving truth of God. But the evils which came upon itselfsocial, political, spiritualhad now increased to such a degree that it might well be asked, were the sources of saving health exhausted, or were the possessors of spiritual wisdom wholly extinct?
I. WHAT FOUNDATION WAS THERE FOR THE PRETENSION OF ISRAEL TO BE THE SAVIOR or THE NATIONS? Its own internal condition was deplorable. Materially and spiritually it was more in need of healing than those it regarded as barbarians and heathen. So of the Church, which has become corrupt a similar question may be asked. If those who profess the faith of Christ do not exhibit its fruits or possess its peace, they belie their profession and discredit the cause of their Master. When professed believers are as troubled with earthly cares and as downcast amid earthly trials as others, men of the world will doubt the efficacy of their religion, belief, and life. This is the burning question of Christendom through all time. Has it any means of curing the evils of humanity, the miseries of life, the wickedness inherent in human nature?
II. HAD THE UTMOST USE BEEN MADE OF THE RESOURCES AT COMMAND? Was there any one who knew the nature of the evil, and how to cure it? Why did they not seek Jehovah? Christians are frequently at a loss, not so much for lack of an orthodox creed as of a realizing faith. They have not been in the habit of going to Christ with their cares and sorrows. Earthly things have been allowed to divert their attention from truth and righteousness as the principles of life. But sometimes great mischief is done by wrong expectations of what Christ will do for his people. Men sow to the flesh and expect to reap a spiritual harvest, or their faith in Christ is but another avenue to an earthly end. Under such circumstances they cannot fail to be disappointed. We must look to religion for its proper functions; to Christ for what he has promised to give. Have we any grief which we do not, cannot take to Christ? Are we consciously resting on him for moral guidance and support and spiritual fellowship? They who always and in all things rest their souls upon a living Savior will know that there is “balm in Gilead,” etc.M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 8:2
Befooled indeed.
This is what we say when We see men giving heed to the plausible statements of gross impostors, and, in consequence, lavishing their time, energy, and wealth in the hope of large recompense; but who, when the time comes that the hoped-for gain should be theirs, find themselves deceived, defrauded, helpless, and utterly ruined men. These are they who are the prey of bubble companies, lying advertisements, and the other ten thousand frauds into which unwary persons are beguiled. But is not this what we may say when we read of those told of in our text? Was there ever more flagrant, piteous, and awful instance of men being made fools of indeed? For
I. LOOK AT THESE UTTERLY DECEIVED ONES.
1. They were worshippers of the gods of the heathen. The sun, the moon, and all the host of heaven: these were the objects of their worship. Reference is continually made to them and to their worship (2Ki 23:5; 2Ki 21:3, etc.).
2. And they were most earnest worshippers. Note the piling up of expressions to indicate this.
(1) They “have loved“ them. Here is the root of all real worship. The object must be loved, and these people were drawn to and attracted by these false gods.
(2) They “served“ them. This follows as a sure consequence. It is not said they believed in them; but that matters not: it there be that in the object of our worship which makes us like itlove is almost too sacred a word as applied to false godswe shall serve it readily enough.
(3) And then they “walked after“ them. That which lured them at the first drew them more and more, and so it became the habit of their lives.
(4) And they “sought“ them. When they found the worship of some of these gods was pleasant, they sought out more of them; or it may mean that they got at last to have a real faith in them, and hence “consulted them as oracles, appealed to them as judges, implored their favor, and prayed to them as benefactors.”
(5) And they “worshipped“ them. See them at their worship on Mount Carmel, on the day when Elijah challenged their priests to put to the test his God and theirs. None could doubt the sincerity of their worship or the earnestness with which they cried all that morning long, “O Baal, hear us!” And those to whom Jeremiah wrote were such thorough worshippers of these gods. They withheld no proof of their devotedness.
3. But yet they were utterly deceived and disappointed. See in text and in immediate context how these gods dealt with them. Ardent votaries as they had been, those whom they worshipped let all the hideous woes come upon them which are told of here: death, desolation, degradation, and despair. That was what their gods did for them. They had spent their all on these pretended physicians, and were nothing bettered, but made worse indeed.
II. ENDEAVOR TO EXPLAIN BOTH THEIR INFATUATION AND THEIR DISAPPOINTMENT.
1. As to their infatuation. It can hardly be possible for any reader of the history of these people to avoid asking the question, “Wherefore was it that they were so given to idolatry?” Their whole national history showed that nothing but sorrow and shame had come from idolatry, and yet here they were forever, not merely falling into it, but deliberately and persistently going after it. What could be the reason?
(1) Partly, no doubt, the example of the great and mighty nations around them. We must remember what an infinitesimally small kingdom that of Judah wasabout the size of an ordinary English county, and how insignificant they were; how the influence, therefore, of the great empires which pressed them on either side could not but be felt. And this was all on the side of idolatry. Idolatry had done them no harm; the gods they worshipped had, so it would seem, lifted them up to greatness and power surpassed by none, All seemed to say to the poor, weak, little kingdom of Judah, “You had far better do as we do and trust our gods rather than your own.”
(2) The spirituality of the worship God required, and the absence of all such demand on the part of idolatry, was another argument for idolatry and against the worship of God. No graven image, no representation of God, nothing that would help the senses to conceive of God as like to themselves, was granted to the Jews; God was a Spirit, and he was to be worshipped in spirit and in truth. No statue, no image, no painting, no symbol even, was to represent him. It was not allowed that the Jew should be able to place in his house or carry about with him, as other nations did, any material emblem of his God (cf. Deu 4:15; Isa 40:18). But spiritual worship of this kind has ever been found far more difficult to maintain: it demands a condition of heart and mind so purified that to the gross and sensual such worship is impossible, and to the ordinary mind it is far from easy. The anthropomorphisms of the Old Testament, and the Incarnation itself, are condescensions of God to the confessed feebleness and incapacity of man for such pure worship. But, on the other hand, idolatry, abounding with “chambers of imagery,” lending itself to all the clamor of the senses,what wonder that it was preferred?
(3) Add on to this the fact that strict obedience to the Levitical Law involved such isolation from all other people, such scrupulous care, such heavy sacrifices of time, wealth, ease, and the good will of men; in short, was altogether, as St. Peter afterwards said (Act 15:10), “a yoke which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear;” whilst idolatry wooed them with its sensuous, brilliant, luxurious, and easy rites; and again we ask, what wonder that idolatry was preferred?
(4) And present earthly good seemed to be associated with it, and absent from the worship of God (cf. Jer 44:15-19, “For then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil. But since we left off, we have wanted all things”). And
(5) lastly, the license allowed by the lax moral code of idolatry, and its positive sanction of gross licentiousness; this, contrasted with the stern frown of the true Jewish faith upon all such sin, was more than sufficient to attract in crowds a people so debased as the Jews had now become. Then, as still, the most powerful and the most depraved passions of human nature were not only permitted free indulgence by idolatry, but actually patronized, protected, and prescribed. All ancient history attests this, and the result on the heathen world, not only history but God’s providence and his Word alike (Rom 1:1-32.) have plainly declared.
2. As to their disappointment. Idolatry, however for the moment it may seem to have brought good along with it (cf. supra), resulted at last in such unparalleled woe as the prophets, one and all, continually declared must come from it. But whilst no idolatrous nation has ever stood permanently in its greatnesslet the decayed and perished empires of antiquity witnessthere can be little question that sentence against the evil work was executed more speedily, more sternly, and more notoriously against the Jews than against any other idolatrous nation whatsoever. It cost them more than any other people, and they have not paid “the uttermost farthing” even yet. The rabbis say that in every one of the innumerable cups of affliction which Israel in the course of the long ages has had to drink, there has been mingled some of the dust of that golden idol-calf which Moses ground to powder beneath Mount Sinai. We are told how, when he had done this, he cast the powder into the stream from whence the camp drew its water, and made all the people drink of it. Now, wherefore was sorer Judgment meted out to Israel than to others because of their idolatry?
(1) Because they were the beloved of the Lord. A man may see a strange child doing a disgraceful action and may take comparatively little notice; but if it be his own son, whom he loves, will he not feel and resent it then as otherwise he never would?
(2) And “chiefly because to them were committed the oracles of God.” They were to be the channel along which the truth of revelation was to flow to mankind at large, and if that channel were not kept free from pollution, neither could the living waters which flowed along it. Hence the prompt and stern measures which were ever taken to preserve Israel in the faith of God, or to restore them if they had wandered. It could not be, therefore, that Israel should permanently and entirely lapse into idolatry. The well-being of the world hinged on their handing down pure and uncorrupt the oracles of God and the faith of their forefathers, and because “God so loved the world,” the cup of idolatry was ever made bitter and nauseous to his people, so that they might hate to drink of it.
III. THY TO TURN THIS WHOLE SUBJECT TO GOOD ACCOUNT.
1. The votaries of the world may in these verses behold their own portraiture and read their sure reward. For
(1) they do after this manner give themselves to the world. They “love,” “serve,” “walk after,” “seek,” and “worship” it.
(2) And their infatuation is explained by like reasons.
(3) And their reward will be to be utterly deceived and disappointed. God will say to each one of them, “Thou fool!” (Luk 12:20).
2. The worshippers of God may profitably contemplate a model which too many of them too seldom follow, of earnest devotedness in their worship. “The children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.” Would that the devotedness of the world to its god were equaled by the devotedness of the Church to theirs!
3. Every one may beheld, in the tremendous and deadly attraction of the world, fresh, urgent, and constant need of being “kept by the power of God” in the love of God. Well may each day begin with this prayer
“Lord, I my vows to thee renew:
Scatter my sins like morning dew,
Guard my first springs of thought and will,
And with thyself my spirit fill.”
C.
Jer 8:4-11
Backsliding in its worst forms.
All departures from God are evil, but some are only temporary, and are quickly followed by repentance, return, and restoration. There are others, however, of a far more serious kind, and we have in these verses a great deal told us concerning them. We are told of some of
I. THEIR CHARACTERISTICS.
1. So contrary to men‘s wonted ways. For when men find that they have brought evil on themselves, they will at once seek to undo such evil (Jer 8:4). If a man fall, he win not lie still in the mire or in the road, but will get up again as speedily as may be. If he have mistaken his path and got on a wrong track, wilt he not, as soon as he discovers his mistake, quickly retrace his steps that he may get into the right way? That is how men act in the common affairs of life. But, though Judah and Jerusalem knew well that they had fallen, yet they showed no desire to rise, and though they could not but know they were altogether out of the right way, they showed no willingness to return.
2. Resists the strivings of God‘s Spirit and all his drawings of them to himself. Jer 8:7 implies such God-implanted instincts in men’s souls, but declares that, unlike the ever-obedient birds, man resists and refuses the call of God.
3. Becomes shameless. (Jer 6:12.) This feature we have had noticed before (cf. Jer 6:15); it arrested the prophet’s attention as being evil exceedingly.
4. Determined and defiant. (Jer 8:6.)
5. Is at last perpetual. (Jer 8:5.) They have gone into an evil way, and they abide in that way, no power of Divine grace being able to draw them therefrom. So terrible is this worst form of backsliding, it is perpetual.
II. THEIR CONSEQUENCES. The evil fruit such sin bears is shown here.
1. Deep sorrow to the heart of God. How pathetic is this lament] How it echoes the anguish of those words, “How shall I give thee up!” “How often would I have gathered thee!” etc.! Such is the tone of these (Jer 8:4-8). The Divine grief is audible through every part.
2. Shame to the backsliders themselves. (Jer 8:9.) It is ever so. These chapters have been giving illustration upon illustration of this result. And our own observation and the experience of all who have turned from God to sinall alike confirm what God’s Word has said.
3. Utter and absolute ruin. (Jer 8:10.) The dreadful sorrows of the vanquished in beholding their most beloved ones torn from them to a fate worse than death, and their lands which they had inherited from their fathers taken possession of by their conquerors,these common incidents of war are cited as illustrative of the utter ruin which would come upon these ungodly ones. And evermore will men find it an exceeding bitter thing to depart from the living God. We are also shown some of
III. THEIR CAUSES.
1. Deception. Jer 8:5, “They hold fast deceit.” How many are the falsities by which men are deceived, and to which they hold fast as if they were sure facts on which their souls might rest (cf. Jer 8:8, Jer 8:11; Jer 7:4, Jer 7:8) l
2. Dislike of God‘s ways. “They refuse to return.” They had no desire to detect the falsity of their trust; they were glad to have any excuse for refusal.
3. Strong preference for the world‘s ways. Jer 8:10, “Every one given to covetousness.” The ways of God suffered not such worldliness, but the ways they had chosen gave free permission. Here is ever the secret of departure from God. But can nothing be done? “Is there no balm in Gilead?” (Jer 8:22). Note, then
IV. THEIR CURE. How shall this evil spirit be cast out and the right spirit be restored? In Jer 8:6 the process is shown to us. There is:
1. Realization of the results of our sin. The backslider is represented as contemplating with dismay the awful consequences of his sin, and asking, “What have I done?” It is “the conviction of sin” which is the beginning work of God’s Spirit in the sinner’s heart. See the prodigal contemplating the ruin he had brought upon himself. This was the first step in his “coming to himself.”
2. Repentance of our wickedness. (Jer 8:6.) Not general repentance, but each man seeing his own wickedness and repenting of that. The man has come to look on it as God looks on it. Formerly he loved his sin, now he hates it. One element of our Savior’s atonement was this, that he in our nature and as our representative, looked upon our sin as God looked on it, and so offered to God for us a true repentance. We, however contrite in heart, could offer none such, for as it has been truly said, “Our very repentance needs to be repented of, and our tears washed in the blood of Christ.” But this element of all true atonementthat he who makes such atonement looks on the wrong done as he who has been wronged looks on itwas present in Christ’s atonement, and is one reason wherefore “the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.”
3. Confession. This is the “speaking aright” which is told of in Jer 8:6. They had been denying, excusing, maintaining their sin heretofore, anything but speaking aright about it; but now there is heard the right language of confession: “I have sinned.”
4. Practical turning from the evil way. As before each had turned determinedly to his own self-chosen course (Jer 8:6), now they would turn from it. Such is the way of the backslider’s return and restoration, a way up which there is no smooth easy sliding as there was down, but in which every step has to be firmly made and resolutely kept toa way difficult indeed, but, blessed be God, not impossible.
V. THE COUNSEL. Let each wanderer from God ask himself the question, “What have I done?”
1. Such inquiry can do no harm; and:
2. Is likely to be of great advantage.
3. The time for such inquiry is lessening day by day.
4. “It is a fearful thing” for an unforgiven man “to fall into the hands of the living God.”C.
Jer 8:6
The way home.
The text suggests much concerning this way from the far country of sin to the home of our Father and God. The Lord is here lamenting that none of the people of Jerusalem were walking in it. Note
I. THE STAGES OF THE WAY.
1. Realization of the ruin wrought by our sin. The soul is represented as contemplating this ruin, and asking, “What have I done?” This is the first stage.
2. Repentance. Each one is to repent of” his wickedness.” We are not to lose ourselves in a general confession of sin, as too many do, but to think of our own sin apart from that of other people, and to think of what is especially our sin. Thus personal and particular, our repentance is the more likely to be genuine and godly.
3. Confession. “These that have sinned, these and these only speak aright when they speak of repenting, and it is sad when they who have so much work for repentance do not say a word of repenting.” But confession is this “speaking aright” which God desires to hear from us. Now, this confession is so acceptable to God because it glorifies his holiness and his love. His holiness; for the sinner has come to see sin as God sees it, and hence to hate and abhor it. He is of one mind with God about it as he never was before. And his love; for confession casts itself in faith upon a love that is deeper than its sin. Deep as is God’s abhorrence of sin, the sinner in confession appeals to and lays hold on a love that is deeper still. Hence, when the sinner makes his sincere confession before God, he is at once right out of “the far country,” and home in the heart of God. The robe, the ring, the shoes, are put upon him; the feast is prepared, and the merry-making, the joy in the presence of the angels of God, at once begins.
II. THE ATTENTIVE OBSERVER OF THOSE WHO TRAVEL BY THIS WAY. It is God who is represented as bending down his ear, hearkening to what is said, listening for any words of confession, and ready to hear them if spoken. The text is the language of gracious expectation and desire on the part of God. It calls to mind the father’s waiting for the prodigal’s return. How often had he looked with longing, loving gaze down the road along which his returning son must come, if ever indeed he would come I He had looked so often that a speck in the far distance would at once be discerned by him. Hence, “when a great way off,” the father saw him. And so here God is represented as thus waiting for his guilty people’s return. And how much there is to confirm our faith in this Divine solicitude for the sinner’s salvation! Look at the very constitution of our nature. That, as Bishop Butler has shown, is evidently on the side of virtue, that is, of obedience to God, and against the disobedient. “Who will harm you, if ye be doers of that which is good? “thus the apostle appeals to the universally recognized fact, that the constitution of man’s nature is such as to favor the good. And, on the other hand, the declaration that “the way of transgressors is hard,” is based on another like fact of universal experience. Such is one evidence of “the care” with which, as George Herbert sings, “Lord, with what care thou hast begirt us round? Then the revelation of his truth is yet further in evidence. That truth, as ministered to us by the written Word or by the lips of prophets, apostles, pastors, teachersit matters notis a perpetual proof of the Divine solicitude for our eternal good. And his providence, making it to be well with the righteous and ill with the unrighteous. Well and ill with each respectively in mind, body, and estate. And his Spirit. That Spirit speaking to us in conscience and in the powerful pleadings of his grace in our hearts, of which we are all so often conscious. And, last of all, God has shown us this loving care of his for us in his Son. He has shown himself in a manner adapted to touch and move all hearts, and to draw all men unto him. Now, all this mass of evidence is in keeping with that solicitude which this verse and so many other portions of God’s Word reveal as felt by him towards sinful men. And if it be asked “What moves this solicitude?” the character of God furnishes the answer. The holiness of God. “Good and upright is the Lord, therefore will he teach sinners in the way.” And we are bidden “Give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.” It is the nature of holiness to be distressed at all that contradicts it and is unlike itself. It rests not until it has assimilated all around it to itself. Were, then, is one reason of God’s perpetual appeals to sinful men. His wisdom also. It is the characteristic of God’s wisdom to adjust means to ends. How wonderfully and beautifully this is seen in all departments of nature! But for the fulfilling of the high purposes of his grace, what instrument can he find more fit than the regenerated, redeemed soul? Even now and here we see this. A soul aglow with love and faith towards God, what will not that soul do for God? Hence to the principalities and powers in heaven shall be made known by the one Churchthe company of the redeemed shall evidence itthe manifold wisdom of God. His love also. If the beholding of scenes of distress touch our hearts and make us eager to render help, can we imagine that he who made us is less willing than ourselves to show pity and render help? Our Lord’s argument is, “If ye, evil though ye be, know how”and we do know how”to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give,” etc.? Humanity, as it has been well said, is the heavenly Father’s sick child. Will not the Father’s love, therefore, be all the more called forth to that child? And his compassion also. For this life is the critical period of that child’s malady. It is the time when the great question of its life or death is being determined. Terrible forces are against it, and the struggle is now at its most momentous hour. This fact would cause the Father’s love to go forth, as it has gone and is going forth, in active compassion, in open manifestation of its solicitude. Such are some of the considerations which lead to our Father’s attentive observance of all those who travel by this homeward way.
III. THE END OF THE WAY. They who come there will find restoration to the Father’s love, the implantation of a new nature, the complete pardon of the past, power to live as God’s dear child for the future, and ultimately the everlasting dwelling in the very presence and home of God.
IV. BROOKS BY THE WAY. It is said, “He shall drink of the brook by the way, therefore shall he lift up the head.” We may apply these words to the travelers in the way we are speaking of; for they need, in the weary and often most difficult journey, the refreshments which God alone can supply. Such aids are given in the promises of God, the fellowship of God, the communion of fellow-travelers on the way, and in the service and worship of God.
V. THE SOLITARINESS OF THE WAY. It is but “here and there a traveler” that is found. The way is not thronged. This verse is God’s lament that scarce any are found willing to go along this road; for it is not the way of worldly advantage. They who “are given to covetousness” (Jer 8:10) will never choose this way. They have persuaded themselves that they are as well off and better where they are. They are deceived, and, what is worse, are willing to be deceived: “They hold fast deceit, and so refuse to return.” We should have thought that surely it would be otherwise.
1. Reason bids them return (Jer 8:4). If a man have fallen, he will not lie content on the earth, but will arise. If in an ordinary journey he have missed his way, he will at once retrace his steps. Reason rules in such cases, but not here.
2. Conscience bids them return. They could not but know that their sin had done them sore harm; but none of them asked, “What have I done?” however loudly conscience might summon them to such repentance.
3. God‘s Word bade then return (Jer 8:8), but lo! certainly in vain he made it.
4. Providences bade them. The events that had taken place were all admonitions of God; but though the birds of the air marked and obeyed the providence of God, sinful man “knew not the judgment of the Lord” (Jer 8:7). Hence the way is solitary.
CONCLUSION. But the question for us is, “Are we in this way?” Let us bless God if we are, and press on therein. Let us note how short the day is in which we can travel, how its few fleeting hours are lessening, lest when we would start on the way we have to exclaim (Jer 6:4), “Woe unto us I for the day goeth away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.”C.
Jer 8:18
Jer 9:1
The prophet’s grievous lament.
I. ITS GRIEVOUSNESS. (Jer 9:18, Jer 9:21, Jer 9:1.) Jer 9:18, “When I would comfort myself,” etc. All hope dies down, is crushed beneath the overwhelming evidence of the hopelessness of his people’s condition. Jer 9:21 : he is as if wounded, his heart is clad in the garb of deepest woe, the black raiment of the mourner. Jer 9:1 : he has exhausted his power of telling forth his deep grief, his eyes refuse to weep more, though his heart be sore pierced, and the troubles of his people are unrelieved. Therefore he desires that he might weep continually.
II. ITS GROUNDS.
1. They were still trusting in lying words (Jer 9:19), reckoning that, because the temple of Jehovah and the throne of David belonged, to them, therefore they should have been secure. Though in distant lands, in actual captivityfor there the prophet contemplates themthey were still imagining that the possession of the temple and David’s throne should have been their sure safeguard. It is terrible to see God’s judgments coming upon guilty men, but when these judgments themselves seem to fail in teaching the needed lesson, that is a greater sorrow still.
2. The time of redemption was over. (Jer 9:20.) The long harvest days, the bright summer weathersymbols of all days of opportunitythese were gone, The days when they might have turned to God and found deliverance, “the wrath of God had arisen against them, and there was no remedy.” But what a retrospect is his who has to say as did Post Israel, “The harvest is past,” etc.! For:
(1) Such seasons remind us of our privileges and obligations.
(a) It is a time of fruitfulness, of great privilege, grace, and goodness. God makes man’s cup to overflow. Youth and days of gospel privilege. Sundays, sacred services, etc.
(b) It should be a time of great activity. The natural harvest and summer-time is so. For:
(c) It is a season of such limited duration.
(2) But men often let these times pass away unimproved.
(a) The world hinders them.
(b) Perversion of Scripture truths.
(c) Belief that they are well enough as they are.
(d) Procrastination.
(3) But once gone, the fruits of that summer and that harvest can never be saved. Such facts as these open the floodgates of grief in hearts like that of Jeremiah.
3. He could see no means of restoration or recovery whatsoever (Verse 22), no balm and no physician anywhere.
III. ITS WORD TO ALL WHO SHOULD KNOW OR ARE THE CAUSES OF SUCH GRIEF NOW.
1. Christ’s servants should be in sympathy with the prophet’s lament. It is because we are so indifferent the world is so. “Si vis me flere flendum est,” it is ever saying, but in vain, to the professing Church. Oh for the compassion of Jeremiah and yet more of Christ! If we sowed in tears we should reap in joy. If so we went forth “bearing precious seed, we shall doubtless come again rejoicing, bringing,” etc.
2. But you who cause such grief, think you not that if such be the result of anticipating God’s judgments upon sin, the enduring of them must be far worse? And that is your part in them. Christ himself assured the weeping women who followed him to Calvary that the woes of them who crucified him would be worse than his own. “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?”
CONCLUSION. Then, instead of causing sorrow to the faithful servants of God by resisting their appeals, yield to them, and so gladden these servants, and the angels of God, and the heart of God, and the Son of God. So you yourself shall “enter into the joy of your Lord.”C.
Jer 8:22
Christ and the Holy Ghost realities after all.
“Is there no balm in Gilead?” etc. One of the commonest taunts of ungodly menand it has been so in all agesagainst the believer in God and in his redeeming grace, has been their apparent utter absence amongst such vast multitudes of people for so many centuries, and this though the conditions were such as needed, and that in most distressing manner, both their presence and their power. And one of the subtlest and saddest temptations to which the human mind is subject is that of doubting the grace of God. “My tears have been my meat day and night, while they continually say unto me, Where is now thy God?” The taunt of the psalmist’s enemies had roused up the demon of doubt concerning God and his love, and no wonder, then, that the psalmist’s tears flowed fast both day and night. Now, the text is one of those sad questionings to which the force of distressing facts will now and again give rise. It contains three questions, and we will note concerning them these three thingstheir meaning, their occasions, their answers.
I. THEIR MEANING. And take:
1. The literal meaning of the balm and the physician about which the prophet so mournfully inquires. Balm was a resinous gum which flowed from the side of a tree or shrub found on the sunny slopes of Mount Gilead, and counted very precious. When Jacob would counsel his sons how they might propitiate Joseph, who held their brother in captivity, he told them to take him a present of “a little balm” (Gen 43:11). It was an article of merchandise (Gen 37:25), regarded as of invaluable efficacy in medicine (cf. Jer 46:11; Jer 51:8). Its name was derived from a word which told of the manner in which it was procured from the tree that bore it. The side of the tree was pierced, and the precious balm then flowed forth. The physicians of the day constantly made use of it, and had studied the best means of applying it. But it is evident that the prophet is speaking under a figure. Note, then:
2. The metaphorical meaning. He speaks of the lost “health of the daughter of my people,” and means by that the national ruin which was so fast coming on Judah and Jerusalem-ruin of all kinds, spiritual, moral, temporal. By the “balm” he means some method of recovery for his people, and by the “physician” some skilled, sagacious, powerful deliverer, who should be able to employ these methods and so save the land. The prophet was in despair about this; he saw no hope nor help anywhere, and hence the piteous cry, the mournful question of our text. To every one who professed to have found the balm and the physician the ruined land so needed, he addressed the unanswerable question, “Why then is not the health,” etc.?
3. Their evangelic import. It has all along been seen that the terms used here were capable of such application. The “balm” is a beautiful symbol of Christ. The Mount Gilead, the tree, the pierced side, the stream thence issuing, and its mighty healing power,these severally send our thoughts to Mount Calvary, the cross, the pierced side of the Savior, the precious blood, and the unquestionable spiritual healing might there is therein. And Scripture is ever speaking of sin as a disease; of man as one whose health needs recovery. The analogies are obvious. And the “physician,” who is he but that Divine Spirit whose office it is to take of the things of Christ and show them unto men? He so shows to us the meaning and intent of our Savior’s sacrificial death, that “by his stripes we are healed.” Yes; whilst we all are the stricken with mortal disease, Christ is the Balm that surely heals, and the blessed Spirit is he who reveals Christ to the soul. “For no man can say that Jesus is Lord “that is, in all the full meaning of those words, and with sincere intent” but by the Holy Ghost.”
II. THE OCCASIONS. What led to these questions being asked by the prophet? and what tends to their being asked still?
1. By the prophet. The ruin of his land and people. The awful calamities that were at that moment overhanging the doomed nation. But:
2. By men still. It is the contemplation of the threefold fact of sin, sorrow, and death.
(1) Of sin. Think of the myriads of mankind who have lived and died on this earth of ours, and all of them unblessed by the light of the gospel. Think of the ramp[ant wickedness, the hideous vice, the festering corruption, the indescribable moral pollution that characterizes vast masses of mankind, indeed the mass of mankind. And think of the corruption of Christianity: what a veneer of religion! What a counterfeit of godliness! What a hollow mockery so great part of it is! And coming closer home, the saddened contemplator of the ravages of sin may turn his gaze inward into his own heart, and as he reflects on the slender hold which Divine and holy principles have upon him
“What scanty triumphs grace has won,
The broken vow, the frequent fall;”
and as he cries out at times almost in despair at seeing the strength of the chains by which his soul is bound, “O wretched man that I am I” etc.,the words of our text fit in with his mournful mood. It seemed to him as if there were “no balm in Gilead, no,” etc.
(2) Of sorrow. To St. Paul, as he penned the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, the whole creation seemed to “groan and travail together in pain.” What is the progress of mankind but one long procession of mourners! Oh, the tears and sorrows of the broken-hearted, the helpless, the desolate and afflicted of all ages and of all lands! What a catalogue do they fill! The mind reels as it contemplates the dark mass of human woe. Its faith in the Divine Fatherhood staggers as if smitten with a deadly blow, and is half forced to the conclusion, which to a sad and an increasing number seems self-evident, that there is no balm in Gilead, no physician there.
(3) And the reign of death produces similar feelings. As men see how the king of terrors stalks triumphantly through the land, how ruthless is his tyranny, how crushing his power, how dark the grave into which we so soon descend, and how helpless we all are against his might, it does seem at times as if there were no deliverer and no deliverance. But note
III. THE ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS.
1. To those which inquire, “Is there no balm physician there?“ some answer “No.” Sin, they say, is a mistake which education will rectify, and the operations of the great law of evolution will gradually eliminate. In fact, there is no such thing as “sin” in the sense religious people think. Therefore, whilst for the race there is hope, for the present and past generations there is none. Sorrow, also, they teach, is the result of ignorance of natural laws or of disregard of them. The progress of knowledge will gradually lessen it; that is all that can be said. And as to death, that, of course, is the inevitable, and ends all. The only immortality is in the influence which a man exerts in those who come after him. As to “the Resurrection and the life”credat Judaeus. Such is the dismal gospel of this nineteenth century. But the Christian reply to these questions is unhesitatingly, “Yes; there is a Balm and a Physician for the sin-stricken soul, whether of the individual or of the whole human race. And for the heart riven with sorrow, broken with grief. And for all those, too, over whom Death has reigned with such cruel power. Because we believe in Christ and in the Holy Ghost, we believe in the ‘Balm’ and in the ‘Physician ‘humanity needs.” But then comes:
2. The last and seemingly unanswerable question. “Why then is not,” etc.? What are we to reply to this?
(1) For one large part of those whom it concerns, the sin, sorrow, and death ridden multitudes, we deny that which the question assumes. For the Balm and the Physician have done or are doing their blessed work on them. We appeal to the throng of the redeemed, the blessed dead, myriads of whom are now with God.
“White-robed saints in glory,
Cleansed from every stain.”
With the eye of faith we behold them, and we believe in their existence as we believe in our own, and the yearning of our hearts is to be with them. And they are a great cloud of witnesses to the Balm and to the Physician both. Butas unbelievers will demand clamorously that we should dowe come down to this world and this life that now is. Well, then, we appeal to the fact that there are regenerated, renewed, saintly souls living here on earth today, walking in purity, integrity, and in the light and love of God. They are God’s witnesses to what the unbeliever denies. Furthermore, there are a vast number in whom this process of healing is going on. Slowly, it may be, and with sad retrogressions at times, but really, notwithstanding. The tide is a long, long time coming in, but it does come in. Healing is always a gradual work. “Nemo repente fuit sanctissimus,” any more than “turpissimus.” A man cannot leap into heaven, as, thank God, he cannot leap into hell. But because healing is only gradual, do we deny its existence? But we know there are vast multitudes more to be accounted for than those we have as yet told of.
(2) Therefore for this part we say concerning them, wait. St. Paul had evidently pondered this problem, and he has taught us that there are due times and seasons appointed in the wisdom of God for the manifestation of Christ to men (cf. 1Ti 2:6; Eph 1:8-10; Php 2:9; Col 1:20), but that in the “dispensation of the fullness of times” it is God’s “good pleasure” to “gather together all things in Christ,” all the living and all the dead. And it is impossible not to see how the heart of the holy apostle exults in the beatific vision, the “breadth, and length, and depth, and height” of the glorious completed living temple of the Lord God. Therefore, in view of revelations like these, we say that before the reality of the work of Christ and the Holy Ghost are denied, we are bound to wait. And if it be objected that the waiting has been and may be for so long, we reply that it is because men will not come unto Christ that they might have life. The remedy of redemption is not forced upon any soul. A man’s soul is not saved by his will being crushed, by his ceasing to be a man and becoming a machine. We cannot but believe and knowthe individual conversion of every true child of God demonstrates itthat God has ways and means to bring “the unruly wills of sinful men” into accord with his own, and this in perfect harmony with the moral freedom he has given man. How long and how dreadfully far the human will may go in resisting God we cannot tell, but we may not believe that it is greater than God himself and can exhaust all the Divine resources. The hunger and misery of the prodigal brought him “to himself,” the consuming fire of the dread captivity which Jeremiah is foretelling burnt out forever the love of idolatry amongst Israel; and there are other like fires of God’s holy love which may have like results. Therefore, we say, that untilif we may so speakGod has thrown up the case of sin and sorrow stricken humanity, we have no right to affirm that there is “no balm in Gilead,” etc. In regard to sorrow, that has a ministry of spiritual healing of its own, which has gone on ever since “the Man of sorrows ‘became “acquainted with grief.” As his messenger, Grief has gone about from house to house, from heart to heart, a veritable sister of mercy, though clad in coarse and unlovely garb. Up and down the streets of this weary world, and in and out every one of its homes, she perpetually goes; but no one ever meets her in the new Jerusalem, in the city of our God, for her ministry is not needed there. Then as to death, we say that in all the drear, dark, hopeless power of it “Christ has abolished death.” We can, and by every graveside we dochallenge death as to its sting, and the grave as to its victory. Therefore we say, and with glad hearts, that the health of the daughter of the people is recovered, or is recovering, for that there is both Balm in Gilead and a Physician there.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
Jer 8:22
The balm of Gilead.
There were those who treated the crimes and miseries of the nation as a trifling matter; they sought to “heal the hurt slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there was no peace” (Jer 8:11). Not so the prophet. He is keenly alive to the dreadful evils of the time. He takes the sins and sorrows of the people on himself, makes them his own. Tender human sympathy, as well as Divine compassion, breathes in the words, “For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt.” And it is not sorrow alone but “astonishment” of which be is conscious. “Why is not her health recovered?” Can it be that there is no remedy? The “balm of Gilead” is taken as the symbol of a healing moral power. Is it so, then, that the very nation that was called to diffuse a redeeming influence over all the world is unable to cure herselfhas no medicine for her own diseases, or none to apply it? Such is the wonder with which a thoughtful, earnest spirit will often contemplate the moral condition of the world, in view of the fact that God’s “saving health” in the gospel has so long been made known to it. Consider
I. THE DIVINE REMEDY FOR THE MORAL MALADIES OF THE HUMAN RACE. This remedy is the spontaneous fruit of the love of God. On the ground of that love we may justly expect such a remedy. It is not likely that a God of infinite benevolence would leave the human race to perish. Though redemption is “of grace,” yet there is everything to make it antecedently probable. Though nature contains no revelation of it, yet to the eye on which the light of the gospel has once fallen, the whole constitution of the universe is full of dim prophecies and promises of some such triumphant grace. The spirit of boundless beneficence that pervades and governs itthe fact that for every want there is a supply, for every appetite that which gratifies it, for every danger a safeguard, for every poison its antidote; above all, the silent witness in favor of mercy that is graven more or less deep on every human heart;all this is so much in harmony with the great redemption as in a sense to anticipate it. But it is facts, not probabilities, with which we have to deal. The gospel is God’s actual answer to our human necessities, the sovereign remedy his love has provided for the sins and sorrows of the world. He heals them by taking them upon himself in the person of Jesus Christ his Son. “He was wounded for our transgressions,” etc. (Isa 53:5); “Who his own self bare our sins,” etc. (1Pe 2:24); “Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound,” etc. (Rom 5:20, Rom 5:21). Note respecting this Divine remedy:
1. It goes to the root of the disease. It does not effect a mere superficial reformation, as human methods for the most part do; does not flatter with the appearance of health while leaving the malady to strike its roots down deeper and deeper into the soul. It reaches at once the secret springs of all mischief, destroys the germs of evil in human nature, changes the outward aspects of the world’s life by giving it a “new heart.”
2. It is universal in its application. All national diversities, all varieties of social condition, of age, of culture, of intellectual development and moral life, etc; are alike open to its application, and it is the same for all.
3. It is complete in its efficacy. Every element of human nature, every department and phase of human life, bears witness to its healing power. A perfect manhood and a perfect social order are the issue it works out.
4. It stands alone, not one among many, but absolutely the only remedy. It enters into no kind of competition with other methods of healing. It has the solitary and supreme authority of that which is Divine. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name,” etc. (Act 4:12).
II. THE HINDRANCES TO ITS UNIVERSAL EFFICIENCY. “Why then is not,” etc.? The reason lies, not in any want of fitness in the remedy, or in any lack of power or-willingness in him who provides it, but in certain human conditions that nullify its action and thwart his purpose.
1. In the self-delusion that leads men to think that they have no need of cure. “They that are whole need not a physician,” etc. (Mat 9:12). The sense of moral sickness is the first step to healing.
2. In the vain self-trust by virtue of which men dream that they can cure themselves. How many and how plausible are the expedients by which the world seeks to rid itself of its own maladies! How slow is human nature to confess its helplessness!
3. In the obstinacy of spirit that refuses the Divine method. “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” etc. (2Ki 5:12). Anything rather than God’s way of healing by the blood of atonement and the regenerating grace of the Spirit!
4. In the lethargy and neglect of those whom God has called to minister the healing power. Who shall say how much of the continued sin and misery of the world lies at the Church’s door? If all who have themselves known the virtue of this sovereign balm were but more thoroughly in earnest in their efforts to commend it and to persuade men to apply it, how much more rapidly would the health of human society everywhere be recovered!W.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 8:1, Jer 8:2
The bones of the dead idolaters cast out before their cities.
I. ASK HOW THIS SPOLIATION COMES TO PASS. One cannot suppose that it came by the intention of Jehovah. Rather would it arise as a necessary part of wholesale pillage. Considerable treasures might be lying in the tombs of these grandees of Israel, and much might also have been hidden in them for purposes of safety, and therefore, seeing that this hideous devastation had to happen, it was fitting to call attention to it beforehand. It was another indication of how completely, for its sins, Jerusalem had been handed over to the foreign destroyer. It makes all the difference to mention such a terrible circumstance beforehand, as an illustration of the severity of God’s dealings. Thus it is seen that the spoliation cannot be laid to his charge. And though it must be taken as a sign how barbarous the ancient civilization was at bottom, this is but a consideration by the way. The real cause of this hideous spectacle was in the idolatry of those who had covenanted to love and serve Jehovah, to walk after him and seek him and worship him. These dead ones had forsaken God and taught their posterity to forsake him also; and now there was none among the living able to protect the bones of the dead from such horrible insult.
II. OBSERVE THAT THE HUMILIATION HAS A PECULIAR CONNECTION WITH THE IDOLATRY OF THE PEOPLE. Not only are the tombs emptied, but the bones are scattered before the host of heaven. The enemy was not thinking of this exhibition, but it happened so very opportunely. Sun, moon, and stars looked down upon the scene thus strewn with the bones of the illustrious, as if in rebuke for the use which Israel had tried to make of them. They had worshipped and served the creature in opposition to the Creator, and this was what had come of it. These bones had strengthened the living body to worship the sun, and now the sun shone steadily down on them, as if in public rejection of what was not only a mistaken honor to the creature but a shameful insult to the Creator. The very things we misuse become the instruments of our humiliation.
III. THE GENERAL QUESTION OF THE TREATMENT OF DEAD BODIES IS SUGGESTED FOR CONSIDERATION. Various are the customs of men with respect to the treatment of the dead, but many of them have one common element, in that they try to preserve the visible, tangible relics of life as long as possible. There is something very touching in the hopes and beliefs which are represented by an Egyptian mummy, as if the survivors felt that life had receded into some deep, inscrutable chamber, again to come forth in due time and reanimate its old tenement. We think of how Joseph must have been under the influence of a feeling of this kind, when he gave such strict commandment concerning his bones. Still, it is part of the salvation wherewith Christ saves his people, that we are lifted above these haunting considerations as to the corporeal frame. It is according to the Spirit of Christ that we should labor, by exercise and self-denial, to make the living body an efficient agent of his will; but when the life has gone, no sentimental treatment of ours can alter the fact that the body is mere matter, fast under the chemical laws which will soon resolve it into its constituent elements. Have not the bodies of God’s saints been shamefully maltreated, both during life and after death? Think out of what a mangled and bleeding form the spirit of Stephen took its flight to everlasting bliss. If there be force in the injunction of Jesus not to fear what men can do to the sentient body, how much more may it be urged not to fear what they can do to the senseless corpse. The enemies of the noble and fearless witnesses of truth have shown more than once their contemptible spirit by the way in which they have treated the dead. They could not get at them when living, and they thought it was something of a triumph to insult their remains when gone; e.g. Wycliffe and Cromwell. The scattering of these bones before sun, moon, and stars would have been a thing to glory in, if the men to whom they belonged had been soldiers in the noble army of martyrs.Y.
Jer 8:3
A pitiable condition: death preferable to life.
I. REMEMBER MAN‘S NATURAL DREAD OF DEATH. The very force of the prophet’s expression here lies in this, that it contradicts the habitual feelings of the human breast. The natural preference is to choose life rather than death; nay, it can hardly be called preference at all. There is an instinctive prompting to ward off everything that may be fatal. Whatever the drawbacks and pains of life may be, life is chosen rather than death. In most instances the suicide is held not responsible for the state of his mind at the time. We must all die indeed; yet death is so alien to every predominating feeling of the mind when in health and prosperous circumstances, that even when death comes near others, it is viewed as if it had little or nothing to do with us. And so when Jeremiah’s word came to these people in Jerusalem, they, at least the young and the strong among them, would receive it very incredulously. That things should ever become so bad as to make death desirable would seem to them to show that the threatener of such a doom was overdoing his warnings.
II. LIFE MAY BECOME SO FULL OF PAIN AND MISERY THAT THIS NATURAL DREAD MAY BE REVERSED. When the blow was struck and Jerusalem fell into the hands of the hosts from Babylon, thousands would be thankful that, amid so much destruction, their lives were spared. To lose possessions and go into exile would seem a light price to pay for the preservation of life. But with the increased experience of exile itself its dreadfulness became manifest. How could it be otherwise? The captivity and exile were not of an ordinary nation, but of one whose God was Jehovah. These people had been in the enjoyment of peculiar privileges and satisfactions, which they had come to accept as a matter of course; and when they lost them, they would then discern, if never before, something of their true value. It was out of a land of promise, a laud reserved for the people of God, that they had been cast, and no lapse of time could content them to be as other nations. It is just because man has within him such capabilities for enjoying life that he can be driven to the other extreme of desiring death. Life could not be so blessed as Christ holds out the hope of its being, unless there were also the possibility of its being correspondingly wretched.
III. It is thus suggested that we should aim at reaching a state of mind such that EITHER LIFE OR DEATH SHOULD BE EQUALLY ACCEPTABLE. To prefer life to death is a natural feeling, but certainly not the feeling which a believer in God and Jesus should have. And to prefer death to life is the feeling which comes after a time of struggling, weariness, pain, and disappointment; but what darkness of the mind does this not prove] what inability to profit by the light which shines in Christ! The Christian medium lies between the two extremes. Not to wish to live, nor to wish to die, but to be in Christ’s hands, so that as long as we are living there may be an availing of every opportunity of service, and when we die a fresh proof that faith in the Savior who also died, but rose again, is no deluding vanity. It is one of the glorious aspects of Christ’s salvation that he can save men from crying out for death rather than life, just because he can lift them into an experience of joy and peace which overbear the sense of temporal pain and loss.Y.
Jer 8:4-7
The unnatural conduct of Jerusalem.
Still more humiliation for the proud, self-satisfied city. The prophet comes with a heavenly light, revealing the very foundations of her glory, and showing how unsubstantial they are, how easily exposed as contradicting truth and the highest propriety. What is aimed at here is to set before man, by the force of contrast, what he ought to be, in the sum of all his faculties made one by a will which acts according to the commandment of God. And so we see
I. A LESSON FROM THE SUBORDINATE PART OF MAN‘S NATURE. If a man falls, he instantly attempts to rise again. Even if there is some serious injury, it is commonly discovered by the failure of the man’s attempt to rise; and so from the subordinate part of our nature there is a rebuke to the higher and governing part. A very striking instance of such a rebuke would be given in the falling of a drunken man to the ground. He staggers to his feet again if he can. If he remains on the ground it is a sign, to use the common expression, that” he is very far gone indeed;” and in such an instance may we not truly say that the body is rebuking the will for its imbecility and its base slavery to appetite? So if a man is going anywhere, and turns unwittingly from the straight path; such a turning may be made very easily, and the wrong path be kept in for a while, but presently there will be some sign to show the error, and with more or less delay there will be a return to the right path. Here, then, are two instances, level with the experience of everybody, of what is natural for man to do, viz. come back from a wrong state as soon as ever he can; and if the position be only looked at truly, it will be seen that it is as unnatural for a man to remain in spiritual degradation as to continue lying on the ground.
II. A LESSON FROM THAT PART OF THE CREATION WHICH IS SUBJECTED TO MAN. There is the horse. He can be so trained as to become a potent force in the battle-field, and if he becomes uncontrollable and rushes hither and thither, as dangerous to friend as to foe, it is not because of any rebellious purpose, but a brief madness has seized on him. Let a few hours pass, and he may be submissive and serviceable as before. “We put bit” in the horses’ months, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.” “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” The very birds of the air, seemingly so free from all restraint, come and go according to certain laws. If the beasts which man has tamed to his use, and on which he daily depends, were to treat him as he treats God, what an awkward, nay more, what a perilous scene this world would become! The whole visible universe, ground beneath, air around, and far away into the immensities of space, are crowded with admonitions to perversely disobedient man. These birds mentioned here, by certain wondrous intimations to which they are ever heedfulexceptions only going to prove the rulehelp to carry on the government of God. They are faithful to their nature, and their faithfulness is again but a sign of God’s own faithfulness in the orderliness of the seasons. Then go beyond the ordinary subjection of God’s creation to his will. Look at what we call” miracles.” Think of the passage of the Red Sea, the speaking of Balaam’s ass, the obedience of the fish in the Sea of Galilee to the will of Jesus, the storm becoming a calm, the venomous serpent dropping innocuous from the hand of Paul. What rebukes these are to man, who persists in walking in his own way! Man himself proceeds with all confidence in the training of brute beasts. He takes the colt and the puppy, and makes them abundantly useful. He is pretty sure how they will turn out. The trouble he takes with them is rewarded in the end. But with regard to his own child, though he has watched over it far more carefully than any of his beasts, he may be bitterly disappointed. His training may be mocked, as it were, and put to shameand so, rising from the human parent to the thought of God in heaven, we see Israel similarly perverse, negligent of all that has been done to make right ways for it and keep it in them.Y.
Jer 8:8-12
The exposure of pseudo-wisdom.
I. THE CLAIM MADE. Those on whom Jeremiah presses his appeals for a change of purpose reply, if not by plain words, at all events by equally plain actions, that they are so wise in their own conceits as to need no guidance from an outsider. A profound belief in one’s own insight and skill may of course be justified by results; such a belief has been a very important factor in many great achievements. But it is also to be noticed that to have this belief without any corresponding reality is an evil which may afflict a man at every age of his life. It belongs to the young in their ignorance, and the old, with all their experience, may not be free from it. That experience, even though long, may have been a narrow one, and yet, with all its narrowness, full of blunders. But the recollection of all that should make such old men humble avails nothing to diminish the dogmatism of their advice to others. A certain official and social position is also a grand vantage-ground to air a reputation for wisdom. Nothing is then needed but an abundance of self-assertion to gain acknowledgment from the weak and the ignorant. These great men of Jerusalem would point scornfully at Jeremiah, the lonely prophet. Their city polish would perhaps be in strong contrast to the rustic airs of the man from Anathoth, and, as if to make their claim of wisdom more definite, they fell back on what seemed an unanswerable challenge. “Is not the Law of Jehovah with us?” The meaning of this seemed to be that they could beast of a certain outward conformity with Mosaic institutions. They certainly did attend to the incense and the sweet cane, the burnt offerings and the sacrifices (Jer 6:20). Moreover, what they asserted for themselves implied a correspondingly humiliating opinion of Jeremiah. They were wise, and of course he was a fool. They had the Law of Jehovah, and Jeremiah, in pretending to utter Jehovah’s words, was of course nothing better than an impostor.
II. THE DIVINE WAY OF EXPOSING THIS CLAIM. These self-constituted wise men meet the prophet with a declaration as to what they think themselves to be. “We are wise men,” they say, nor does the prophet throw back the shortest, directest answer that was possible. It would have been of no use to say,” You are fools.” But it was of use to project himself into the future, and indicate what would happen to these boasters. When the homes of these pseudo-wise are broken up, and their wives and fields become the spoil of the conqueror, then it will be clear beyond a doubt where the wisdom is and where the folly. Folly will be condemned of her children, even as wisdom is justified of hers. Where nosy are the writings of these wise men? Jeremiah said at the time that they were full of lies, and we may be sure that, like al reflections of popular fashion and prejudice, they passed very quickly out of vogue. “The Law of Jehovah is with us,” said these wise men; but it was a valueless connection, whereas the prophet had that Law written in his heart. Being in full sympathy with all that was right, and loving, and generous, and pure, he was a fit subject for the solemn impulses that came to him from on high, and thus he went forth to speak on themes immeasurably deeper than the passing phenomena of an age. And so it is that his words, despised and rejected at the time, nevertheless abide, and are felt to be very precious by all who lack wisdom. As we notice the arrogance of spurious wisdom here and also in such passages as Joh 7:48 and 1Co 1:22, we turn away to welcome that heavenly light which in the very shining of it proclaims its source to be entirely different from any earth-enkindled light. Our true wisdom in presence of the Law and the prophets, the Christ and the apostles, is to feel very deeply how ignorant, benighted, and astray we are without them. And there is true wisdom also in that power of the heart which enables us to discern between the false prophet and the true, the false Christ and the true. Such wisdom may be found in the heart of a little child or of a man on the common level of humanity, when it is utterly lacking among many who lead the world in temporal affairs. Full of darkness and duplicity must the minds of these leaders in Jerusalem have been when they lacked the power of seeing that Jeremiah, unpromising as his outward appearance might be, was indeed a prophet of God.Y.
Jer 8:17
The serpents which cannot be charmed.
I. THERE ARE SERPENTS WHICH CAN BE CHARMED. Serpent-charming must have been a not unfamiliar sight to the Israelites. This means, taking the figure away, that there were many great and pressing evils which lay within human resources to mitigate, perhaps to remove. Thus when sore famine fell upon Canaan, Jacob found corn, though he had to send as far as Egypt. The resources thus employed are, no doubt, exceptional, and need peculiar skill and aptitude to discover and use them; but stilland this is the thing of importance here to rememberthey are within the reach of the natural man. To say that necessity is the mother of invention is only another way of saying that there are serpents which can be charmed. Man stands upon the known and the achieved, that he may reach forward and win something more from the unknown. Not everybody can charm a serpent, but some can. So there are a few physicians, one here and another there, who have wonderful skill in the cure of special diseases. Part of the ills of human life can be swept away by wise and timely legislation. Epidemics may be restrained and made comparatively mild by cleanliness and attention to sanitary rules. This which in one age have been thought beyond remedy, in the next age are perfectly understood as to their causes and their cure.
II. THERE ARE SERPENTS WHICH CANNOT BE CHARMED. We may assume that it was so literally; that there were certain serpents which proved obdurate against every wile. And the danger of the serpent’s bite would in such an instance become most dreadful, Just from this very insensibility to everything in the shape of a charm. An enemy was to be brought on Israel whom no bribe, no promise, no art of persuasion whatever, could turn back. If he was to be turned back, it must be by main force or by Divine interposition. So we have to consider that, whatever ills we may succeed in neutralizing, there are others still left behind, unabated in their deadly efficiency by any resources we have in ourselves. It matters little that we can charm some serpents, if we cannot charm all If there be left only one superior, to our skill, that one is enough to ruin all. The most successful charmer among us will discover his match at last. He may charm poverty away, only to find, in a little while, ennui and possession without enjoyment. He may have the experience indicated in Pro 23:32 : he may charm away, as he thinks, the peril of the wine-cup, and exult in assured mastery, only to discover at last that the foe with whom he has been trifling “bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.” So a man may achieve most of his purposes, charming away, as it were, obstacles on every side, only to find in the end that he cannot charm his conscience, that it will not be silent and sleep before the memory of much wrong-doing.
III. THERE ARE SERPENTS WHICH CAN BE MORE THAN CHARMED. There is much in the conjecture that the reference to the serpent here is suggested by the mention of Dan in the previous verse. Jacob’s word for his son Dan was, “Dan shall be a serpent By the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backwards” (Gen 49:17). But we shall do wisely in considering the reference as having a deeper connection with the work of him who is the serpent from the beginning (Rev 20:2). All the painful serpent-bites of life, all the deadly ills, proceed from the brood which in some way or other originate with him. And thus thinking of him, the great dragon, the devil, the adversary, we must needs think of the correspondingly profound work of Jesus over against his work. Jesus was a serpent-charmer; and his efficacy as a charmer is most graciously manifested in the miracles which he wrought to remove physical defect, disease, and death. These miracles had in them something of the nature of a charm. They did not destroy the maleficent power, but they curbed it, made it for the time dormant and inoperative. But after having done all these miracles, Jesus is seen proceeding to a work which is more than that of the charmer. He who was lifted up to draw all men to him makes the victim of the serpent-bite impervious, for all future existence, to any further danger. The bite may come, in the sense of inflicting pain, but the peril is past. The serpent-poison becomes neutralized by the vigor and purity of that eternal life which is in Christ Jesus the Lord.Y.
Jer 8:20
The life is more than the meat.
After the subsidence of the Deluge, there was a promise given to Noah that, “while the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest summer and winter shall not cease.” Scanning the surface of the Scripture narrative, it appears as if this promise had not been kept, seeing there is a record of several notable and protracted famines; and moreover, we have only too good reason to suppose that millions in the successive ages of the world have perished from famine. We must hold, however, to God’s promise having been kept in the spirit of it; its non-fulfillment, so far as human experience is concerned, must arise from some other cause than the unfaithfulness of God. An inquiry into these painful experiences is suggested by the utterance of this verse. The meaning seems to be that harvest and summer, the annual gathering of the corn and the wine and the oil, have nevertheless, in some way or other, left the people who should have profited by them, unprovided for. The words may be applied in two ways.
1. When there is an actual gathering of harvest. There may be an abundance, even a superabundance, of the fruits of the earth, and yet those who sowed and planted, watched and watered, may not get the slightest benefit. Now, not to get the expected benefit from these things means, if not destruction of life, at least a considerable impairment of it; for natural life depends upon them. And Jer 5:15-24 casts no small light on this state of things. There the mighty men from the north are spoken of, and Israel is addressed as follows:”They shall eat up thine harvest, and thy bread, which thy sons and thy daughters should eat: they shall cat up thy vines and thy fig trees.” Strangers pluck the rich fruit of the husbandman’s toil, and he himself is trampled into privation, reduced to the bare subsistence of a slave taken in war. Thus we see how God may lay before a man that which through the sin and folly of the recipient he may not be able to use. Think of the prosperous man in the parable, who had such abundant crops that he must needs build bigger barns, and yet in the very day of his pride was taken away. What is wealth unless God, in the prosecution of his own wise purposes, chooses to give security in the possession of that wealth?
2. When the harvest itself fails. The harvest season may pass and the summer close, only to leave men with empty garners, in hunger and despair. Whither shall they turn, when drought, blasting, and mildew, palmerworm and locust, cankerworm and caterpillar, have done their work? Then it is that “those who are slain with the sword are better than those who are slain with hunger, for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field” (Lam 4:9). Thus, whether the harvest be given or withheld, the practical result is the same. The people are not saved. God may bring the harvest to a complete and beautiful maturity, may, so to speak, save the harvestand “save the harvest” is not an unfamiliar expression to those who are engaged in the vicissitudes of agricultureonly to teach thereby a more impressive lesson to the people who live so that they cannot be kept safe. What force there is in the expression of this verse if we take it to mean, “The corn is saved; the vintage is saved; the olives are saved; all the pleasant fruits of the land are saved; but we are not saved!” The life is more than the bodily nourishment, and when men will not take heed to the higher things which belong to the life, it is just what might be expected that they should have disappointments in the lower things which belong to the nourishment. The true material wealth of every land, when we get at the substance of it, lies in what its soil produces; and when men beast, as they are apt to do, that their own land has gotten them their wealth, it is needful that Jehovah should show them how completely he controls the roots and fruits of everything that he has made to grow for human food. No wonder evil comes to those who do not say in their hearts, “Let us now fear Jehovah our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, in his season: he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks of the harvest’ (Jer 5:24). Malachi puts into striking words the fundamental reason for the sore complaint we have been considering, and the way in which it may be brought to cease (Jer 3:9-11).Y.
Jer 8:21, Jer 8:22
Why the hurt of Israel is not healed.
I. IT IS NOT FOR WANT OF EARNESTLY CALLING ATTENTION TO THE HURT. Jeremiah had wearied and vexed his fellow-countrymen by his persistent warnings. In Verse 21 he insists on how the hurt of Israel had become his hurt. In one sense he was not hurt, for he had kept clear of all idolatrous and unjust ways; he was in a different service and different kind of occupation. But though separated thus, he was also united even as a member to the rest of the body, and had to suffer where he had not sinned. His fellow-countrymen, perhaps, said to him, in substance if not in so many words, “Leave us to go our way, and go you yours; if we sin, we sin, and if we suffer, we suffer, and it is no concern to any but ourselves.” The sinner in his suffering and his heart-corruption must be a cause of great trouble to those who are trying to serve God. They cannot go by on the other side and leave him. No matter how self-occupied one may have been before he came under the control of the Divine will, afterwards he must occupy himself with such things as concern the spiritual health and blessedness of all mankind. Jeremiah sets us a great example in thus speaking of himself as being individually wounded. If sinners continue careless, impenitent, incredulous as to the wrath of God and their pitiable state of alienation from him, there is all the more need that God’s people should feel instead of them. These Israelites could not say they were left without warning and urgent remonstrance, for the man upon whom the business of warning had been laid cried and mourned over the troubles of others, because in a very deep sense they were his own. Vain, therefore, was it for the people, in after years, amid the gloom of exile and bereavement, to say they had not been properly warned.
II. IT WAS NOT FOR WANT OF A MEDICAMENT. In wounds of the body, Israel knew where to go. They found balm in Gilead, and Gilead was not far off, even supposing they had always to go there to get the balm. Balm of Gilead might be made to grow nearer than Gilead. Thus we see the medicament was easily procured,a very important consideration. The incense for the altar they brought all the way from Sheba, but the balm for healing grew much nearer. Easiness of procurement, however, would have been little without efficiency. A certain remedy brought from the ends of the earth is better than a doubtful one near to home; only, of course, there must be foresight to lay in a stock, so that it will be at hand when wanted. Evidently this balm of Gilead which grew within Israelite territory was a famous and trusted balm. Only some popular and widely known agent of healing would have served the purpose of the prophet for quoting here. And is it not plain that the God who thus provided for bodily wounds a balm so easily obtained and so efficient in its action, might also be trusted to provide an available and thorough cure for the worst of spiritual ills? Assuredly the prophet means that an affirmative and encouraging answer is to be given to his question. There is balm in Gilead. There is peace for the guilty conscience, purity for the turbid and defiled imagination, strength for the weakened will. The springs of all our pollution and pain can be dried up, and their place know them no more forever.
III. IT WAS NOT FOR WANT OF A PHYSICIAN. The medicament is good, but it may require to be applied by a skilful and experienced hand. The physician can do nothing without his medicaments, and the medicaments are oftentimes nothing without the physician. A physician is needed to prepare the way for saving truth, to apply it in its most efficacious order, and to press it home in close and vigorous contact with that which has to be healed. The balm of Gilead is not given that it may be trifled with, that it may film over deep evils with a deceptive appearance of removal. In applying that balm there may have to be pain, intense pain for a time, in order that a worse pain may be forever taken away. The pain coming from self-indulgence must be succeeded by the pain coming from self-denial. Men have to discover that the pains of sin are the smitings of God, and when they have made this discovery they will be in a fair way to learn that only he who smites can also heal. Do not let us unjustly complain of incurable ills; let us rather confess that we are much in the condition of the poor woman who, after spending much on many physicians, found, by a simple faith touching the true Source of healing, what she had long vainly sought.
IV. THE REASON PLAINLY LAY WITH THE PEOPLE THEMSELVES. They would listen to no warning. Balm was offered, and the physician’s skill to apply it, but they would not come to be healed. They preferred the pleasures of sin along with its risks and pains. That their state was bad they knew, but they believed it was not near so bad as the prophet made it out to be. Only physicians can tell how many cases of bodily disease might be cured if the sick were willing to go to the root of the matter, and mend their habits as to eating and drinking, working and playing. Ignorance, indifference, prejudice, and unblushing lust of the flesh lie at the bottom of much bodily disease, explaining both how it originates and how it continues. And similar causes operate with regard to such ills as afflict the consciousness of the entire man. Sinners must have a will to go to Jesus if they expect healing and life, and then life more abundantly.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 8:1. At that time, saith the Lord “The Chaldeans shall regard neither the living nor the dead. They shall put the living to death without remorse; and shall break open and defile the tombs of the dead, in hopes of finding riches deposited there. They shall cast them out of their sepulchres, and leave them upon the ground, without staying to collect them together and replace them:” See Bar 2:24-25. Among the insults of the victorious soldiery toward the cities of the enemy, Horace does not omit that of violating the tombs, as one of the most cruel and detestable:
Barbarians fell shall wanton with success, Scatter her city’s flaming ruins wide, Or through her streets in vengeful triumph ride; And her great founder’s hallow’d ashes spurn, That slept uninjur’d in their sacred urn. EPODE XVI. FRANCIS.
We learn from Josephus (Ant. lib. 7: cap. ult.) that king Solomon laid up vast treasures in his father’s sepulchre, which remained untouched till the pontificate of Hyrcanus, who on a public emergency opened one of the cells, and took out at once three thousand talents of silver. And afterwards Herod the Great opened another cell, out of which he also took considerable wealth. Whether the Chaldeans had any notion of this particular deposit, or whether they were tempted by a prevailing custom of burying valuable things together with the bodies of the deceased, does not appear.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
1. 6. FULFILMENT OF RETRIBUTION CORRESPONDING TO THE IDOL-ABOMINATIONS
Jer 8:1-3
1At this time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring1
The bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his princes,
And the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets,
And the bones of the citizens of Jerusalem out of their graves,
2And they shall spread them out to the sun,
And to the moon, and to all the host of heaven,
Which they loved and which they served and followed,
And which they sought and worshipped;
They shall not be gathered, nor buried;
They shall be dung on the surface of the earth.
3And the whole remnant of the survivors of this wicked race
Shall prefer2 death to life in all places of the survivors3,
Whither I have driven them, saith Jehovah Zebaoth.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
It is clear from the contents that this strophe is closely connected with the preceding. Death is to come in a new form, as it were, in those who are already dead. The bones of the buried shall be disinterred and strewed in the face of the stars, their powerless deities, shall become stinking ordure (Jer 8:1-2). And the surviving remnant will long for death as a benefit (Jer 8:3).
Jer 8:1-2. At this time, saith Jehovah surface of the earth. Of the motive of the disinterment the prophet says nothing. He had certainly no idea of its being the search for booty (Jerome, Hitzig, [Henderson]). He has in mind only the punitive justice of God.His before princes is to be referred to the kings, viz., the princes of each king or kingdom, or of the crown. Comp. Jer 24:8; Jer 25:19; Jer 34:21. We should have expected in reference to Judah their princes, as in Isa 3:4; Hos 7:16; Hos 9:15.Spread them out. Observe the irony. The stars look powerlessly down on the bones of their worshipperswhile these send up a stench!Gathered. Comp. Jer 16:4; Jer 25:33.For the subject-matter compare 2Sa 21:12 sqq.
Jer 8:3. And the whole remnant saith Jehovah. The discourse concludes with a parting glance at the survivors, who are the most unfortunate of all. Comp. Jer 25:26.On the subject-matter comp. Jer 24:8 sqq.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 7:1. The exhortation which Jeremiah here addresses to his contemporaries is, as Chrysostom remarks, substantially the same as that of John the Baptist to the Jews of his time: Bring forth therefore fruitsmeet for repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father; for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. But there is a difference between trusting in descent from Abraham, and in the stone Sanctuary at Jerusalem. For as the tabernacle and the sanctuary at Shiloh have disappeared, so the temple built by Solomon and the ark of the covenant itself; and even the temple re-erected without the ark was destroyed a second time by Titus and not rebuilt, though according to the testimony of Josephus (Bell. Jud. VI. 2, 1) the mad resistance of the Jews was chiefly based on the idea that Jerusalem being the city of God was in no danger of destruction. Now while the sacred places and buildings for worship, from the tabernacle to the temple of Herod, were destroyed, never to be rebuilt (comp. Jer 3:16 ) the descent from Abraham, in spite of all temporary reversions, retains its eternal significance, as the Apostle Paul shows in Romans 11, where he says, If the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy so are the branches. If some of the branches have been broken off on account of unbelief, yet they may be grafted in again. For according to the Gospel, he says, I regard them as enemies, but according to the election, they are beloved for the fathers sake. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. If now to trust in descent from Abraham is in so far foolish and unjustifiable, as it does not prevent partial destruction of the nation, to trust in the outward sanctuary, constructed of earthly material, is still less justifiable, for this has no guarantee of continuance; it may indeed suffer total destruction without endangering the foundations of the theocracy. Just as unjustifiable as this confidence of the Jews in an earthly sanctuary as the chosen place of divine presence and blessing is every analogous confidence of the Christian church in a real or supposed divinely chosen earthly substratum of tokens of blessing, whether it be a place, office or race. All the places consecrated by the presence of the Lord and the ministry of His apostles have been destroyed and given up to the abomination of desolation: Jerusalem with the Mt. of Olives and Golgotha, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the whole of Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece, became Christian and yet fell a prey to the crescent. All the less may Rome count on perpetuity, since the chair of Peter rests not on divine but on arbitrary human institution. So also the legitimate ruling families of Europe, who so fondly imagine, that they are irrevocably chosen, should never forget that the Lord not only appoints but deposes kings. (Comp. Dan 4:32; Dan 5:21).
2. Petrus Galatinus (de Arc. cath. 8:5:10) remarks (according to Ghisler.) that some Rabbins refer the lying word of the thrice repeated to the false hope of those who suppose that a third temple will yet be built. But this hope is not a false one. It certainly will not be realized in the erection of a third sanctuary of stone but in that spiritual body of which we must regard Ezekiels temple as the type. Comp. Balmer-Rinck, on the prophet Ezekiels vision of the temple, Basel, 1858, and my review of this work in Reut. Rep. 1860, H. III. S. 151, 2. This is not of course to say that the thrice repeated word does not really refer to the third temple.
3. If God has not His temple and abode in the heart, that (viz., that thou hast an outward temple or house of God) will avail thee nothing. Mic 3:11-12. Starke.
4. The words this is the Lords temple might properly be written on the hearts of believers, 1Co 3:16; Gen 28:17. Starke.
5. It is a heathenish delusion and false confidence to suppose that God is bound to any place or spot, as the Trojans thought because they had the temple of Pallas in their city it could not be taken, and in the present day the manner of the Papists is to bind Christ to Rome and the chair of Peter, and then defiantly maintain I shall never be moved (Psa 10:6). For, they say, the ship of Peter may sink a little, but not altogether. Then the only point that is deficient is this, that they are not the ship of Peter, but rather an East Indianman with a cargo of Indian apes and such like foreign merchandize, pearls, purple, silk, brass, iron, silver, gold, incense, lead, that they may carry on simony and make merchandize of religion, and deceive the whole world (Rev 18:11 sqq.). Cramer.
6. On Jer 7:9-11. Necessary as the doctrine of the church is in the organic system of Christian doctrine it may become dangerous, if the church is regarded one-sidedly as an objectively saving-institution, and the subjective conditions of its operation are undervalued. For then it is regarded as alone necessary to salvation, and not only in the sense that this virtue is ascribed exclusively to one particular church in opposition to another, but also in the sense of supposing that the church alone, as an objective institution, is the means of salvation, a man needing to do nothing more than to enter into a passive relation to the church, i.e., without conscious resistance (obex). From this alone saving church there is but one step to the infallibly saving, i.e., to that, of which a passive member cannot be lost, however much he may steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, etc. Where this ruinous delusion prevails men enter the church, perform the ceremonies, wipe their mouths, and say salvi sumus (). But thus the church of Christ becomes a den of robbers.
7. On Jer 7:16. This may serve to comfort you, for God thus testifies to the power of prayer, that it would stand in His way so that He could not go on. Therefore He had first of all to forbid the prophet from praying. Thus also He says to Moses (Exo 32:10) Let Me alone that My wrath may burn against them. So much may a believing prayer accomplish. Cramer.
8. On Jer 7:22-23. In Psa 51:16-17, we read For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Had sacrifices and burnt-offerings been positively displeasing to God, He would have forbidden them. But they must have been pleasing to Him even as types of the sacrifice on Golgotha. They displease Him only when He is to accept them instead of a broken and contrite heart. The sacrifices have thus a two-fold significance; objectively as types, and in so far as God beholds in every sacrifice that of Christ, they are pleasing to Himsubjectively, as the offering of man. But when in this relation God is to be satisfied with the fat and blood of an animal instead of the spiritual oblatio cordis, the sacrifice is displeasing. Thus as the sacrifice is on the one hand pleasing, on the other displeasing, Jeremiah might say that God did not speak of sacrifices, though on the other hand it is admitted, that He did speak of them.
9. On Jer 7:26. It is an evil consolation, and one of the greatest exercises of the witnesses, when they are treated with such indifference, that they are not opposed, but also receive no real attention. Then is Satan most firmly seated, and his business best established when he has induced such a state of indifference. Phlegm in religion, patience in hearers (a sign that they are inured to blows) is an incurable evil. So long as they are calumniated, persecuted, mocked, the witnesses still have a handle. But the time, when one preaches and no one rises, is a miserable epoch for the ministry. Yet it must be endured, for it is either not general or a teacher is usually free. For because the Lord spews out of His mouth such men and such times of lethargy are heralds of the overflowing of the divine judgments, and especially of the removal of the candlestick from its place, there is generally a new period for the teachers, and they become elsewhere a great nation (Exo 32:10) Zinzendorf.
10. On Jer 7:33. Charitati Christian et legi natur consentaneum est, ut hominum cadavera terra obruantur, unde Augustinus (De Civ. D. I. 13); non contemnenda et abjicienda sunt corpora justorum et fidelium, quibus tanquam organis et vasis suis ad omnia bona opera spiritus sanctus fuit usus. Frster.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 7:1-3. [Henry:Note: (1) Even those that profess religion have need to be preached to, as well as those that are without. (2) It is desirable to have opportunity of preaching to many together. Wisdom chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse, and as Jeremiah here, in the opening of the gates, the temple gates. (3) When we are going to worship God, we have need to be admonished to worship Him in the Spirit, and to have no confidence in the flesh. Php 3:3.S. R. A.]
2. On Jer 7:3-7. The doctrine of the Church. I. The church externally or as an external I ordinance. 1. What is this external ordinance? (Word, sacrament, office). 2. How far is this external ordinance necessary? 3. What reasons have we to be on our guard respecting it? (Jer 8:4. It may be overestimated).II. The church internally. 1. It is essentially a community of saints and true believers. (Congregatio sanctorum et vere credentium. Conf. Aug. Art. VIII.) 2. Its existence is manifested, a. in the holy walk of its members (Jer 8:3; Jer 8:5-6); b. in the blessings of the Divine presence (Jer 8:3; Jer 8:7).
3. On Jer 7:8. [Henry:The privileges of a form of godliness are often the pride and confidence of those that are strangers and enemies to the power of it. It is common for those that are furthest from God to boast themselves most of their being near to the church.S. R. A.]
4. On Jer 7:8-15. An earnest warning against merely external ecclesiasticism. I. Its essence is: false confidence in the unconditional saving efficacy of a supposed or real sanctuary (Jer 8:8; Jer 8:10). II. Its consequences are: 1. Demoralization (Jer 8:9-10). 2. Desecration of the holy (Jer 8:11). 3. Destruction of the offenders (Jer 8:12-15).
5. On Jer 7:16. On Intercession. 1. When it is not in place (compare this verse with 1Jn 5:16). 2. When it is in place. 3. What it can accomplish.
[Henry:See here (1). That Gods prophets are praying men. (2). That Gods praying prophets have a great interest in heaven, how little soever they have on earth. (3). It is an ill omen for a people when God restrains the spirits of His ministers and people from praying for them. (4). Those that will not regard good ministers preaching cannot expect any benefit by their praying. If you will not hear us when we speak from God to you, God will not hear us when we speak to Him for you.S. R. A.]
6. On Jer 7:18. [Henry:Let us be instructed even by this bad example in the service of our God. (1) Let us honor Him with our substance. (2). Let us not decline the hardest service, nor disdain to stoop to the meanest, for none shall kindle a fire on Gods altar for naught. (3). Let us bring up our children in the acts of devotion; let them, as they are capable, be employed in doing something toward the keeping up of religious exercises.S. R. A.]
7. On Jer 7:22-23. Of the true service of God. I. Its nature (1) not outward ceremonies, but (2) walk according to the divine commands. II. Its reward. (I will be your God, that it may be well with you).
8. On Jer 7:24-29. Of disobedience to Gods word. I. Its cause is, (1) not neglect on the part of God to make known His word to men (Jer 7:25). (2) Not the imperfect performance of his duties by the preacher (Jer 7:27) but (3) the hardness of mens hearts, who (a) walk only after the thoughts of their heart, and therefore (b) do not hear, do not believe, (Jer 7:28) do not wish to improve. II. Its consequence is (1) increasing moral corruption (Jer 7:24; Jer 7:26) and (2) rejection on the part of God (Jer 7:29).
9. On Jer 7:25-28. The sad characteristics of an unbelieving epoch. 1. Contempt of the preaching of the divine word. 2. Stiff-neckedness in respect to the visitations of divine chastisement. 3. Increase of wickedness in spite of all the warnings of the past. (Lic. Clauss).When is a people ripe for destruction? 1. When it despises the visitations of divine grace (Jer 7:25). 2. When it hardens itself in unbelief against Gods word and voice (Jer 7:26-27). 3. When in spite of the divine judgment it departs the more into sin (Jer 7:26; Jer 7:28).The people Israel a warning example for the present race in view of the prevailing unbelief of the times. Their example is admonitory, 1. with respect to their ingratitude for Gods gracious visitations. 2. with respect to their opposition to the true friends of the nation; 3. with respect to their frivolity in view of inevitable destruction. (Dr. Gr.)Let the remembrance of our calling serve to awaken us. To this end let us consider. 1. What is our calling? 2. How does the Lord call us? 3. How long does He call us? 4. How have we answered Him? 5. What will be the end of our calling? (Z.: Gesetz u. Zeugniss, Juni. 1860, S. 339).
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 8:1.Instead of the Masoretes would omit the , as they perceived that neither as consecutive nor as copulative is it in place, while in accordance with the constant usage we should expect it to be followed by the perfect. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 840. Yet in such cases the imperfect with Vau copulat. is not without example; comp. Exo 12:3.
[2]Jer 8:3. comp. Pro 21:3. Naegelsb. Gr., 100, 4.
[3]Jer 8:3.. If we do not with Hitzig and Graf reject this word as resting on a clerical error, we must explain it with Maurer and De Wette as the repetition of the noun instead of the pronoun, so that the article stands before the construct state in an emphatic almost pronominal signification: in all those places. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 71; 5 Anm.
II. SECOND CHARGE: THEIR RUINOUS PERSISTENCE IN EVIL
Jer 8:4-22
1. Their stiff-necked impenitence and its punishment
Jer 8:4-12
4And say to them: Thus saith Jehovah:
Do men4 fall and rise not up again?
Or does one turn away and not return again?
5Why then does this people, Jerusalem,
Turn away5 with a perpetual6 apostacy?
They hold fast to error,7 wish not to return.
6I inclined myself and listened:
They speak that which is worth nothing.
There is none who repents of his wickedness
And who says: what have I done?
They are all8 turned away in their courses,
Like a mad9 stallion in the battle.
7Even the stork in the air knoweth his seasons,
The turtle-dove, swallow and crane keep the time of their coming,
But my people know not the judgment of Jehovah.
8How say ye then, We are wise,
And the law of Jehovah is with us?
Behold! surely the lying style of the writer has brought forth only lies.
9The wise men are put to shame,
Confounded and taken are they.
Behold! they have despised Jehovahs word,
What Wisdom , 10 however, is among them?
10Therefore11 will I give their wives to others,
Their fields to the conquerors,
For from the least to the greatest they are all bent on gain;
From the prophet to the priest they all practise deceit,
11And healed the hurt of the daughter of my people most slightly,
Saying, Peace, peace! when there is no peace.
12They are put to shame, for they have committed abomination;
Yet they blush not, nor understand to be ashamed.
Therefore shall they fall with the falling,
At the time of their visitation will they be overthrown,
Saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The second point in the charge concerns the impenitent obduracy with which the people, true to their often censured character (comp. Exo 32:9; Exo 33:3; Exo 33:5; Exo 34:9; Deu 9:6; Deu 9:13; Deu 10:16; Deu 31:27 coll. Jer 5:3; Isa 48:4; Eze 2:4; Eze 3:7) persist in the perverse course they have adopted (Jer 8:4-7). To be sure they will not admit that they have adopted a false course. They maintain on the contrary (comp. Jer 7:21 sqq.) that they are in the right way, because they are not lacking in instruction or knowledge of the law of God (Jer 8:8). But the prophet does not allow this to pass. He traces their imagined wisdom to the deception of their false leaders, of whom he predicts that with their pseudo-sophy they must be put to shame (Jer 8:9), and then he again announces to all in the words of a former discourse the judgment of God for their manifold wickedness (Jer 8:10-12). This strophe contains the main thought of this chapter, i.e., of the second part. The two following strophes describe only the particular features of the punishment.
Jer 8:4-5. And say to them wish not to return. The simple introduction by and say shows that what follows is closely connected with the preceding. The meaning of is here, the first time to turn, to make any kind of a turn (comp. Jos 19:12, etc.), the second time to return.It is evident that the prophet had hoped that Israel would have returned in view of his previous representations. No one who falls remains lying on the ground, and no one perseveres in the course he has taken without turning to one side or another, how then is it that Israel so obstinately persists in his perverse ways? The answer is given in Jer 8:6. By the manner in which the prophet emphasizes the idea of turning we are forcibly reminded of Jer 3:1-4;Wish not to return, comp. Jer 5:3; Hos 11:5.
Jer 8:6. I inclined myself stallion in the battle. It is best to regard this as an answer to the question why? in Jer 8:5. In order to be able to give the Lord a correct answer, the prophet listens. For thus he may be able to learn the true secret thoughts of their hearts. The information he thus obtains is not comforting; from their speeches he learns only the radically corrupt condition of their hearts, closed against all knowledge of the right. Hence their obduracy.They do not speak that which is right, i.e., they not only are silent with respect to the right, but they speak that which is not right, which is false. Comp. Gen 42:11; Gen 42:19; Gen 42:31; Gen 42:33-34, and Exo 10:29; 2Ki 7:9; Pro 15:7; Isa 16:6; Jer 23:10; Jer 48:30.Their conduct corresponds to their words; there is none who repents. stands in opposition to the desired in Jer 8:4-5, with a certain irony; they are not wanting in turn, but they practise it only in the sense se avertere. This they certainly pursue with the greatest ardor. They turn away in their entirety.in their courses. The plural form is explained by the collective idea of the noun, to which all refers. This plural gives a satisfactory sense, and it is therefore unnecessary to alter it as the Keri does according to Jer 23:10. As to the meaning: the word in 2Sa 18:27 has the meaning of violent running, hunting, chasing. This meaning is suitable to Jer 22:17; Jer 23:10, and is also demanded by the connection here. They turn them in this sense, that with violent haste they pursue their chosen path.
Jer 8:7. Even the stork the judgment of Jehovah. What is, is very uncertain, since the distinctive marks mentioned in Old Testament passages (Lev 11:19; Deu 14:18; Psa 104:17; Job 39:13; Zec 5:9) suit several birds, on which account (apart from the fact that the LXX. translate sometimes , sometimes or , the Targumists and Talmudists milvus albus, videBuxtorf, Lex. Chald., p. 528) modern commentators are divided between heron (So Bochart, Gesen., Rosenm., Fuerst in his concordance, Ewald, Meier, and others) and stork (Winer, FuerstLex., Graf and others). Since the derivation from pius is the most natural and the designation of the stork as avis pia is very general (comp. , although in single cases the filial piety of the heron is also celebrated, lian, Anim. III. 23), I give my preference in this instance to the meaning stork. is the turtle-dove. That it is migratory in the East (comp. the American migratory pigeon) may be inferred also from Son 2:11-12. Comp. Winer, R. W. B.s. v. . The meaning of these words is uncertain. Both words occur besides only in Isa 38:14.There it reads . There the asyndeton is in favor of rendering as the predicate or in apposition to , but in the present passage the is opposed to it. Neither the dialects nor the early translators and commentators afford us any secure data. In order to deal fairly with both passages, we must take one of the two words in a sense which would allow it to be rendered both as in opposition and as an independent word, as, for example, we may say felis leo or felis et leo. Perhaps (for which the Keri and Palestinian could read ) is an onomatopoeticum or imitation of the natural sound (Venetian Zysilia=swallow. VideRosenm.) and in this sense the name of the genus and species at the same time (comp. felis-felis). At any rate the prophet wishes to say that the irrational animals punctually obey the natural law which prescribes their return into a certain country, while Israel seems not even to know the rule instituted by Jehovah for their moral action.But my people. Comp. Isa 1:3; Jer 5:4-5.
Jer 8:8. How say ye then only lies. To the charge at the close of Jer 8:7 the prophet supposes the people to reply: We are wise, etc.; just as what is said in Jer 7:21 sqq., presupposes an appeal of the people to their observance of the ceremonial law, so here also the assertion is put into their mouth that they were well instructed in the law. It may be inquired whether is here used in a general sense, or whether it contains an allusion to those who from the age of Solomon constituted a particular class of the supporters and promoters of culture by the side of the priests and prophets. (Comp. Bruch, Weisheits-Lehre der Hebrer, Strassb., 1851, S. 48). Jeremiah himself (Jer 18:18) names wise men together with priests and prophets. But Ezekiel in the parallel passage Jer 7:26, uses elders for wise men, and generally it might be difficult to prove that in Jeremiah and elsewhere, (especially in Pro 1:6; Pro 13:20; Pro 15:12; Pro 22:17; Pro 23:24), they appear as a special class and not rather as specially gifted men of every class and calling, as Solomon also was a , and with him men of the priestly and levitical orders (1Ki 5:9-11). Observe also that it is said not: wise men are among us, but, wise men are we.That must designate the Torah in the sense of the Pentateuch cannot be maintained, for the word occurs frequently in a more general signification, ex. gr., Isa 2:3; Isa 8:16. Certainly the word would have to be rendered in the narrower sense if hemistich 2 were to be translated: truly ( comp. Jer 3:23; Jer 4:10) the lying style of the scribes has made it a lie. But on the other hand 1, to supply the suffix is not a matter of course, as it must be if the want of the suffix (which is certainly frequent, comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 78, 2, Anm.) is to appear justified. 2, , scribes in the sense of those who spin a web of human inventions around the word of God is of later date. Ezra, as is well known, was the first (comp. Ezr 7:6; Ezr 7:11) but not in a bad sense, for the evil practices of the scribes were only a corruption of the praiseworthy labors commenced by him (comp. Herzog, R.-Enc. XIII. 5. 733, etc.) Since the verb is decidedly used in an absolute sense =to make, to work, (Exo 5:9; Exo 31:4; 1 Ki. 5:30; 1Ki 20:40; Rth 2:19; Pro 13:16; Pro 31:13) this passage can mean only: behold! he has worked for a lie, i.e., has done lying work, the pen of the scribe has produced lies. Scribes indeed occur almost up to the time of Jeremiah only as State-officials (Jdg 5:14; 2Sa 8:17; 2Sa 20:25; 2Ki 12:11; 2Ki 19:2, etc), but Baruch also is called a scribe (Jer 36:26; Jer 36:32), and since the canonical writings set before us the picture of a literary activity in a good sense, why may they not also have given us one in a bad sense? False prophets labored with their word in opposition to the word of the true prophets, why might they not do the same with their writings? Jeremiah here presupposes a literary activity which designated its productions as the directions of Jehovah, but not in truth. For what was thus written in the name of Jehovah, and doubtless with an appeal to the law, was human invention and lies. Comp. Isa 10:1.
Jer 8:9. The wise men are put to shame what wisdom however is among them? The prophet for every abuse of the name of God declares the divine punishment. They are put to shame with their teaching and prophecy. The false scribes had evidently flattered the people and promised them good days to come. (Comp. infra Jer 8:11; Jer 6:14; Jer 23:9; Ezekiel 13.). The contrary, says Jeremiah, will be the case, to their shame and their hurt.Put to shame, comp. on Jer 2:26.The wise here are not identical with those to whom the predicate wise is applied in Jer 8:8. For while the latter refers to all Israel, the former refers only to the scribes. These are called wise men, not because they formed a special class, but because they boasted of special insight into religious things.Confounded, etc. Comp. Jer 48:1; Jer 1:2. Because they have despised the word of the Lord and substituted their own wisdom, it will come to the light that they know nothing.
Jer 8:10-12. Therefore will I give their wives saith Jehovah. These verses refer not to the false prophets alone but to all those previously mentioned in common. They announce both to the whole people, who were addressed in Jer 8:4-7, and to their perverse leaders, to whom Jer 8:8-9 refer, their common, public, and outwardly palpable punishment, and in so far form the necessary conclusion of the strophe. This announcement is made in the form of a quotation, these three verses being a repetition of Jer 6:12-15. As it is the leaders of the people, the priests and prophets who are there spoken of (Jer 6:13-15), the verses suit this place very well, particularly as Jer 8:11, and healed, etc., so well proves the shaming of the false prophets (Jer 8:9). But nevertheless we see that this passage is a quotation and is not here in its original position. For Jer 8:10 is a contracted form of Jer 6:12-13. Here also the sequence of thought is not quite correct, the causal following the illative particle . But that a copyist did not transpose the passages, but the prophet himself repeated with freedom his former utterance, is seen from the little alterations which betray a reproduction from memory as well as the hand of an author making free use of his own property, in Jer 8:10-12 (comp. Jer 10:15; Jer 11:23; Jer 23:12, etc.). On the repetitions in Jeremiah see the table in Naegelsb.: Jer. u. Bab. S. 128.Comp. besides the excellent refutation of Hitzigs view as to the interpolation of this passage in Graf, S. 135.
Footnotes:
[4]Jer 8:4.. The indefinite subject in Hebrew may be expressed as here by the 3d pers. of the plural or of the singular. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 101, 2.On the disjunctive question comp. Gr. 107, 4. [Blayney, Noyes, Umbreit, etc. render as in the text: Henderson has: Shall they fall; but incorrectly, for as Hitzig says, the Jews cannot be the subject in Jer 8:4.S. R. A.]
[5]Jer 8:5. (not , Jer 31:21; Jer 49:4, nor , Jer 3:14; Jer 3:22) is to be regarded according to Ewald, 188 b, as a verbal form, and in a directly causative sense = to make a turn. Comp. rems. on Jer 31:21.This people is not in the relation of a genitive to the following Jerusalem, as is evinced by the form, but the latter is in simple apposition to the former. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 66. [Henderson: this people of Jerusalem].
[6]Jer 8:5. (adject. denomin. ad formam Comp. N. Gr., 42, a, S. 87) is an . . The meaning is derived from perfectio, absolutio = perfectus, absolutus:
[7]Jer 8:5. (comp. Jer 14:14, Keri; Jer 23:26; Zep 3:13; Psa 119:118) must here according to the connection be rendered in a passive sense = error.
[8]Jer 8:6. is literally: its entirety. From the singular suffix we perceive that the nation is regarded as a single individual. Comp. Ewald, 286, e.
[9]Jer 8:6. used originally of streaming water (comp. Isa 30:28; Isa 66:12; Eze 13:11; Eze 13:13); in the transferred sense of the running of a horse here only (comp. effuso cursa, faga effusior in Livy). [All the English translations render: as a horse rushes into the battle.S. R. A.]
[10]Jer 8:9. [lit. : the wisdom of what]? sapientia cujus? Comp. Jer 44:28; Gen 24:33; Naegelsb. Gr., 65, 2, b.
[11]Jer 8:9.[The LXX. omit these three verses with the exception of the first two lines of the 10th. The repetitious character of many parts of the book of Jeremiah leaves no reason to doubt that the repetition here of Jer 6:12-15 is genuine. Theodotion and the Hexaplar Syriac supply the omission of the LXX. Henderson.S. R. A.]
2. FURTHER PORTRAYAL OF THE VISITATION ANNOUNCED IN VER
Jer 8:13-17
13I will sweep12 them utterly away, saith Jehovah.
There were no grapes on the vine,
No figs on the fig-tree,
The land was withered.
So I gave to them13 those who shall overrun them.
14What is then the ground on which we remain?
Assemble, let us go into the fortified cities and perish14 there?
For Jehovah, our God, has allowed us to perish
And given us water of poison to drink;
For we have sinned against Jehovah.
15We hoped15 for blessing but no good came
For a time of healing16 and behold terror!
16From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses,
At the sound of the neighing of his stallions the whole earth trembles.
And they came and devoured the land and what was in it,
The city and those that dwelt therein.
17For behold, I send among you serpents,
Basilisks, against which no charm avails,
These shall bite you, saith Jehovah.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This strophe is entirely occupied with the further portrayal of the visitation which is announced in Jer 8:12. The object of the discourse, the visitation, appears under various images, according to the use of literal or figurative language. The speakers are also changed several times. First the Lord announces that He will sweep them away in the storm as unfruitful withered plants. Then they must themselves announce that they wish to flee into the fortified cities but without the hope of escape. For they themselves feel and express that they bear their death within them, as it were, the Lord Himself having given them poison-water as a punishment for their sins, and instead of healing they find (in the cities) only terror. (Jer 8:14-15). For they already perceive the approach of the enemy from the North (Jer 8:16 a), which the prophet confirms, describing in blunt words the sad end as already begun (Jer 8:16 b). At last the Lord Himself again speaks, and returning to the figurative mode of speech compares the threatening enemies with serpents of the poisonous kind, for whose bite there is no remedy (Jer 8:17).
Jer 8:13. I will sweep them overrun them. In what follows the motive of this punishment is presented. Israel is an unfruitful vine and fig-tree, a withered branch. The same figure in Psa 1:3; Jer 17:7; Isa 1:30; Isa 5:2; Mic 7:1; Luk 13:8.I regard the words I will sweep them utterly away as a general statement of what follows. In this the Lord Himself accounts for the genesis of this declaration. He relates that he instituted an investigation, the result of which was that Israel was like an unfruitful, withered tree. In consequence of this He determined that they should be swept away by a storm: then I gave to them those who shall overrun them. (Comp. Isa 8:8; Dan 11:10, and Jer 5:22; Jer 23:9). In overrun is evidently an allusion to whirlwind, to which sweep points, and the verse forms a sort of circle, the end returning to the beginning. The plural overrun intimates that in reality a number of persons would represent this storm. Comp. Jer 8:16.The certainly peculiar expression for then I appointed for them, hung over them, is explained by supposing that the prophet intended a play upon the words , .
Jer 8:14-15. What is then the ground on which we remain? and behold terror. The people themselves relate how that which was determined in the secret counsels of Providence was actually carried out. The prophet portrays how the people, seized by the foreboding of threatening destruction, felt themselves insecure in their abodes, and concluded to flee to the fortified cities. causal = why? Comp. Jer 9:11; Job 13:14. Yet I would take at the same time as local: on what? on what insecure ground are we sitting? I endeavored to express this double sense in the translation.Assemble, etc., taken verbatim from Jer 4:5. The people thus do something to which the Lord had previously summoned them by His prophet, but to follow this advice now will not avail, since they so long openly transgressed the holy will of God, as revealed in His law. In all their measures for flight they have this consciousness: there is no help, we are already lost.And perish there. Not to be saved, but only to perish somewhat later, to obtain a little respite, do they flee to the cities.For Jehovah, etc. They know that their destruction is already determined upon, and that they bear death, as it were, in their bodies into the cities. This is the sense of given us water of poison, etc. Comp. Jer 9:14; Jer 23:15, and Jer 25:15; Jer 25:17; Lam 3:15; Psa 60:5. On comp. Winer, R. W. B., s. v.Gift.Vain therefore is also the hope, which they still maintain, because every man hopes while he lives. This passage is repeated in Jer 14:19.
Jer 8:16. From Dan that dwelt therein. Hemistich a states the cause of the terror, again referring to a former declaration (Jer 4:16; Jer 6:22-23). It appears that these words belong still to the speech of the Israelites, at least these may thus speak, since the words contain only the description of what was then perceived. But hemistich b describes the future as though it had already taken place. This could be done only by the prophet; are therefore prophetic aorists. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr. 88, 5. [GreensGr. 262, 4.S. R. A.]The prophet interposes with and they came, etc., to say that the terror was not an empty one, but that the enemy thus announced had really come. The singular suffixes refer to the enemy represented as a single person. Comp. Jer 4:13. of horses, Jer 47:3; Jer 50:11.
Jer 8:17. For behold, I send saith Jehovah. The discourse is now again figurative and Jehovah speaks Himself, as in the beginning of the strophe, Jer 8:13. We might compare a strophe like this with the variations of a musical theme. The more frequently the theme changes its form, the more impression does it make, the more ways of entrance are opened to it. That this verse has the character of a conclusion is seen, (a) from there turn to the beginning, (b) from the climax, which is expressed in the figure of serpents inaccessible to all charms. This contains the idea of the most intensive destruction, excluding all possibility of healing. Since this is the main thought of the verse is best referred to Jer 8:16, b.:Thus is it, for, etc. The Lord Himself confirms the words of the prophet. This verse has moreover a striking resemblance to Gen 49:17, and it would not be impossible that the prophet, reminded by the mention of Dan of the prophecy concerning him, makes use of the images there employed for his description of the enemy coming from Dan.(Isa 11:8; Isa 59:5; Pro 23:32) and (Isa 14:29) so called probably a sibilardo (so Gesen. Thes., Fuerst, Drechsler) are regarded by most modern commentators, following in this Aquila and the Vulgate (the LXX. vary) as the basilisk, a small, exceedingly poisonous kind of viper. On no charm, etc., comp. Psa 58:5-6, [4, 5].
Footnotes:
[12]Jer 8:13. from , from desinere, Hiph. finem imponere, consumere. As in at the same time the idea of storm is contained (comp. , procella) this compound evidently signifies to sweep away in a storm. The connection of two verbs, having roots of different or similar sound, in this construction frequently occurs. Comp. Jer 48:9; Isa 28:28, and especially Zep 1:2-3; where we find the same connection as in this passage (Naegelsb. Gr., 93, d. Anm.) The Hiph. occurs only in these three passages.
[13]Jer 8:13.The ancient rendering, occurring in the Chaldee and Syriac: and I recompensed to them that which they transgressed, is harsh and opposed especially by the difficulty of thus satisfactorily explaining the suffix.The explanation preferred by most modern commentators: and I give them up to those who come over themhas against it, (1) that must be made into which besides is not a normal construction, comp. the remarks on Jer 8:1; (2) that must be translated not to them but to those, (3) that the suffix must be supplied to , which, as was remarked on , can only take place where this supplementation is a matter of course.
[14]Jer 8:14.. This form follows the Aramaic formation with reduplication of the first radical. Comp. Deu 34:8; Ps. 31:78; Job 29:21. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 31, Anm. Olsh. 243, d.
[15]Jer 8:15. Inf. abs. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 92, 2, b.
[16]Jer 8:15. instead of . Camp. Jer 8:11.
3. CONTINUATION: THE VISITATION ENDS WITH THE, CARRYING AWAY CAPTIVE OF ISRAEL, TO THE INEXPRESSIBLE GRIEF OF THE PEOPLE AND OF THE PROPHET
Jer 8:18-22
18O my comfort17 in the sorrow!
My heart within me is faint.
19Hark! a cry of my people from distant18 lands:
Is Jehovah not in Zion, or her king not in her
Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
With their foreign vanities?
20The harvest is past, the fruit-gathering is over,
And we are not saved!
21For the wound of the daughter of my people am I wounded,19
I go mourning; horror hath seized me.
22Is there ho balsam in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then proceeds not the healing of the daughter of my people?
23O that mine head were waters,20
And mine fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This strophe, in which the nameless grief of the prophet at the destruction of his people is expressed in simple but highly poetical words, serves for the elucidation and completion of the previous one. In that the manner of the destruction, which the Northern enemy was to inflict, was not distinctly designated; at the most Jer 8:13 contained a dim intimation of a threatening captivity. That this will be the punishment of the people, is now distinctly expressed in this strophe. In deep sorrow (Jer 8:18), the prophet tells us that he has heard from distant lands the mournful question of his people, whether Jehovah is no longer in Zion (Jer 8:19, a). To this the answer of the Lord is: This is the punishment of idolatry (Jer 8:19, b).New lamentation of the people: respite after respite and no salvation! (Jer 8:20).Finally the wailing of the prophet: the cause of his sorrow is the misery of his people (Jer 8:21) being hopeless (Jer 8:22), wherefore nothing remains for the prophet but to bewail this misery with endless weeping (Jer 9:1). Observe also in this strophe the dramatic character of the change in persons.
Jer 8:18. O my comfort is faint. Comp. the Text. and Gram. rems.In the words within me is contained the idea of the heavy heart, which is felt as an oppression or burden. Comp. Psa 42:6, 7, 12; Psa 43:5; Psa 142:4; coll. Jer 39:4; Lam 1:20.
Jer 8:19. Hark! a cry foreign vanities. The prophet beholds Israel in exile. Their eyes are still turned towards Zion as the chosen abode of the God of Israel (comp. Psa 14:7; Psa 20:3; Psa 128:5; Psa 134:3; Isa 37:32, etc.) but it appears that He has forsaken it. Comp. Mic 4:9.This painful question is answered by the Lord Himself, who continues and accounts for this impression. The expression provoked to angerwith their images reminds us of Deu 32:21; 1Ki 16:13; 1Ki 16:26. Comp. Jer 14:22; Psa 31:7.
Jer 8:20. The harvest is passed not saved. Period after period elapses without help coming (comp. Isa 59:9). Without observing Jer 8:19, a, or the time when this discourse was composed, most of the ancient commentators refer these words to the vain expectation of Egyptian help, which presupposes 2Ki 24:1; or to that which is expressly announced in Jer 37:5. On the other hand Schnurrer correctly remarks that the expression has somewhat of a proverbial character. Even those who are in exile still hope, as is also intimated in Jer 8:19 b, but still in vain.
Jer 8:21-22. For the wound the daughter of my people.I go mourning. Comp. Jer 4:28; Jer 14:2. The prophet is inwardly broken, and to this corresponds his outward appearance.The prophet tells us in Jer 8:22 why the wound of his people causes him so much pain: it is not only a very dangerous one, as is clear from all that precedes, but also, which is the worst, no one heals it. It is as though Gilead no longer possessed any balsam, or any man skilful in the application of it, though the balsam was especially, according to Pliny (Hist. Nat., XII. 54) exclusively, to be found in Palestine. The question: Is there no balsam, etc., has then the meaning: Is Israel wanting in that which was given to him in preference to all other nations? It is plain that the prophet here alludes to the relation of Israel to Jehovah, as the peculiar glory of the land. (Gen 43:11, song = best fruits, of the land). Whether is precisely the resin of the balsam-plant, which elsewhere is called , , or , is uncertain. Comp. Winer, R. W. B. s. v. Balsam. It is mentioned as a remedy also in Jer 46:11; Jer 51:8, as an article of commerce, Gen 43:11; Eze 27:17.Is there no physician there? Graf would not refer there to Gilead, because it is not known that physicians were fetched from thence. But we may well suppose that in the land of the balsam the use of it was best understood. The prophet therefore wishes only to say: Is there then in Israel, where the true medicina salutis is found, no one who understands how to make the application of it? He silently answers this question in the negative, and gives the reason for it in what follows.The healing. The same expression in Jer 30:17; Jer 33:6; 2Ch 24:13; Neh 4:1. Comp. Isa 58:8. The expression bandage does not suit in all these passages, but healing does everywhere. Comp. Rosenm. ad loc.
Jer 9:1. O that mine head daughter of my people. The poetry of suffering is presented most touchingly in these brief but thrilling words. It is the wish of the prophet that the whole interior of his head might dissolve into water, so that his eyes might be inexhaustible fountains of tears. For all he can do is to weep, and this is his only comfort.
Footnotes:
[17]Jer 8:18. is The radix , illuminate, beam upon, (in Arabic of the rising sun) occurs only in Hiphil: Amo 5:9; Psa 39:13; Job 9:27; Job 10:20. It is formed like (multitude, fulness, increase, Lev 23:37), (pastio, flock, Jer 23:1), (copy, Num 33:52). Comp. Olsh. 218, a. The meaning is therefore: beaming, enlightening, exhilaration. [Henderson renders: my exhilaration within me is sorrow. Noyes, with a better sense: O where is consolation for my sorrow?S. R. A.] The construction with (Comp. Amo 5:9) appears to be founded on the radical meaning, O beam on sorrow! The suffix of the first person refers to the whole, which is to be regarded as a single conception, in like manner as in , , comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 63, 4, g. According to the Keri, and even according to the Chethibh of several codices of Kennicott and De Rossi we should read in two words, which reading the LXX. seem to follow ( ) yet without its being possible to give to this a satisfactory meaning. For many other explanations, comp. Rosenmueller.
[18]Jer 8:19.The form is found besides only in Isa 33:17.
[19]Jer 8:21. Hoph. here only. The Niph in this sense is frequent, ex. gr., Jer 23:9.
[20][Jer 8:23.In the A. V. this verse Isa 9:1, but not in the Hebrew.S. R. A.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 8:4. In this consists our human blindness in spiritual matters, that he who has fallen cannot imagine he has fallen, he who errs will not be convinced that he errs. For the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him, 1Co 2:14. Cramer.Labi humanum est, resurgere Christianum, nolle resurgere diabolicum. Frster.
2. On Jer 8:5. The people will still go astray more and more, they hold so fast to their false worship that they will not be turned away, and this because they have no proper place: because they have the service of God in reserve only au pis aller, it does not so much concern them whether they lie or steal, whether they go right or wrong, they do not wish to go anywhere. Zinzendorf.
3. On Jer 8:7. God opens to us the book of nature not only that we may behold as in a mirror the divine wisdom and omnipotence, but that we may also take thence good examples of discipline and improvement. Isa 1:3; Pro 6:6. For if we behold such examples in nature we ought surely to be ashamed that irrational creatures are so willing and obedient, and do that for which they are created, but we men (who were made in His image and sealed with the Holy Ghost on the day of redemption) are so opposed, rebellious and disobedient to Him. This will certainly, in the case of no amendment, lead to a devilish bad ending. Cramer.
4. On Jer 8:5. Manifeste docet nos, malitiam non esse opus natur, sed voluntatis (). Theodoret.
5. On Jer 8:7. Chrysostom, homil de Turture see de virtute: turturem dicit omnem castam ecclesiam, hirundinem vero Joannem hominum amatorem, cicadam autem eloquentissimum Paulum, ecclesi organum. Ghislerus.
6. On Jer 8:8. Jeremiah finds some of those also among us, who (according to this description of the theologians of his country) either deduce propositions from the Scriptures which a child may see are not so, or make up sentences and bring them to the people, and when they are asked: Where is that in the Bible? reply unabashed: O there is much in the Bible that is no longer applicable! or, All that is true is not in the Bible. Zinzendorf.
7. On Jer 8:9. Ghislerus here remarks that the concionatores bene prdicantes sed male operantes are put to shame and judged by the progress in wisdom and virtue of their hearers. He adduces a passage from the 18th Sermon of Bernard on the Song of Solomon, where it is said that the preacher should be concha not canalis. Hic pne simul et recipit et refundit; illa vero donec impleatur exspectat, et sic quod superabundat sine suo damno communicat.
8. On Jer 8:13. Compare here Luk 13:6 sqq. and the New Years hymn of Rambach, One year after another comes, especially Jer 8:3. Hew down, said He, the barren tree, etc.
9. On Jer 8:14. Despair is the last point to which God in His just judgments allows the godless to fall (Mat 27:4; Mat 27:6). Despairing men know indeed Gods just judgment concerning them, but not so that they are penitent for their sins (Gen 4:13-14), Starke.
10. On Jer 8:16. In accordance with the view widely extended among the church fathers and supported by Gen 49:17 (see Delitzsch ad. h. l.), that the Antichrist should proceed from Dan (comp. also Lev 24:11 and the supposed origin of Judas Iscariot from the tribe of Dan). Irenus (Adv. Hr. V. 30) remarks on this passage: Jeremias non solum subitaneum Antichristi adventum sed et tribum, ex quo veniet, manifestavit dicens; ex Dan audiemus vocem velocitatis equorum ejus, etc. Et propter hoc non adnumeratur tribus hc in Apocalypsi (Jer 7:5-8) cum his qu salvantur.
11. On Jer 8:16. As the snorting of the horses sounded long before in the ears of the prophet, so shall the voice of Christ forever sound in our ears: Arise ye dead and come to judgment. Cramer.
12. On Jer 8:17. Frustra ad Deum preces fundunt adversus serpentem antiquum qui Dei prcepta contemserint. Ghislerus.
13. On Jer 8:21. Our connection with those who hear us continually is so full, so intimate, so tender, no one can understand it who has not experienced it. We get love, we get somewhat from the heart, which was broken for its enemies, and which could cry even on the cross: Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Zinzendorf.
14. On Jer 8:22. A pastor of a separatistic spirit cannot make many things whole, and it will be better for him to testify in earnest for the building up of those whom he would rather see pulled down.He who will help his religion must regard it not as a Babylon, but as a broken Zion, and this from his heart; then he asks for salve and help, then he mourns for the hurt of Joseph. Zinzendorf.
15. On Jer 8:22. Non solum in prsenti loco, sed et in multis aliis testimoniis scripturarum invenimus resinam Galaad pro pnitentia poni atque medicamine, mirarique nunc Deum, quare vulnera Jerusalem nequaquam curata sint, et necdum cicatrices obduxerint cutem, eo quod non sint prophet nec sacerdotes, quorum debeant curari medicamine. Jerome.
16. On Jer 9:1. The tears of Jeremiah are a prelude and type of the tears which the Lord wept over Jerusalem. Luk 19:41. As the blood of Abel cried to heaven so do these tears, and it is here first truly manifest how ruinous it is for men when the servants of God exercise their office among them not with joy but with sighs (Heb 13:17).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 8:4-9. An earnest admonition to all who know that they are walking in perverse ways. They are admonished 1. to uprightness. They are (a) not to palliate their sins, (b) least of all to palliate them by a false interpretation of the divine word, either . themselves or . allow others to do it (Jer 8:8-9).2. To speedy return, for (a) he who returns betimes may be helped (Jer 8:4 the falling, the erring, Jer 8:7 the migratory birds); (b) but he who wilfully persists goes to ruin (Jer 8:6, the mad stallion). [Henry: Those who persist in sin oppose 1. the dictates of reason (vers 4 and 5), 2. the dictates of conscience (Jer 8:6), 3. the dictates of Providence (the judgment of the Lord, Jer 8:7), 4. the dictates of the written word (Jer 8:8-9).S. R. A.]
2. On Jer 8:4-7. Gods complaint of the impenitence of His people. 1. How far this applies to us; 2. what should awaken us to repentance: 3. what true repentance is. Brandt. Epistelpredigten.
3. On Jer 8:10-13. Signs of the decline and fall of a nation. 1. Avarice reigns. 2. Priests and prophets teaching false worship, hush up and deceive the people with false comfort. Deacon Hauber, in Palmers Casual-Reden. 2te Folge. I. Stuttgardt, 1860.
4. On Jer 8:18-22. In times of great distress in the church this text gives us occasion to consider I. Zions complaint. This Isaiah 1. (in its subject) (a) general (Jer 8:19, a), (b) special, of the true servants of the church (Jer 8:21; Jer 9:1); 2. (in its object) directed (a) to being (for the moment) forsaken (Jer 8:19 b), (b) to the delay of help (Jer 8:20). II. Zions guilt (Jer 8:19 b). III. Zions salvation. This is conditioned (a) by the presence of the true means of salvation (word and sacraments), (b) by the true application of the same.
5. On Jer 8:20-22. The question of the divine word in our harvest-complaint and the answer of the divine word to our harvest-question. 1. Our harvest-complaint runs thus: the harvest is past, the summer is ended and no help is come to us. Then Gods word asks thee: (a) What is at fault? Is it not thy sin? (b) Is it really true that there was no help for thee? 2. Our harvest question runs: Is there then no salve in Gilead? Or is there no physician there? Why then is not the daughter of my people healed? To this the word of God answers: (a) O yes, salve and physician are there. The salve is the word of the fathers and the physician is thy Lord. (b) It is because the salve and the physician are not employed that our people are not healed. Florey, 1862.
6. [On Jer 8:20. 1. Every person who still remains in sin may at the close of the year usefully adopt this lamentation. 2. A season of religious revival is also eminently a time of harvest, and such as lose this season may usefully adopt this lamentation. 3. Another situation to which this melancholy reflection is peculiarly liable is that of a dying sinner. DwightThere is in this text I. The acknowledgment of opportunity. II. The confession of neglect. III. The anticipation of doom. J. W. W.S. R. A.]
7. [On Jer 8:22. I. Sin prevails as a disease. It is (a) hereditary, (b) pervading, (c) vital and inveterate, (d) deceitful, (e) often painful, (f) mortal. II. There is a physician. III. How then does this condition exist? Because men are (a) insensible of need, (b) disposed to procrastinate, (c) will not take the remedy simply. Dr. A. Thomson, of Edinburgh.S. R. A.]
8. [On Jer 9:1. The same word in Hebrew signifies both the eye and a fountain, as if in this land of sorrows our eyes were designed rather for weeping than seeing. Henry.S. R. A.]
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
The Prophet is going on with the same Sermon, in the same strain and on the same subject. The Chapter is made up of reproof and lamentation.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
It is more than probable, that the ransacking of the sepulchres of the kings of Israel and Judah by the enemy, was more in their view to find treasure, than to show contempt. David’s grave we are told by an ancient historian, Hicarnus, had three thousand talents of gold and silver in it. But what designs soever the enemy had; the Lord’s over-ruling it, was for punishment. What could have been more humbling, or more distressing! And indeed we are told the effect wrought by it, was dreadful? so that death rather than life, became the wish of the people. Reader! let us learn from it, how awful it must be, to have God for our enemy? When he permits the enemy to govern; alas! how truly tyrannical they govern!
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Balm in Gilead
Jer 8:21-22
The lament of a good man over the sins of his countrymen.
I. The Nature of the Malady.
1. Hereditary. ‘By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.’
2. Universal. ‘All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.’
3. Dangerous. ‘The wages of sin is death.’
II. The Means of Cure. The medicine here referred to is a resinous substance obtained from the balsam-tree, which flourished near Gilead, and was far-famed for its healing properties; often sold for twice its weight in silver. Obtained by cutting the bark with an axe when the fresh juices were most vigorous. The quantity which exuded from one tree did not exceed sixty drops a day. The Gospel is the cure for sin-sick souls. This is:
4. An infallible remedy.
5. The only infallible remedy.
6. A remedy within the reach of all.
III. The Reasons Why the Cure is Not Effected. Why does the Gospel fail? It is not Christ’s fault, but ours.
7. Insensibility and indifference on the part of the sinner.
8. Apathy and neglect on the part of the disciples of Christ.
F. J. Austin, Seeds and Saplings, p. 24.
References. VIII. 22. Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. 1894, p. 301. W. M. Punshon, Balm in Gilead, Sermons, p. 513; see also Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 245. IX. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2274. IX. 1 . Ibid. vol. iii. No. 150. A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book for All Ages, p. 7.
Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson
Accusations and Penalties
Jeremiah 8-9
These chapters are full of accusation. The point is, that the accusation was not directed against heathen nations; it is hurled against the chosen of God. There is a certain kind of accusation in which there is comfort. Where the indictment is severe, it is evident that the expectation has been high, and God never expects much except where he has sown much. Therefore it may come to pass that the very gravity and poignancy of the accusation may be suggestive of real comfort, and may form a ground of hope, provided that the divine conditions of return be acknowledged and realised. The collapse was almost fatal:
“Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return” ( Jer 8:5 ).
We can hardly tell how much is expressed in the original terms, “a perpetual backsliding,” that is to say, a multiplication of backsliding; one within another, and one beyond another, the whole proceeding as if by geometrical figure and arithmetical progression. It is not a slip that is indicated, a momentary lapse; it is a banqueting in evil, a licking of the lips after a savoury feast at the table of the devil. We cannot tell how it looked to heaven. This we know, that the language of the text would never have been employed if the circumstances had not been provocative of so complete an impeachment. But the accusation is not in general terms only; it is therefore detailed; instead of the solid sentence we have the sharp line; we have the iniquity item by item, each like a pointed instrument. Let us see:
“I hearkened and heard [Lit. I listened to hear], but they spake not aright” ( Jer 8:6 ).
The figure is a graphic and vivid one; it is that of the divine Being stooping from heaven, and with inclined ear listening critically yet hopefully to human speech, if mayhap there be but one bright word, one tone of music, one sigh of contrition. The Lord did not listen generally, promiscuously, as if listening to a confused noise of sound; but he listened specifically, he tried every word, he detained every syllable, if haply he could detect in it one sound or sign that he might construe hopefully. But it was in vain. Even divinest kindness could make nothing but black ingratitude of all the energetic speech: it was a torrent cf iniquity; it was a river black, foul; it was a rain of poison. God does not bring these charges against the human family lightly. What he would have said had there been one sign of penitence or reverence or desire after the true worship! He would have forgotten all the blackness if he had seen one point of light. It is his delight to magnify that which is excellent. If any one man had prayed aright, he would have forgiven the world on that one man’s account. If ten men had turned their faces hopefully to heaven, he would have spared the universe a century longer; he would have disappointed gaping hell. But there was no encouragement. God can see flowers if there are any. He can see them before they open their mystery, and proclaim in fragrance their gospel; he knows where they are sown and planted. But he looked, and there was none; he expected, and was struck to the heart with disappointment; “no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?” There was no self-cross-examination. When men cease to soliloquise they cease to pray. The hardest witness man undertakes to interrogate is his own soul. Yet philosophy has found out the advantages of self-inquest. The Pythagoreans asked themselves once a day, “What have I done?” The inquiry creates a space in the day for itself, makes one inch of piping-ground in the desert of the day’s life. How few men dare probe themselves with that inquiry! It is a question double-edged. It is recorded of Cicero, in pressing one of his accusations against an adversary, that he told that adversary that if he had but put two words to himself he might have cooled his passion, controlled his desires, and turned his impulses to high utility. Said the orator, “If thou hadst said to thyself, Quid ego ? thou mightest have stopped thyself in this tremendous assault.” That is, What have I done? What do I? What is my course? What are the facts of the case? A man has to fight the great battle for himself. It is useless to be holding great controversies outside whilst yet the heart itself is in tumult and rebellion and disorder of every kind. This is what Jesus Christ means when he says a man must hate his own life. The word that thus comes to point a climax might have been laid down as the foundation of an argument; for no man can hate his father and mother, and brother and sister, and wife until he first hates his own life puts it right within, gets hold of things by the right end, and governs all things by one dominant and solemn meaning. How stands the case now? Does any man put the question to himself once a day, What have I done? Every man should keep a diary not perhaps a written journal; that may be mechanical: but there should be a diurnal inquest into purpose, thought, desire, intention, what did it all mean? He who thus brings himself at dawn under discipline walks along a victor’s path even until the sunset. But to have no right self-understanding, no grip of the soul itself, is to waste life, is to live a chance life, is to depend upon speculations and fortunes and accidents, and therefore to be stung by fatal disappointments.
What further occurred? The collapse was so complete that God asks this question,
“Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?” ( Jer 8:12 )
“Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered” ( Jer 8:22 ).
This may be read in two ways as an inquiry charged with pity, or as an inquiry which shows that even Gilead itself is unable to touch such wounds as have been self-inflicted. “Is there no balm in Gilead?” is first of all a local reference. There was a balsam tree in Gilead, the juice of which was supposed to be able to heal all wounds. In an early translation of the Bible the word “balm” is rendered “triacle,” whence we have the English “treacle,” is there no balsam, no triacle, no treacle, in Gilead? So precious was it that it was only to be found in the gardens of the king. The balm did not grow elsewhere in Gilead. It was a king’s plant, a royal treasure, a peculiar blessing. A very sensitive plant, too. It did not know iron; if so much as iron touched it, it shrank like a wounded thing and died like: that which is afflicted with despair. This tree must be incised with wood or bone or glass; and so efficacious was the balm against contusions and wounds, that it obtained a reputation as the: healing balsam; and the voice now rings out, “Is there no balm in Gilead?” is the disease too bad for Gilead’s balsam? That is possible. It is possible to foster the disease, to increase its virulence, that no mineral, no vegetable, no balm made of either or of both, can touch its deadliness. Surely that is a state of extremity in which a man has so treated his flesh that all the remedies of science fall back and say, We cannot touch so awful a disease as that. The figure is that we may outdo the very love of God in sin. Blessed be God, that is in one sense impossible; but only impossible because of God, not because of ourselves. We are cunning artificers in evil. We have written down numerous things we could do without man knowing that they are being done. We are wits in evil; we are sharp in all moral invention that tends towards the soul’s destruction; we have a genius of apostasy; we can always do something worse. Then comes this word: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” words that are often misunderstood. They mean that a time had been specially set for God’s redemption and for providential deliverance, and the time prophesied had come and gone, and there was no sign from heaven. The words, however, are capable of a very tender moral application that may not be strictly grammatical and yet is strictly human and evangelical. It is possible to get through the summer without being saved.
It is possible so to trample underfoot the harvest as to have no bread in winter. The season comes like an offered gospel first a gospel of labour that should be profitable; then a gospel of result that should be hopeful, which soon will be realised for we must not reap or pluck too soon; then a gospel of fruition, abundance, a very harvest of realisation. The text may be so used as to represent a soul saying, I have had my seedtime chance, my summer opportunity, my harvest offers; I have let them all go by, and now I cannot eat the ice or drink the snow, or live upon the cold wind; it is gone, the opportunity is over: what can I do with the inhospitableness of winter?
Such being the accusation, what are the punishments?
“And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the Lord of hosts” ( Jer 8:3 ).
Who can search the judgments of God? Who can set forth in order all the resources of penal justice? Better draw the curtain, better pray; for it is God’s delight to chase away all such blackness, and to enthrone the sun in the meridian, and to give the earth all its dowry of light. Then again:
“Behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord” ( Jer 8:17 ).
“And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity” ( Jer 9:5 ).
In ancient fable one man rebukes another for building a house upon the ground rather than upon wheels; for, said he, suppose the time should ever come when you should distrust your neighbour, how can you get away from him if your house be rooted in the ground? whereas, had your house been erected upon wheels, you might have moved away from the circuit of his influence. The time will come when every one will deceive his own neighbour, play tricks with the man next door, cheat his own flesh and bone. We read of the Italians having a peculiar pocket-stone bow, which can be covered with a cloak, and behind it a man can be darting needles into the body of his adversary that should wound the. vitals and yet scarcely leave a distinguishable mark on the flesh. What is that but a common, vulgar species of murder or assassination compared with this: “They will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth”? They will tell lies to their brethren, they will shoot out these deadly needles into the souls of men, and all the while look complacent, fraternal, benignant. Terrific is the power of human iniquity. “They have taught their tongue to speak lies;” they have become rhetoricians in falsehood; they have said, Speak this lie trippingly on the tongue. They know when to whisper their evil message, and when to thunder their false declarations, and when by over-positiveness to make their lie the more obvious. There are skilled tongues; there is a cultured eloquence of falsehood.
What is the punishment?
“Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them” ( Jer 9:15-16 ).
If there is to be challenge which God forbid heaven will not decline the combat. What can he do who fights a fire with straw? What can an arm of flesh do against heaven’s artillery? Is the Church as wicked now? Who dare answer that question? Are punishments as numerous and solemn? Certainly. Is our harvest past, is our summer ended? No. We are in the very middle of our opportunities: “Now is the accepted time, now is the day of salvation;” “If ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness.” May men pray this very moment? Yes. Is it needful to pray long? No. What prayer will do? This: “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Is that enough? Quite: but only enough when spoken with the heart, when spoken at the Cross, when sobbed rather than articulated. Is the punishment now done? No:
“For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets”( Jer 9:21 ).
How graphic is this picture! We have bolted the doors so that death cannot enter; we have opened the windows so that we may not be without fresh air; and, behold, death is climbing towards the open casement. “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.” God knows all our arrangements, and accommodates his penal visitations to them. Oh that men were wise, that they understood these things!
We might treat all this as ancient history, if we did not feet its modern application if we did not know that nothing can be changed here except it be the mere metaphor, the mere clothing of words. The inner meaning is the same. The accusation of shortcoming or falsehood, of hardness of heart, abides, and takes the expression of the language of every country as sufficient to indicate the gravity and completeness of the impeachment. The punishment is signified by Hebrew figures and local circumstances, but the punishment itself is not changed. There is still a cockatrice in the conscience; there is still a bite as of iron teeth through the very centre of the heart; there is still that spectre by the bedside at midnight which opens its armoury of teeth and says nothing, but looks looks looks! There is still that most terrible shadow that comes across the feast, so that the choicest mouthful is full of sickness and every enjoyment becomes a surfeit, and the banquet ends in satiety; there is still that dislike of solitude, because when we sit alone a black figure comes and sits by our side, and says nothing, but looks looks looks! There is that dead face, that broken heart, that lie half a century old, that fraud, so successful that we banked ten thousand pounds through it five-and-twenty years ago. The air is full of damnation. Fools are they who change the word and make a quarrel about adjectives and qualifying terms, when they are called upon to deal with the inner and unchangeable reality. God shall judge, thou whited sepulchre!
But does the whole speech end in accusation? It God has piled accusation heaven-high, it is that he may come over it as over a mountain to preach a gospel to us. Though your sins be as scarlet, though they be as crimson, though they be as blackest night sevenfold, they can be treated, they can be met; you can be born again, a little child, and taken by Christ into his arms, and kissed and blessed, and set down again to go about life’s business with a new heart and a new hope. “Fly abroad, thou mighty gospel!”
Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker
VI
SERMONS ON THE TEMPLE WORSHIP
Jeremiah 7-10; Jer 26
These events occurred in the earliest half of the reign of Jehoiakim, about 607 or 606 B.C. Though the nation was going back to idolatry, the Temple ceremonies and sacrifices were carried on with great zeal and elaborateness. The people seemed to put their trust in the Temple rather than in God who dwelt therein. They believed that the sacrifices themselves availed much, and that their salvation was secure, if they performed these services. The relation of their conduct to their worship did not seem to trouble them. Jeremiah heard God’s call to preach to them in the very Temple itself, to preach to the multitude of worshipers that thronged these courts. He seized upon the occasion of a great feast, when the multitude was the greatest and addressed the throng on the necessity of a better life with their worship. Jeremiah was in the Temple that is called the house of Jehovah. There was unquestionably a large concourse of people gathered together. Some suggest that the purpose of that assembly may have been to consider means of defense in the face of impending disaster upon the nation. It may have occurred sometime when Jehoiakim had been compelled to pay tribute to a foreign king.
Jeremiah speaks to the people a message of warning: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.” Then he gives them some very suggestive advice, some very earnest words of warning: “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah.” That is very suggestive. It is a warning to people who are trusting in the external, the ceremonial and the ritual; that these avail nothing where the spirit and the heart are lacking. They believed, because they had the Temple of Jehovah and kept up its ceremonies, that it would stand for ever and that God would protect them for the Temple’s sake. Jeremiah prophesied that the Temple would be destroyed. Less than twenty years afterward these words of the prophet were fulfilled. The Temple was destroyed. But these people said, “It is impossible that this temple should be destroyed, for it is the temple of Jehovah.” They were saying, “The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah!” This is a blow against all heathen religions, and also the Roman Catholic religion. The people were trusting in the ceremonies and externals: “The temple of Jehovah! The temple of Jehovah! The temple of Jehovah!” The prophet demanded that they change their life; that they turn from their wickedness, else the Temple would be no good to them.
The prophet here charged them with all kinds of sin: with falsehood, with lying, with deceit, with murder, and with idolatry of various kinds. They were like the Negro woman who was accused of a certain sin and when asked, “How can you do that?” she replied: “Well, I never lets that interfere with my religion.” These people divorced morals and religion. They never let their religion interfere with their conduct. Furthermore, the prophet charged them with making their beautiful Temple, in which they were trusting, a “den of robbers.” That is the same condition that Jesus found about 600 years later. He said, “Ye have made my Father’s house a den of thieves.” The people were saying, “It is impossible for the Temple to be destroyed; God will defend his house.” But the prophet reminds them that God did destroy his house: Remember the days of Eli and his sons, and Samuel yonder at Shiloh; that God destroyed Shiloh where the tabernacle was then. This is the only direct reference we have to the destruction of Shiloh. The ark of the covenant was captured, and the tabernacle is heard of later as stationed at Gibeon and later on was stored in the Temple. God destroyed their dwelling place at Shiloh and he can destroy it in Jerusalem. That is the lesson here.
The result of that sermon is recorded in Jer 26 . In that chapter Jeremiah or Baruch writes down what the prophet had said, not the same words exactly but the substance of it. The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of Jehovah. Then they, the ecclesiastical leaders, began a persecution. They were the parties that were directly concerned, because they administered the Temple worship and services, and if the Temple were to be destroyed, they would be out of work, and thus they took offense at the words of Jeremiah. They did not enjoy his going around and threatening the destruction of their church house and thus put them out of business.
Now, it was the same in the days of Christ. It was the ecclesiastical leaders who began the persecution against him. It was the chief priests, the scribes and the rabbis that were aroused because he rebuked them for burying the law under their traditions. So it was here. These priests and prophets (false prophets) were enraged at this kind of preaching and they laid hold of Jeremiah and said, “Thou shalt surely die.” The persecution of Stephen is a parallel case. They attempted to prove against Stephen the charge that he had spoken against the Temple; that he had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and against “This holy place.” The Sanhedrin asked him, “Are these things so?” He admitted the statement and that was sufficient charge in their minds. But he went on to prove to them that God might be worshiped without a Temple; that he had been worshiped in many places besides Jerusalem. That was adding crime to crime, and so they killed him.
Jeremiah was in the hands of the priests and prophets, and was in imminent danger. They were about to kill him, but there was another class of men, not there at the time, but they heard of it. These were the princes of Judah who heard the confusion, hurried from the king’s house to the house of Jehovah, and heard these priests and prophets about their charges against Jeremiah, saying that he was worthy of death. Jeremiah made his defense (Jer 7:12 ). His defense was that Jehovah sent him to prophesy. He says that God commanded him to say to them that they must amend their ways. Then he went on to say that he had told them the truth and that he was in their hands; that they could do with him as they would, “Only know ye for certain that, if ye put me to death, ye will bring innocent blood upon this city and upon yourselves and the inhabitants of the land, for God hath sent me to say these things to you.” Jeremiah did not take back a word.
There is no doubt that if it had not been for the princes and the people who were on his side he would have immediately been put to death. Certain elders of the land rose up and spake to the people. They said, “No, don’t be rash. You remember that Micah, the prophet, prophesied that Zion should be destroyed, and although he prophesied thus, Hezekiah, the king, and the people did not put him to death.” These men remind us of Gamaliel. Then they tell the story of another occasion. He did not fare so well as Micah. There was a different king upon the throne. Jehoiakim was now at the helm. He it was who with wicked hands took the prophecy of Jeremiah, God’s holy message, and cut it to pieces and burned it. He did not stop till he put the prophet, Uriah, to death. He fled to Egypt but the king brought him back and executed him.
The outcome of this was that Jeremiah was saved. He eacaped these enraged priests and prophets through the influence of the princes. They were men of influence and power, and they took his part in the face of his enemies. He had a particular among the princes, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, who was chiefly instrumental in rescuing him. Intercession for this people is now useless, Jer 7:16 : “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me.” Jeremiah could not save Judah and Jerusalem. No man could do it. Not even Jesus Christ could save the wicked land and city in his day. Savonarola could not save Florence. So the day of opportunity had passed for Jerusalem.
Their idolatry is described in Jer 7:17-20 : “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” This was in the reign of Jehoiakim. It could not have occurred in the reign of Josiah. “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven,” probably Ashtoreth. They made cakes doubtless in the shape of that queen, as we, in our childhood, made cakes in the shape of men. So they made their cakes in honor of their heathen goddess. Jer 7:19-20 show the result of such conduct.
The import of Jer 7:21-26 is that the basis of the law is obedience, not ceremony. In Jer 7:21 is a touch of sarcasm: “Add your burnt offerings.” This is like Isaiah and Amos, who exhort the people to increase their religious efforts that were but dead forms. Amos says, “Come to Gilgal and transgress.”
Jer 7:22 says, “I spake not unto your fathers, when I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices: this is the thing that I commanded them saying, Hearken unto my voice.” Now, the critics take that as one of their strong points. They maintain that it plainly says that ceremonial legislation of the Pentateuch was not given by Moses but that it was written later. They refer to this with great boldness saying, “Does not Jeremiah, the prophet, plainly say that God did not speak unto Moses or the fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices down in Egypt or in the wilderness?” When Israel came out of Egypt, the nature of the covenant made between God and Israel was as follows: “If ye will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then indeed ye shall be mine own possession from among the peoples, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Exo 19:5-6 ). And we are told in Jer 7:8 that the people promised, saying, “All the words of Jehovah we will do.” Now, the basis of that covenant on the part of Israel was obedience. The basis on God’s part was grace. “If ye will obey my voice,” is an expression of grace, an overture that is not deserved. It is free and voluntary on God’s part. “If ye will do what I tell you, I will be to you all that is needed.” The people said, “We will obey the covenant.”
So it was made, and Jeremiah was right when he said, “I spake not to your fathers in the wilderness concerning sacrifices and burnt offerings, but this I said, Obey my voice.” The Ten Commandments were given as a standard of obedience and faith. They showed the people wherein they might obey God’s voice. The condition is there laid down and their acceptance implies faith and love on their part. That is the foundation principle of Christianity itself. In this passage it is clear that Jeremiah makes a great contrast between ceremony and obedience.
Jeremiah (Jer 7:27-28 ) goes on to describe the unbroken disobedience of the people. They had continued in disobedience ever since they had been in the land of Canaan. Next we have the lament of Jeremiah over the destruction, Jer 7:29-34 : “Cut off thy hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation. The people have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name. They have burned their sons and their daughters in the fire, therefore behold the days shall come that it shall no more be called the valley of Topheth, nor the valley of Himom, but the valley of slaughter. The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and gladness, the bridegroom and the bride, for the land shall become a waste.”
In Jer 8:1-3 Jeremiah shows that these barbarians who were coming, were going to be so ruthless that they would not stop with the killing of the living, but they would break open the graves of the kings of Judah, the princes, the mighty men and the prophets and would tear their bodies out of their graves and desecrate them. Now, that was the highest indignity on an Oriental, for the grave of his dead is sacred. Yet these barbarians would go even to that extremity.
In Jer 8:4-9 the prophet again exposes the wickedness of the people and points to the exile that is not to be averted. Many similar passages we have already examined. There are repetitions in Jeremiah. They would not repent and obey the word of the Lord, therefore this punishment is coming. “How do ye say, We are wise, and the Law of Jehovah is with us?” “Our scribes have been reading the Law until they have mastered it.” That is just what they did in the days of Jesus. They had covered up the commandments of the Law by their traditions. They had added many things, too. In verse Jer 8:12 he asks, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? Nay, they were not ashamed.” Then Jeremiah described the enemy approaching: “The snorting of the horses is at the gate,” and so he goes on with his description of the foe coming upon the land. In Jer 18:22 we have that lament which we have already studied before: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” “Oh, that my head were a fountain of water that I might weep rivers of tears!”
We have a graphic picture in Jer 9:3-9 : “They bend their tongues as a bow is bent.” A bow is made to bend. That is the purpose for which it is made. The idea is that they use their tongues as if they were made for lying. They speak falsehood as if that was the main use of the tongue. The people are so corrupt that they lie as if that were the normal way of speaking.
The picture of Jer 9:10-16 is a picture of the impending devastation. Note the language of the prophet in Jer 9:11 ; Jer 9:13 , Jer 9:16 : “And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant . . . And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; . . . I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.” The call of Jer 9:17-22 is a call for the female mourners. They are called upon to mourn and lament because of the destruction: “Call for the mourning women that they may come, and for the skillful women. Let them take up a wailing for us.” There was soon an occasion for it.
The contrast of Jer 9:23-24 is a contrast between true and false glorying. Here is a marvelous text and a great subject: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth me.” What is he to glory in? Not in human power and worth but in the knowledge of Jehovah who is powerful and loving. That is like the apostle Paul who said, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ.” There was no cross of Christ in Jeremiah’s time, but the idea is much the same. The knowledge of God, such a God as Jehovah, is the summum bonum of life, the highest object of human glorying.
The prophecy of Jer 9:25-26 is a prophecy of the punishment of the nations. Some of the heathen nations were to be punished with Judah, and the prophecy of Jer 10:1-16 is a prophecy concerning idols, a distinct prophecy. It is a description of the idols of the heathen nations, a magnificent portrayal of the vanity of heathen worship, in contrast with the glorious worship of Jehovah. The critics claim that this passage was not written by Jeremiah, but long after him. It is very much like Isaiah 40-44, and they claim that it was not written till after those chapters were written, between 400 and 200 B.C. Now, that is a mere guess. Isaiah wrote chapters Isaiah 40-44 and Jeremiah wrote this later. He was probably writing to the exiles. Though God’s people were in Babylon, Jeremiah addressed this passage to them to exhort them to remain faithful to Jehovah in the midst of heathen worship.
Now, it is significant that Jer 10:11 is in Aramaic, not Hebrew. There are many explanations by critics and scholars of this phenomenon. Some say that it is a corruption of the text. Others that it is a marginal note crept into the text. Others say that it is an instruction given to the exiles in Babylon, which is highly probable. They spoke Aramaic and not Hebrew. So this passage would enable them to have a ready argument to meet the advocates of idol worship. In the Aramaic the people would understand it, and could readily use it in argument for their own worship.
We have a prophetic picture in Jer 10:17-25 . In this section he pictures the coming exiles. The people are bidden to gather together their wares and belongings, and prepare to go into exile. There was a time when their punishment might have been averted but it is too late now. The hour has come, the shepherds are worthless, the foe approaches from the North. Their heathen neighbors who have done great evil against the nation of Israel shall be punished. The prophet asks Jehovah to pour out his wrath upon them.
QUESTIONS
1. What is the date and occasion of these prophecies?
2. What warning did Jeremiah here announce, and what remedy did he prescribe?
3. What charge did the prophet prefer against them, what example in their history did he cite and what it-s lesson?
4. What is the result of this sermon as recorded in Jer 26 and what the final outcome? Discuss fully.
5. How is the doom of Jerusalem indicated in Jer 7:16 and what other similar cases?
6. How is their idolatry described in Jer 7:17-20 and what the result?
7. What the import of Jer 7:21-26 , what the critics’ contention with respect to it, and what the reply?
8. How is their disobedience described in Jer 7:27-28 , what the lamentation of Jeremiah and what the prophecy here of their doom?
9. What great indignity here prophesied against the people of Judah and Jerusalem?
10. What is the prophet’s message, warning and lamentation in Jer 8:4-9:2 ?
11. What is the picture of Jer 9:3-9 ?
12. What is the picture of Jer 9:10-16 ?
13. What is the call of Jer 9:17-22 ?
14. What is the contrast of Jer 9:23-24 ?
15. What is the prophecy of Jer 9:25-26 ?
16. What is the prophecy of Jer 10:1-16 , what say the entice of this passage and what the reply?
17. What is the prophetic picture in Jer 10:17-25 ?
Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible
Jer 8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
Ver. 1. At that time they shall bring out the bones. ] They shall not suffer the dead to rest in their graves, maxime propter ornamenta in sepulchris condita, chiefly for the treasure the Chaldees shall there look for. See 2Ch 36:19 Neh 2:3 ; Joseph. Antiq., lib. xiii. c. 15. /Apc Bar 2:24. For extremity of despite also, dead men’s bones have been digged up. Pope Formosus was so dealt with by his successor, Stephanus VI, a and many of the holy martyrs by their barbarous persecutors. Cardinal Pool had a purpose to have taken up King Henry VIII’s body at Windsor, and to have burned it, but was prevented by death. b Charles V would not violate Luther’s grave, though he were solicited so to do when he had conquered Saxony. But if he had, it had been never the worse with Luther; who, being asked where he would rest, answered, Sub coelo: coelo tegitur qui caret urna. Under the sky: the sky is the covering for those who lose their funeral urn. Of all fowl, we most hate and detest the crows; and of all beasts the jackals, a kind of foxes in Barbary; because the one digs up the graves and devours the flesh, the other picketh out the eyes of the dead.
a A.D. 897.
b Acts and Mon., 1905. Ibid., 1784.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 8
Jer 8
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 8:1-3
1At that time, declares the LORD, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. 2They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served, and which they have gone after and which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground. 3And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have driven them, declares the LORD of hosts.
Jer 8:1 they will bring out the bones Notice how the entire population is mentioned by a series of different groups.
1. kings of Judah
2. its princes
3. priests
4. the prophets
5. the inhabitants of Jerusalem
This act of bringing out the bones of buried Judeans has the following symbolic meaning:
1. the invaders were looking for buried valuables
2. it is connected with the astral worship of Babylon (cf. Jer 8:2)
3. it was a cultural act of hatred and contempt for conquered Judah (cf. Amo 2:1)
Jer 8:2 They will spread them out to the sun, the moon and to all the host of heaven Jer 8:2 shows how involved the Judeans were in astral worship. The VERBS (series of Qal PERFECTS) tell the whole story.
1. loved
2. served
3. gone after
4. sought
5. worshiped
The term host of heaven (BDB 838 CONSTRUCT 1029) is used for the worship of the stars, planets, moon, and sun (cf. Deu 4:19; Deu 17:2-20; 2Ki 23:4-5; 2Ki 23:11; Zep 1:5; Jer 19:13; Jer 32:29).
They will not be gathered or buried; they will be as dung on the face of the ground This obviously refers to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is one reason why many see the context as running from Jer 7:1 through Jer 8:3. It was a horror to the Jews to remain unburied. They somehow thought that their afterlife was affected by a proper burial (see IVP Bible Background Commentary, p. 649). The metaphor they will be as dung on the face of the ground is a very striking allusion to their bodies becoming (1) fertilizer or (2) food for animals.
Jer 8:3 And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family Something of the pain of exile can be seen in this hyperbole and in Psalms 137.
For the term remnant see Special Topic: The Remnant, Three Senses .
all the places to which I have driven them YHWH is the one who allowed, even instigated, Judah’s exile!
the LORD of hosts This is probably a play on the phrase the host of heaven, found in Jer 8:2. It was YHWH, not the planets and stars, who was the creator, sustainer, and guider of the universe (cf. Psa 19:1-6; Neh 9:6). See Special Topic: NAMES FOR DEITY .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
saith the LORD = [is] Jehovah’s oracle.
bones. Note the Figure of speech Repetitio, for emphasis.
and. Note the Figure of speech Polysyndeton, to emphasize each class as responsible for the corruption and apostasy.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 8
At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants, out of their graves: And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life by the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts ( Jer 8:1-3 ).
Now he talks about them worshipping the sun, the moon, the host of heaven. But this verse Jer 8:3 is interesting to me, “Death shall be chosen rather than life by the residue of them that remain of this evil family.” And the last of the Jews to hold out against the Roman government were in Masada, and this was a prophecy fulfilled as they chose death rather than life and committed mass suicide at Masada rather than to be taken by the Romans. And so that was the final residue of those that remained prior to the dispersion by the Roman government. The final residue of people chose death rather than life.
Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return again? ( Jer 8:4 )
In other words, though they’re going to be wiped out, the last of those that remain will choose to commit suicide rather than be taken captive. Yet God said, “I will return. I will deal with them again.” Oh, the patience of God and the grace of God as He promises even though they have failed, He will be true and faithful and He will gather them again in the last days.
Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return. I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle. Now, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but the people know not the judgment of the LORD ( Jer 8:5-7 ).
Even the animals have certain instinctive knowledge. “But My people,” God said, “are refusing to obey the conscience of their own hearts.” It’s been planted there. God has put His Word in each man in his heart, but men refuse even those basic instincts of good and evil, right and wrong. Now the swallow returns every year to Capistrano. He knows the days. He observes the times. They have an instinctive, built-in kind of a little guidance computer system. But here people, infinitely wiser than the animals, yet disobeying that inner conscience that God has placed in each man.
How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain [he gave it or] he made it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; so what wisdom is really in them? ( Jer 8:8-9 )
How can you say you’re wise? We’ve got the law of the Lord. “God gave the law,” he said, “in vain.” God sent His Son in vain as far as many people are concerned. If you have rejected Jesus Christ as your Saviour, God sent His Son to die in vain. And the death of Jesus Christ is in vain as far as you are concerned. It is only as you have received Jesus Christ that it becomes valid and meaningful.
For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no more grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defensed cities, and let us be silent: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold there was trouble! The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan ( Jer 8:11-16 ):
Babylonian armies moving down from the upper area of Dan.
the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and they have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? ( Jer 8:16-22 )
So God’s lament now and God’s crying over this situation. And I think the saddest lament in the whole Bible is this in verse Jer 8:20 where God declares, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, they are not saved.” Lost, eternally lost. The time of harvest is over. Let me warn you as a servant of God and as His spokesman that the day of harvest is almost over. The summer is almost past. God is winding up very rapidly His program on this planet Earth. The day of salvation will soon be over. Paul said, “The night is far spent, the day is at hand” ( Rom 13:12 ). That is, the new day of God’s kingdom. If you’re not saved, you don’t have much more time to wait. The harvest is almost over. God is about ready to bring things to a climax.
Now how God identifies is beautiful. “For the hurt of the daughter of My people,” God said, “I am hurt.” It hurts God to see these people miss out on what God wants for them. God is hurt when I am walking out of fellowship with Him and thus am losing out on all that He wants to do for me. It hurts God to see me suffering from my own follies. “For the hurt of My people,” God said, “I am hurt.”
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Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 8:1-2. At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves: and they shall spread them before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
This is an awful picture. Here is a nation that would worship the sun, and the moon, and the stars, instead of worshipping God. Here they are, and their bones lie exposed to the sun and moon and stars which they had worshipped, dead people before lifeless gods. This is all that idolatry produces for the ruined people who have turned away from their true Friend and Helper; their bones lie exposed in the presence of the things that they made to be their gods. How dreadful is the result of sin! No matter what modern preachers say, a sinful course must be a disastrous one. It is in the very nature of things that we cannot go the wrong road, and yet be happy. Wrong must end in wrong, it cannot be otherwise; the universal conviction in the conscience of man teaches us this fact.
Jer 8:3. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
These people would not have God, they cast him off; and now he so far casts them off that they feel that it would have been better for them if they had never been born, and they would rather die than live: Death shall be chosen rather than life.
Jer 8:4. Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
The old proverb says, It is a long lane that has no turning. So the Lord seems to ask, Will these men always go on in sin? Will they always turn away from me? They change from bad to worse; will they never change from worse to better?
Jer 8:5. Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
Perseverance in evil is the very venom of evil. When men not only backslide, but continue perpetually to backslide, they are doubly dyeing their garments in the scarlet of iniquity. When men refuse to return to the Lord, and continue to refuse to return, surely they are digging their own graves exceeding deep.
Jer 8:6. I hearkened and heard,
It is God who is speaking: I hearkened and heard,
Jer 8:6. But they spake not aright:
I tried to discover whether there was any good in them. I listened to hear them offer a prayer, I watched to mark anything like repentance in them.
Jer 8:6. No man repented him of wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
See how God described these people. When he might have expected that some of them would relent, and in their thoughtful moments turn to a better mind, they did not do so; but, as the horse, when he hears the war-trumpet, rushes into the midst of the fray, so did these people go headlong into sin with desperate resolve. Careless of wounds and death, they rushed to their destruction. I hope that this is not the case with any of my hearers at this time; I pray God that it may not be so.
Jer 8:7. Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
The birds take wing across the sea when the damps of autumn come; and, by-and-by, when spring returns, they twitter about our roofs again, punctual to the appointed time. But men come not to God in their season; they fly not from their sins, they return not to the Lord. The crane and the swallow rebuke the foolishness of men who know not the time to return to God, and know not their way back to him.
Jer 8:8-9. How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
This test may serve as a motto for some, in these days, who believe themselves to be wiser than Scripture, and who fancy that, in their great wisdom, they are able to correct this inspired Book! Many set up in the trade of Bible-makers nowadays; they profess to be the revealers of revelation, the improvers of this blessed Book of God. Ah! but this passage still standeth true, They have rejected the word of the Lord; and what wisdom is in them?
Jer 8:10-11. Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely. For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
This is a very mischievous thing. For the preacher of Christ to be honest and fearless, and to speak unpalatable truth, is right in Gods sight; but to gloss over the great facts about sin and judgment, and to say to the ungodly, Oh, do not trouble yourselves! Peace, peace; when there is no peace; this is to murder the souls of men; and I doubt not that the blood of multitudes will be upon the skirts of those teachers who have tried to make everything pleasant to the wicked, and to suit the age in which they lived. The Lord himself says of the prophet and priest who have dealt falsely, They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jer 8:12. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush:
What a striking expression is this! To what a condition of shameless obstinacy have mens minds been brought when it can be said of them, They were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. The very power to be ashamed was taken from them. Surely, almost the last ray of any hope of salvation must be gone from the man who cannot blush at the thought of his own iniquity.
Jer 8:12-18. Therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them. Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defensed cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and give us water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
Because the people refused this testimony, because they seemed set on mischief, and resolved to die, therefore the prophets heart was faint within him.
Jer 8:19-20. Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
I will read that twentieth verse again: The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. This may be the lament of some of my present hearers; and if it be, may they bow now before the Lord in true penitence of heart, and may he in pity save them this very hour! The harvest is past, the summer is ended; but, oh! may they: soon be saved!
Jer 8:21. For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
That is the man to be Gods prophet, the man who makes the sorrows of his people-to be his own sorrows, who does not perform the duties of his office as a mere matter of profession, but enters into his service with a weeping heart, longing to be made a blessing to men.
Jer 8:22. Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?
No; there is none. There is balm in Christ, there is a Physician who once hung on Calvarys cross; but there is no balm and no physician in Gilead. If there were,
Jer 8:22. Why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 12; and Jeremiah 8, and Jer 9:1.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Jer 8:1-3
HE HARVEST IS ENDED, AND THE SUMMER IS PAST.
The title given here comes from Jer 8:20; and it symbolizes the approach of the Chaldean invasion and the hopelessness of any deliverance of the people. All opportunities for repentance and return to God hav been spurned; and the nation is rushing headlong into destruction.
Divisions of the chapter, as made by Feinberg, are as follows; the invaders desecrate the graves (Jer 8:1-3); Israel stubbornly continues in idolatry (Jer 8:4-7); God describes the penalty of their apostasy (Jer 8:8-13); the invaders approach (Jer 8:14-17); the sorrow of the prophet is recorded (Jer 8:18-22).
Jer 8:1-3
At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves; and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried, they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth. And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith Jehovah of hosts.
These verses are actually a continuation of the previous chapter and are so treated by some writers. The desecration of the graves of defeated peoples was widely practiced in antiquity; and there were excellent reasons for it in the case of Judah.
Josephus tells us that: “Solomon buried David with great wealth; … and 1,300 years afterward, Hyrcanus the high priest, when besieged by Antiochus, opened one of the rooms of David’s sepulchre and took out 3,000 talents of gold with which he bribed Antiochus to lift the siege… Also, Herod the king opened another room and took out a great deal of money… But neither of them came near the coffins of the kings themselves, for their bodies were buried under the earth so artfully, that they did not appear even to those entering their monuments.
Dummelow expressed doubts as to the genuine motivation for such wholesale desecration of the Jewish graves, supposing that it might have been, “either from pure wantonness, or in the hope of finding treasures or ornaments of value.” There was more than enough motivation either way. Since the bones of the dead were held in such reverence by the Hebrew people, the Chaldeans would have delighted in the desecration, even if merely for spite to a despised enemy.
The great thing in this paragraph, however, appears in Jer 8:2, where the five-fold engagement of the Jews with “the hosts of heaven,” in their (1) loving them, (2) serving them, (3) walking after them, (4) seeking them, and (5) worshipping them is stressed. Very well, the people through their false leaders have been betrayed into paganism in this worship of the sun, moon, and stars; therefore, the bones of those worshippers are exposed to the sun, moon, and stars, which were utterly helpless to afford any prevention or assistance. Indeed, the sun would only hasten the disintegration and decay of the bones. What an exposition is this of the futility of worshipping the hosts of heaven.
Henderson’s comment on this is: “The objects of idolatrous worship are here introduced as the unconcerned spectators of the indignities offered to the bones of their worshippers!” The five-fold repetition of the word “bones” helps to add a funeral impression to the whole passage.
Death shall be chosen rather than life…
(Jer 8:3). Thompson believed that, This refers (1) either to the unbearable conditions endured in the captivity, or (2) to the memory of the last days in Judah which were too much to bear.
All the residue that remain of this evil family…
(Jer 8:3). Jeremiah here uses the word ‘family’ for the whole Jewish race.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Utter desolation would overtake them so that death would be chosen rather than life. This sin of idolatry had been aggravated by the people’s terrible persistence therein. If men fall it is naturally expected that they will rise, if they wander that they will return. In the case of Jerusalem this had not been so, their backsliding had been perpetual. There was no sign of repentance. The people did not know the ordinance or judgment of the Lord.
Because of this perpetual backsliding the judgment was again pronounced, and with the same care the prophet declared the reason to be their complete corruption, the false healing of their wound by prophet and priest, and their lack of shame. Therefore the judgment was to be complete.
The prophet then voiced the cry of the people in answer to the doom. It was characterized, first, by rebellion against the action of Jehovah, and then by remorse. The message ends with a new declaration of the certainty and imminence of judgment.
The strain of the terrible message on the prophet now became evident as he poured out his soul in lamentation. His perplexity was great, and he was conscious of the offended King, and the unhealing physician, and in his anguish cried out, “Why have they provoked me to anger?”
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
Theirs was a “perpetual backsliding;” and though oft pleaded with, they repented not, but “every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into battle” (Jer 8:5-6).
Though they boasted of their wisdom, they had not the discernment of the migratory birds.
“Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle-dove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but My people know not the judgment of the Lord” (Jer 8:7).
Of the same character was the Lord’s word to the scribes – Can ye not discern the signs of the times?” (Mat 16:3)
Yet they said, “We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us;” (Jer 8:8) but the word of GOD was practically written in vain for them – not denied, as it is not always denied to be His Word today, by many who politely bow it out and profess veneration for it while walking in disobedience to it. “Peace, peace,” (Jer 8:11) such may say, but true peace there is not. Priest and people alike deal falsely with the Sacred Oracles; as a result, the time of visitation cannot be long delayed.
From ver. 14 of chap. 8 to the end of chap 10 we have a most touching lamentation over the fallen estate of the people who have been “put to silence” (Jer 8:14) by GOD; that is, who are so clearly proven to be guilty before Him that they are speechless in His presence.
Jeremiah enters most deeply into all their feelings, even wailing with them, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved” (Jer 8:20).
It is a temporal salvation that is referred to, of course. The day of GOD’s patience with them as a nation is ended, and all hope is now vain. How striking is the impassioned cry, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is not the health of the daughter of My people recovered?” (Jer 8:22) (See also Jer 46:11). Alas, too deep is the wound for Gilead’s balm to heal!
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jer 8:7-8
Our text makes mention of the discrimination of times by the faculty of instinct, and contrasts it favourably with man’s want of discrimination, though endowed with reason.
I. The birds of passage show, in their periodic migrations, their discernment of seasons, and this, both as regards the time of their visiting and the time of their leaving us. Probably some peculiarity in the material structure of the migratory birds renders them extremely sensitive to changes of temperature, and as these changes always recur at certain seasons of the year, they observe seasons, and make a corresponding change in their places of abode, so great is their sagacity, so true their instinct.
II. Consider the operation of unsanctified reason in discerning times. The season of grace which God allots to His people, admits of comparison in many respects with the warm and inviting springtide. (1) Consider the invitations of this season of grace. Invitations are held forth by the Saviour’s voice in the pages of the written Word, by the Holy Spirit, by the Church, the Bride, and by the Providence of God. (2) If the majority of sinners be not gently won by the invitations of grace, they will haply be driven by terror to take refuge in these offers. Let growing age and growing infirmity bring death and judgment very near-the prospect will surely urge the wanderer to return with hurried steps to the sheepfold? But no, it is not found so. The sinner, however near he may stand to the brink of the grave, puts far away the evil day, instead of taking warning from the prospect of it. We are forced to the conclusion that, although endowed with faculties far higher and nobler than that of instinct, man evinces less intelligence in matters which most nearly concern him, than is evinced every day by the brute creation. Neither the possession of reason nor the possession of revelation can by themselves roll away from man the reproach of folly. Reason must be sanctified before its exercise can make him truly wise. Reason must submit like a little child to be led by the hand of revelation. The Holy Spirit must turn the dead letter into a living letter, the venerable archive into the daily counsellor.
E. M. Goulburn, Sermons in the Parish Church of Holywell, p. 129.
References: Jer 8:9.-J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 278. Jer 8:11.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxviii., No. 1658. Jer 8:19, Jer 8:20.-Ibid., vol. xi., No 608.
Jer 8:20
No hope, no hope! That was the peculiar burden of Jeremiah, that was the vision forced upon him, the message he was constrained to deliver, while the people and their leaders were nursing the assurance that all was going well, that a work was being prosecuted which would secure salvation.
I. Few things are more unpalatable and painful, than to feel it incumbent on you to say to any for whom you entertain sentiments of friendship and affection, what is calculated to damp and dishearten; to spoil the dreams of those who are dreaming pleasantly, deliciously; to destroy or disturb fond hopes: than to feel it incumbent upon you, instead of sympathising with the joy of such hopes-as you fain would, were it possible-to shake your head and contradict them. Comforting and comfortable as the dream may be, the sleeper, in his own best interests, must, if possible, be roused, since the dream is beguiling him perchance to courses that are wrong, and is misshaping and impairing him for what is at hand.
II. By how many has the cry of Jeremiah been breathed inwardly, with sorrow and bitterness, concerning themselves, as they have stood contemplating what they have and what they are, after seasons in their history-seasons that had enfolded golden opportunity, or shone bright with promise. Who is there beyond the boundaries of youth at all, who has not had his seasons of promise, that have left him sighing forlornly over broken hopes? Infinite in this respect is the pathos of human life, crying dumbly evermore for the infinite pity of God. And yet may we not believe, do we not feel to our solace, that at the least, something has always been reaped? reaped for sowing, albeit with tears, in fields beyond; nay, that even in the more lowly and penitent sense of shortcoming, which seems perhaps almost all that has been gained, we shall be carrying away with us from hence, a gathered seed grain, to be for fruit-perchance for the fruit we have hitherto missed, behind the veil.
S. A. Tipple, Sunday Mornings at Upper Norwood, p. 39.
References: Jer 8:20.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvi., No. 1562; Ibid., Evening by Evening, p. 368; A. F. Barfield, Christian World Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 363; R. L. Browne, Sussex Sermons, p. 113; R. Storrs, Homiletic Magazine, vol. ix., p. 315.
Jer 8:22
I. Sin is the consumption not of the body, but of the soul, and without seeking to establish any curious analogies, but supposing that you were a mere neutral visitor, a mere unconcerned spectator of this world, you would see all its inhabitants labouring under a disease which has these characteristics: (1) It has its seat in the very citadel of life. Sin is deep in all the soul. The carnal mind is enmity against God, so unsound that it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can be; the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint. (2) It is an hereditary disease. It is in the race, inveterate, a cleaving curse, a rankling virus. Each one is “shapen in sin,” and with the dawning intelligence of each, sin is what first develops. (3) It is a fatal disease. It has as good as taken the life of the soul already, and when it has run its course it will infallibly end in the second death. It has no tendency to arrest itself, and there never has been an instance where it stopped spontaneously, and of its own accord passed away. (4) It is a flattering disease. Very seldom does the sinner feel as if he were labouring under a deadly distemper. (5) In many instances it proves an acute and agonising disease.
II. Notice a few analogies between Judah’s balsam and that better balm which heals the wounds of sin-the anguish of the soul. (1) There was no great show about the tree itself. It had no particular grandeur or beauty. And so with the Saviour. He had no outward form nor comeliness. (2) The balm tree was a stranger in Palestine. The Saviour was a stranger in our world. (3) In order to obtain its healing essence, they used to wound the balm tree. And in order to give forth in one conclusive act the merit of His life, the Saviour’s side was pierced. He was obedient unto death. He poured out His blood and made His soul an offering for sin.
J. Hamilton, Works, vol. vi., p. 151.
Reference: Jer 8:22.-W. M. Punshon, Old Testament Outlines, p. 245.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 8
1. The horrors of the invasion (Jer 8:1-3)
2. Hardened hearts and retribution (Jer 8:4-12)
3. Utter destruction threatened (Jer 8:13-17)
4. The prophets lamentation (Jer 8:18-22)
Jer 8:1-3. These verses must not be detached from the preceding chapter. The division of chapters is often unfortunate in this book. The invaders from the north would even have digged out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people who had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars should be exposed and spread out before the sun and moon, remain unburied and become dung. We doubt not that all this was literally done during the Chaldean invasion.
Jer 8:4-12. They did not repent of their wickedness. Theirs was a perpetual backsliding. The stork knows his appointed time; the turtle, the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming, but they had hardened their hearts in such a manner that they knew not the judgment of the Lord. Hence the retribution (Jer 8:9-12) .
Jer 8:13-17. The thirteenth verse shows the desolation which will fall upon the land when the Lord arises. The words of Jer 8:14-16 were spoken by the prophet and not by the impenitent people as some take it. The 16th verse (Jer 8:16) is extremely vivid.
Jer 8:18-22. His heart was faint in him. He is overwhelmed with sorrow. The harvest was passed, the summer gone and they were not saved. It is a mournful outburst.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
Jer 7:32-34, 1Ki 13:2, 2Ki 23:16, 2Ki 23:20, 2Ch 34:4, 2Ch 34:5, Eze 6:5, Eze 37:1, Amo 2:1
Reciprocal: Gen 15:15 – buried Lev 26:30 – I will destroy Deu 28:26 – General 2Ki 23:5 – all the host 2Ki 23:14 – the bones of men Neh 9:32 – on our kings Psa 79:3 – and there Isa 14:19 – thou Isa 34:3 – slain Jer 7:33 – General Jer 16:4 – as dung Eze 6:4 – and I Amo 4:10 – the stink
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 8:1. That time means the time of the Babylonian invasion referred to in the close of the preceding chapter. It was known that kings and other men of importance had their personal belongings buried with their bodies. The looting of these tombs would hence have the motive of material gain as well as that of showing dishonor toward the persons whose land the victorious Babylonians will have taken over.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 8:1-2. At that time, &c. The first three verses of this chapter properly belong to the preceding, and ought not to have been separated from it. They shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah The Chaldeans shall regard neither the living nor the dead. They shall put the living to death without remorse; and shall break open and defile the tombs of the dead, in hopes of finding riches deposited there. They shall cast them out of their sepulchres, and leave them upon the ground, without staying to collect them together, and replace them. We learn from Josephus (Antiq, lib. 7, cap. ult.) that King Solomon laid up vast treasures in his fathers sepulchre, which remained untouched till the pontificate of Hyrcanus, who, on a public emergency, opened one of the cells, and took out at once three thousand talents of silver. And afterward Herod the Great opened another cell, out of which he also took considerable wealth. That it was no uncommon practice at the sacking of cities to open the monuments of the great, and scatter their bones abroad without concerning themselves to cover them again, the learned reader may see in Horaces 16th Epod. Jer 50:13. And they shall spread, or expose, them before the sun and the moon, &c. The idols which they have worshipped, but which shall not be able to help them in their misery. Whom they have loved, served, walked after, sought, worshipped The prophet multiplies words to express their extraordinary zeal in the service of their idols, and to ridicule the folly and madness of their idolatry. And they shall not be gathered, &c. The bones which shall be thus scattered about shall not be gathered again, or laid up in their sepulchres.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 8:1-2. At that timethey shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judahof the princesof the priests, and the bones (as in the Chaldaic) of the false prophets. They shall spread them before the sun, the moon, the stars and the planets, the gods they have adored, gods which now could neither pity nor save. Oh barbarous insults of a wanton soldiery!
The cause of those depredations was not malice against the dead, but conformably to ancient usages, and the hope of finding treasure in the tombs of princes. Herodotus says that Semiramis, queen of the Assyrians, built a stone bridge across the Euphrates in Babylon, and raised a sepulchre on one side in the middle of the bridge, that the passengers might ever have death before their eyes. She placed in front the following inscription. If any king, who shall reign in Babylon after me, shall find himself in need of money, he may open this sepulchre, and take whatever he may need; but let him not open it at all times in case of need, for if he do, he will find nothing to his advantage.
This sepulchre remained unopened till Darius the Mede had taken the city, who on opening the vault, found one dead body, with this inscription. Hadst thou not been insatiable of money, and infamously avaricious, thou hadst not violated the sepulcuhre of the dead. Such was the wit of Semiramis. Euterpe.
Solomon, says Josephus, (Antiquities of the Jews, book 9. and last chapter) laid up vast treasures in the sepulchre of his father, which remained untouched till the days of Harcanus, who in a case of emergency opened one of the vaults, and took out three thousand talents of silver. Herod also opened another vault, in which he found considerable treasure. This custom, it appears from Zozomons ecclesiastical history, near the end of book 9., was a general practice in the ancient world; and by consequence, the Chaldean army desecrated the tombs in the hope of finding treasures. Our Saxon ancestors had similar customs. A gentleman who had an ancient residence near Kirkstall Abbey, west of Leeds, affirmed that the masons, building a garden wall, said that the earth had been cast. He bade them go down till they could find a foundation. They presently found a stone coffin, which on being opened, contained the gold head of a cane, the heels of a mans shoes, and an antique spoon of silver, whose handle and mouth were round. They searched for coins, or Peters pense, but none were found. It was the coffin of one of the abbots.
Jer 8:7. The stork, the ciconia; the turtle, mentioned twice by Solomon; the grus, or crane, birds of passage which returned to Syria in the spring; and the swallow, which enjoys two summers in one year, coming and going in their season, to teach man obedience to the laws and judgments of the Lord. Why should the ant reprove the sluggard; or the ox, and the ass, which know their master, reproach man so learned and wise that does not know his God? If according to St. Paul, the perfections of the invisible God be clearly seen in the mirror of creation, is not man left without excuse who revolts against a code so wise and good. By consequence, the hostility of his passions against all divine conformity, demonstrate the latent and inborn depravity of the human heart.
Jer 8:10-15. Therefore will I give their wives. These verses are repeated here, from Jer 6:13-15.
Jer 8:16. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; that is, the colony of Dan, that stole Micahs image, as they went out to seek a settlement in the north-east point of the land. This was the place, or great road to Carchemesh, where the Chaldean army entered.
Jer 8:17. Serpents, cockatrices [now called basilisks] that will not be charmed. The Chaldeans. See on Psa 68:4.
Jer 8:20. The harvest is pastwe are not saved. When the Jews were become weak and idolatrous, they balanced in their minds whether it were better to seek alliance with Egypt, or with Babylon. The former of the great powers being preferred, they said, as soon as the Egyptians have reaped their harvest at midsummer, they will come up and save us. So they trusted in an arm of flesh, and were deceived by the broken spear.
Jer 8:22. Is there no balm in Gilead? Some say this was the gum of a tree peculiar to mount Gilead; others, that it was the resin of the terebinthus, far famed for its healing virtues. This mystically is Christ, the tree of life, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. Jerusalem was a great hospital, all diseased and all astounded, as though they had drank a potion of hemlock.
REFLECTIONS.
Continuing the subject of the terrors of the Babylonian army, the prophet says that their generals, enraged against the Jews, should open the tombs of the kings, the priests, and the prophets, and strew their bones profanely abroad, as the bones of an ass. This was a sore reproach and affliction; and was used by Nehemiah as a powerful argument to Artaxerxes. Why should I not be sad, seeing the sepulchre of my fathers lieth waste. Neh 2:8. Hence shame and the severest mortification must be expected in the day of Gods indignation.
As the principal thoughts in the middle of this chapter have already occurred, we may hasten to the sorrows of the prophet for the approaching calamities of his country. He bewails these with a profusion of tears, that sorrow in him might excite sorrow in others. So David wept for the men who kept not the law; and so Christ wept over the city when he announced the Roman invasion. Jeremiahs piety we see was distinguished by tenderness and love; it associates most intimately with the piety of other inspired men. He laments in particular that the state of things was too bad for help and hope. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. When the Egyptians had reaped their harvest, on which their existence depended, they were ready for military operations. But there was no help in Egypt, nor was there any help from the Lord; for the people misused his prophets, and mocked at their ministry. Hence there is a crisis both with men and nations when there is no more remedy. This last consideration, no more remedy, is the last of calamities. There was no more healing virtue in the far-famed balm, or gum of the tree in Gilead, which when mixed with oil was very efficacious in the healing art. The physicians there had now no skill. Judgments did not reform the people; and no prophet was believed, except the false prophets; therefore they consummated the measure of their wickedness by killing the prophets. Indulgence made them wicked, judgments seared their conscience, and grace revolted all their soul. Truly there was now neither balm nor physician which could do them good. Nothing would now do but the excinding arm of vengeance: hence God said to the heathen, Prepare ye war against her.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 7:29 to Jer 8:3. Mourning for Judahs Dead.Let Jerusalem mourn, and raise a dirge on the heights (where she sinned by her idolatry), because of the near approach of the punishment for the desecration of Yahwehs house, and for the offering of human sacrifice, which Yahweh never ordered. The land shall be full of corpses (Jer 7:32 mg.), and all joy shall cease. The valley of Hinnom shall be renamed Slaughter, and burials will have to be made even in the (unclean) Topheth. Even those who have died previously shall be dishonoured by exposure to the sun, moon, and stars, which they have worshipped, whilst the living shall wish themselves dead.
Jer 7:29. The hair was shorn, as a mourning custom; cf. Mic 1:16, Job 1:20.
Jer 7:31. the valley of the son of Hinnom: Heb. G-ben-Hinnom, whence Gehenna (Mar 9:43*); near Jerusalem, but exact site disputed. Recent excavations have shown the frequency of the sacrifice of children in Palestine, a practice which is condemned in Deu 18:10; it is probable that such sacrifices were offered to Yahweh as king (Melek), i.e. that Molech in this connexion is a title, rather than a proper name. For what is known of this Molech cult, see EBi, Molech, and cf. Mic 6:7, Gen 22:13, Exo 13:13, Lev 8:21*, 2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:6; 2Ki 23:10, Deu 12:31, Jer 19:5, Eze 20:26.*Topheth: 2Ki 23:10; supposed to be the Aramaic word for fireplace, revocalised to suggest bosheth, i.e. shame, a word sometimes substituted for Baal (1Sa 14:47-51*, 1Ki 16:32*)
Jer 8:2. the host of heaven: (Gen 2:1*) as in Deu 4:19, etc., with reference to Assyrio-Babylonian star worship. The significance of this dishonourable treatment of the dead lies in the belief that the shades in Sheol suffer with their bodies; an enemys ghost is still vulnerable through his corpse (Job 14:22*).
Jer 8:3. Omit which remain, with LXX and Syr.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their {a} graves:
(a) The enemy for greediness will rifle your graves and lay you before those idols, who in your life you worshipped, to see if they can help you.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Astral worship 8:1-3
"The sermon ends (if these verses, still in prose, should be taken with ch. 7) on a note which takes away the last shreds of comfort for those whose hopes or memories are bound up with Jerusalem." [Note: Kidner, p. 51.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
When the invasion from the north came (cf. Jer 7:32-34), the Lord declared, the enemy soldiers would dig up the bodies of kings, princes, priests, prophets, and ordinary citizens (cf. Amo 2:1). Thus they would add insult to injury. The ancients believed that the spirits of unburied people would have no rest in the netherworld. [Note: Graybill, pp. 665-66.] Some of the reason for exhuming these corpses may have been to plunder the graves of the dead, a practice that was common in the ancient Near East. [Note: Feinberg, p. 434.]
"Even in modern times, the opening up of graves and the throwing about of the bones of the departed is practiced as a mark of extreme contempt. In recent wars in the Middle East such desecrations and insult were perpetrated." [Note: Thompson, p. 295, n. 2.]
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
; Jer 8:1-22; Jer 9:1-26; Jer 10:1-25; Jer 26:1-24
In the four chapters which we are now to consider we have what is plainly a finished whole. The only possible exception {Jer 10:1-16} shall be considered in its place. The historical occasion of the introductory prophecy, {Jer 7:1-15} and the immediate effect of its delivery, are recorded at length in the twenty-sixth chapter of the book, so that in this instance we are happily not left to the uncertainties of conjecture. We are there told that it was in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,” that Jeremiah received the command to stand in the forecourt of Iahvahs house, and to declare “to all the cities of Judah that were come to worship” there, that unless they repented and gave ear to Iahvahs servants the prophets, He would make the temple like Shiloh, and Jerusalem itself a curse to all the nations of the earth. The substance of the oracle is there given in briefer form than here, as was natural, where the writers object was principally to relate the issue of it as it affected himself. In neither case is it probable that we have a verbatim report of what was actually said, though the leading thoughts of his address are, no doubt, faithfully recorded by the prophet in the more elaborate composition. {Jer 7:1-34} Trifling variations between the two accounts must not, therefore, be pressed.
Internal evidence suggests that this oracle was delivered at a time of grave public anxiety, such as marked the troubled period after the death of Josiah, and the early years of Jehoiakim. “All Judah,” or “all the cities of Judah,” {Jer 26:2} that is to say, the people of the country towns as well as the citizens of Jerusalem, were crowding into the temple to supplicate their God. {Jer 7:2} This indicates an extraordinary occasion, a national emergency affecting all alike. Probably a public fast and humiliation had been ordered by the authorities, on the reception of some threatening news of invasion. “The opening paragraphs of the address are marked by a tone of controlled earnestness, by an unadorned plainness of statement, without passion, without exclamation, apostrophe, or rhetorical device of any kind; which betokens the presence of a danger which spoke too audibly to the general ear to require artificial heightening in the statement of it. The position of affairs spoke for itself” (Hitzig). The very words with which the prophet opens his message, “Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, Make good your ways and your doings, that I may cause you to dwell (permanently) in this place!” (Jer 7:3, cf. Jer 7:7) prove that the anxiety which agitated the popular heart and drove it to seek consolation in religious observances, was an anxiety about their political stability, about the permanence of their possession of the fair land of promise. The use of the expression “Iahvah Sabaoth” Iahvah (the God) of Hosts is also significant, as indicating that war was what the nation feared; while the prophet reminds them thus that all earthly powers, even the armies of heathen invaders, are controlled and directed by the God of Israel for His own sovereign purposes. A particular crisis is further suggested by the warning: “Trust ye not to the lying words, The Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, is this!” The fanatical confidence in the inviolability of the temple, which Jeremiah thus deprecates, implies a time of public danger. A hundred years before this time the temple and the city had really come through a period of the gravest peril, justifying in the most palpable and unexpected manner the assurances of the prophet Isaiah. This was remembered now, when another crisis seemed imminent, another trial of strength between the God of Israel and the gods of the heathen. Only part of the prophetic teachings of Isaiah had rooted itself in the popular mind-the part most agreeable to it. The sacrosanct inviolability of the temple, and of Jerusalem for its sake, was an idea readily appropriated and eagerly cherished. It was forgotten that all depended on the will and purposes of Iahvah himself; that the heathen might be the instruments with which He executed His designs, and that an invasion of Judah might mean, not an approaching trial of strength between His omnipotence and the impotency of the false gods, but the judicial outpouring of His righteous wrath upon His own rebellious people.
Jeremiah, therefore, affirms that the popular confidence is ill-founded; that his countrymen are lulled in a false security; and he enforces his point, by a plain exposure of the flagrant offences which render their worship a mockery of God.
Again, it may be supposed that the startling word, “Add your burnt offerings to your” (ordinary) “offerings, and eat the flesh (of them,)”{ Jer 7:21} implies a time of unusual activity in the matter of honouring the God of Israel with the more costly offerings of which the worshippers did not partake, but which were wholly consumed on the altar; which fact also might point to a season of special danger.
And, lastly, the references to taking refuge behind the walls of “defenced cities,” {Jer 8:14; Jer 10:17} as we know that the Rechabites and doubtless most of the rural populace took refuge in Jerusalem on the approach of the third and last Chaldean expedition, seem to prove that the occasion of the prophecy was the first Chaldean invasion, which ended in the submission of Jehoiakim to the yoke of Babylon. {2Ki 24:1} Already the northern frontier had experienced the destructive onslaught of the invaders, and rumour announced that they might soon be expected to arrive before the walls of Jerusalem. {Jer 8:16-17}
The only other historical occasion which can be suggested with any plausibility is the Scythian invasion of Syria-Palestine, to which the previous discourse was assigned. This would fix the date of the prophecy at some point between the thirteenth and the eighteenth years of Josiah (B.C. 629-624). But the arguments for this view do not seem to be very strong in themselves, and they certainly do not explain the essential identity of the oracle summarised in Jer 26:1-6, with that of Jer 7:1-15. The “undisguised references to the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem itself (Jer 7:17; Jer 7:30-31), and the unwillingness of the people to listen to the prophets teaching,” {Jer 7:27} are quite as well accounted for by supposing a religious or rather an irreligious reaction under Jehoiakim-which is every way probable considering the bad character of that king, {2Ki 23:37; Jer 22:13 sqq.} and the serious blow inflicted upon the reforming party by the death of Josiah; as by assuming that the prophecy belongs to the years before the extirpation of idolatry in the eighteenth year of the latter sovereign.
And now let us take a rapid glance at the salient points of this remarkable utterance. The people are standing in the outer court, with their faces turned toward the court of the priests, in which stood the holy house itself. {Psa 5:7} The prophetic speaker stands facing them, “in the gate of the Lords house,” the entry of the upper or inner court, the place whence Baruch was afterwards to read another of his oracles to the people. {Jer 36:10} Standing here, as it were between his audience and the throne of Iahvah, Jeremiah acts as visible mediator between them and their God. His message to the worshippers who throng the courts of Iahvahs sanctuary is not one of approval. He does not congratulate them upon their manifest devotion, upon the munificence of their offerings, upon their ungrudging and unstinted readiness to meet an unceasing drain upon their means. His message is a surprise, a shock to their self-satisfaction, an alarm to their slumbering consciences, a menace of wrath and destruction upon them and their holy place. His very first word is calculated to startle their self-righteousness, their misplaced faith in the merit of their worship and service. “Amend your ways and your doings!” Where was the need of amendment? they might ask. Were they not at that moment engaged in a function most grateful to Iahvah? Were they not keeping the law of the sacrifices, and were not the Levitical priesthood ministering in their order, and receiving their due share of the offerings which poured into the temple day by day? Was not all this honour enough to satisfy the most exacting of deities? Perhaps it was, had the deity in question been merely as one of the gods of Canaan. So much lip service, so many sacrifices and festivals, so much joyous revelling in the sanctuary, might be supposed to have sufficiently appeased one of the common Baals, those half-womanish phantoms of deity whose delight was imagined to be in feasting and debauchery. Nay, so much zeal might have propitiated the savage heart of a Molech. But the God of Israel was not as these, nor one of these; though His ancient people were too apt to conceive thus of Him, and certain modern critics have unconsciously followed in their wake.
Let us see what it was that called so loudly for amendment, and then we may become more fully aware of the gulf that divided the God of Israel from the idols of Canaan, and His service from all other service. It is important to keep this radical difference steadily before our minds, and to deepen the impression of it, in days when the effort is made by every means to confuse Iahvah with the gods of heathendom, and to rank the religion of Israel with the lower surrounding systems.
Jeremiah accuses his countrymen of flagrant transgression of the universal laws of morality. Theft, murder, adultery, perjury, fraud, and covetousness, slander and lying and treachery, {Jer 7:9; Jer 9:3-8} are charged upon these zealous worshippers by a man who lived amongst them, and knew them well, and could be contradicted at once if his charges were false.
He tells them plainly that, in virtue of their frequenting it, the temple is become a den of robbers.
And this trampling upon the common rights of man has its counterpart and its climax in treason against God, in “burning incense to the Baal, and walking after other gods whom they know not”; {Jer 7:9} in an open and shameless attempt to combine the worship of the God who had from the outset revealed Himself to their prophets as a “jealous,” i.e., an exclusive God, with the worship of shadows who had not revealed themselves at all, and could not be “known,” because devoid of all character and real existence. They thus ignored the ancient covenant which had constituted them a nation. {Jer 7:23}
In the cities of Judah, in the streets of the very capital, the cultus of Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven, the voluptuous Canaanite goddess of love and dalliance, was busily practised by whole families together, in deadly provocation of the God of Israel. The first and great commandment said, Thou shalt love Iahvah thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And they loved and served and followed and sought after and worshipped the sun and the moon and the host of heaven, the objects adored by the nation that was so soon to enslave them. {Jer 8:2} Not only did a worldly, covetous, and sensual priesthood connive in the restoration of the old superstitions which associated other gods with Iahvah, and set up idol symbols and altars within the precincts of His temple, as Manasseh had 2Ki 21:4-5; they went further than this in their “syncretism,” or rather in their perversity, their spiritual blindness, their wilful misconception of the God revealed to their fathers. They actually confounded Him-the Lord “who exercised lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, and delighted in” the exhibition of these qualities by His worshippers {Jer 9:24} -with the dark and cruel sun god of the Ammonites. They “rebuilt the high places of the Tophet, in the valley of ben Hinnom,” on the north side of Jerusalem, “to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire”; if by means so revolting to natural affection they might win back the favour of heaven-means which Iahvah “commanded not, neither came they into His mind.” {Jer 7:31} Such fearful and desperate expedients were doubtless first suggested by the false prophets and priests in the times of national adversity under king Manasseh. They harmonised only too well with the despair of a people who saw in a long succession of political disasters the token of Iahvahs unforgiving wrath. That these dreadful rites were not a “survival” in Israel, seems to follow from the horror which they excited in the allied armies of the two kingdoms, when the king of Moab, in the extremity of the siege, offered his eldest son as a burnt offering on the wall of his capital before the eyes of the besiegers. So appalled were the Israelite forces by this spectacle of a fathers despair, that they at once raised the blockade, and retreated homeward. {2Ki 3:27} It is probable, then, that the darker and bloodier aspects of heathen worship were of only recent appearance among the Hebrews, and that the rites of Molech had not been at all frequent or familiar, until the long and harassing conflict with Assyria broke the national spirit and inclined the people, in their trouble, to welcome the suggestion that costlier sacrifices were demanded, if Iahvah was to be propitiated and His wrath appeased. Such things were not done, apparently, in Jeremiahs time; he mentions them as the crown of the nations past offences; as sins that still cried to heaven for vengeance, and would surely entail it, because the same spirit of idolatry which had culminated in these excesses, still lived and was active in the popular heart. It is the persistence in sins of the same character which involves our drinking to the dregs the cup of punishment for the guilty past. The dark catalogue of forgotten offences witnesses against us before the Unseen Judge, and is only obliterated by the tears of a true repentance, and by the new evidence of a change of heart and life. Then, as in some palimpsest, the new record covers and conceals the old; and it is only if we fatally relapse, that the erased writing of our misdeeds becomes visible again before the eye of Heaven. Perhaps also the prophet mentions these abominations because at the time he saw around him unequivocal tendencies to the renewal of them. Under the patronage or with the connivance of the wicked king Jehoiakim, the reactionary party may have begun to set up again the altars thrown down by Josiah, while their religious leaders advocated both by speech and writing a return to the abolished cultus. At all events, this supposition gives special point to the emphatic assertion of Jeremiah, that Iahvah had not commanded nor even thought of such hideous rites. The reference to the false labours of the scribes {Jer 8:8} lends colour to this view. It may be that some of the interpreters of the sacred law actually anticipated certain writers of our own day, in putting this terrible gloss upon the precept, “The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me.” {Exo 22:29}
The people of Judah were misled, but they were willingly misled. When Jeremiah declares to them, “Lo, ye are trusting, for your part, upon the words of delusion, so that ye gain no good!” {Jer 7:8} it is perhaps not so much the smooth prophecies of the false prophets as the fatal attitude of the popular mind, out of which those misleading oracles grew, and which in turn they aggravated, that the speaker deprecates. He warns them that an absolute trust in the “praesentia Numinis” is delusive; a trust, cherished like theirs independently of the condition of its justification, viz., a walk pleasing to God. “What! will ye break all My laws, and then come and stand with polluted hands before Me in this house, {Isa 1:15} which is named after Me Iahvahs House, {Isa 4:1} and reassure yourselves with the thought, We are absolved from the consequences of all these abominations?” (Jer 7:9-10). Lit. “We are saved, rescued, secured, with regard to having done all these abominations”: cf. Jer 2:35. But perhaps, with Ewald, we should point the Hebrew term differently, and read, “Save us!” “to do all these abominations,” as if that were the express object of their petition, which would really ensue, if their prayer were granted: a fine irony. For the form of the verb. {cf. Eze 14:14} They thought their formal devotions were more than enough to counterbalance any breaches of the decalogue; they laid that flattering unction to their souls. They could make it up with God for setting His moral law at naught. It was merely a question of compensation. They did not see that the moral law is as immutable as laws physical; and that the consequences of violating or keeping it are as inseparable from it as pain from a blow, or death from poison. They did not see that the moral law is simply the law of mans health and wealth, and that the transgression of it is sorrow and suffering and death.
“If men like you,” argues the prophet, “dare to tread these courts, it must be because you believe it a proper thing to do. But that belief implies that you hold the temple to be something other than what it really is; that you see no incongruity in making the House of Iahvah a meeting place of murderers. {“spelunca latronum” Mat 21:13} That you have yourselves made it, in the full view of Iahvah, whose seeing does not rest there, but involves results such as the present crisis of public affairs; the national danger is proof that He has seen your heinous misdoings.” For Iahvahs seeing brings a vindication of right, and vengeance upon evil. {2Ch 24:22; Exo 3:7} He is the watchman that never slumbers nor sleeps; the eternal Judge, Who ever upholds the law of righteousness in the affairs of man, nor suffers the slightest infringement of that law to go unpunished. And this unceasing watchfulness, this perpetual dispensation of justice, is really a manifestation of Divine mercy; for the purpose of it is to save the human race from self-destruction, and to raise it ever higher in the scale of true well-being, which essentially consists in the knowledge of God and obedience to His laws.
Jeremiah gives his audience further ground for conviction. He points to a striking instance in which conduct like theirs had involved results such as his warning holds before them. He establishes the probability of chastisement by a historical parallel. He offers them, so to speak, ocular demonstration of his doctrine. “I also, lo, I have seen, saith Iahvah!” Your eyes are fixed on the temple; so are Mine, but in a different way. You see a national palladium; I see a desecrated sanctuary, a shrine polluted and profaned. This distinction between Gods view and yours is certain: “for, go ye now to My place which was at Shiloh, where I caused My Name to abide at the outset” (of your settlement in Canaan); “and see the thing that I have done to it, because of the wickedness of My people Israel” (the northern kingdom). There is the proof that Iahvah seeth not as man seeth; there, in that dismantled ruin, in that historic sanctuary of the more powerful kingdom of Ephraim, once visited by thousands of worshippers like Jerusalem today, now deserted and desolate, a monument of Divine wrath.
The reference is not to the tabernacle, the sacred Tent of the Wanderings, which was first set up at Nob {1Sa 22:11} and then removed to Gibeon, {2Ch 1:3} but obviously to a building more or less like the temple, though less magnificent. The place and its sanctuary had doubtless been ruined in the great catastrophe, when the kingdom of Samaria fell before the power of Assyria (721 B.C.).
In the following words (Jer 7:13-15) the example is applied. “And now”-stating the conclusion-“because of your having done all these deeds” (“saith Iahvah,” LXX omits), “and because I spoke unto you” (“early and late,” LXX omits), “and ye hearkened not, and I called you and ye answered not”: {Pro 1:24} “I will do unto the house upon which My Name is called, wherein ye are trusting, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers-as I did unto Shiloh.”
Some might think that if the city fell, the holy house would escape, as was thought by many like-minded fanatics when Jerusalem was beleaguered by the Roman armies seven centuries later: but Jeremiah declares that the blow will fall upon both alike; and to give greater force to his words, he makes the judgment begin at the house of God. (The Hebrew reader will note the dramatic effect of the disposition of the accents. The principal pause is placed upon the word “fathers,” and the reader is to halt in momentary suspense upon that word, before he utters the awful three which close the verse: “as I-did to-Shiloh.” The Massorets were masters of this kind of emphasis.)
“And I will cast you away from My Presence, as I cast” (“all”: LXX omits) “your kinsfolk, all the posterity of Ephraim.” {2Ki 17:20} Away from My Presence: far beyond the bounds of that holy land where I have revealed Myself to priests and prophets, and where My sanctuary stands; into a land where heathenism reigns, and the knowledge of God is not; into the dark places of the earth, that lie under the blighting shadow of superstition, and are enveloped in the moral midnight of idolatry. “Projiciam vos a facie mea.” The knowledge and love of God-heart and mind ruled by the sense of purity and tenderness and truth and right united in an Ineffable Person, and enthroned upon the summit of the universe-these are light and life for man; where these are, there is His Presence. They who are so endowed behold the face of God, in Whom is no darkness at all. Where these spiritual endowments are nonexistent; where mere power, or superhuman force, is the highest thought of God to which man has attained; where there is no clear sense of the essential holiness and love of the Divine Nature; there the world of man lies in darkness that may be felt; there bloody rites prevail; there harsh oppression and shameless vices reign: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.
“And thou, pray thou not for this people,” {Jer 18:20} “and lift not up for them outcry nor prayer, and urge not Me, for I hear thee not. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather sticks, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough, to make sacred buns” {Jer 44:19} “for the Queen of Heaven, and to pour libations to other gods, in order to grieve.” {Deu 32:16; Deu 32:21} “Is it Me that they grieve? saith Iahvah; is it not themselves” (rather), “in regard to the shame of their own faces” (Jer 7:16-19).
From one point of view, all human conduct may be said to be “indifferent” to God; He is self-sufficing, and needs not our praises, our love, our obedience, any more than He needed the temple ritual and the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Man can neither benefit nor injure God; he can only affect his own fortunes in this world and the next, by rebellion against the laws upon which his welfare depends, or by a careful observance of them. In this sense, it is true that wilful idolatry, that treason against God, does not “provoke” or “grieve” the Immutable One. Men do such things to their own sole hurt, to the shame of their own faces: that is, the punishment will be the painful realisation of the utter groundlessness of their confidence, of the folly of their false trust; the mortification of disillusion, when it is too late. That Jeremiah should have expressed himself thus is sufficient answer to those who pretend that the habitual anthropomorphism of the prophetic discourses is anything more than a mere accident of language and an accommodation to ordinary style.
In another sense, of course, it is profoundly true to say that human sin provokes and grieves the Lord. God is Love; and love may be pained to its depths by the fault of the beloved, and stirred to holy indignation at the disclosure of utter unworthiness and ingratitude. Something corresponding to these emotions of man may be ascribed, with all reverence, to the Inscrutable Being who creates man “in His own image,” that is, endowed with faculties capable of aspiring towards Him, and receiving the knowledge of His being and character.
“Pray not thou for this people for I hear thee not!” Jeremiah was wont to intercede for his people. {Jer 11:14; Jer 18:20; Jer 15:1; cf. 1Sa 12:23} The deep pathos which marks his style, the minor key in which almost all his public utterances are pitched, proves that the fate which he saw impending over his country grieved him to the heart. “Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought”; and this is eminently true of Jeremiah. A profound melancholy had fallen like a cloud upon his soul; he had seen the future, fraught as it was with suffering and sorrow, despair and overthrow, slaughter and bitter servitude; a picture in which images of terror crowded one upon another, under a darkened sky, from which no ray of blessed hope shot forth, but only the lightnings of wrath and extermination. Doubtless his prayers were frequent, alive with feeling, urgent, imploring, full of the convulsive energy of expiring hope. But in the midst of his strong crying and tears, there arose from the depths of his consciousness the conviction that all was in vain. “Pray not thou for this people, for I will not hear thee.” The thought stood before him, sharp and clear as a command; the unuttered sound of it rang in his ears, like the voice of a destroying angel, a messenger of doom, calm as despair, sure as fate. He knew it was the voice of God.
In the history of nations as in the lives of individuals there are times when repentance, even if possible, would be too late to avert the evils which long periods of misdoing have called from the abyss to do their penal and retributive work. Once the dike is undermined, no power on earth can hold back the flood of waters from the defenceless lands beneath. And when a nations sins have penetrated and poisoned all social and political relations, and corrupted the very fountains of life, you cannot avert the flood of ruin that must come, to sweep away the tainted mass of spoiled humanity; you cannot avert the storm that must break to purify the air, and make it fit for men to breathe again.
“Therefore”-because of the national unfaithfulness-“thus said the Lord Iahvah, Lo, Mine anger and My fury are being poured out toward this place-upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it will burn, and not be quenched!” {Jer 7:20} The havoc wrought by war, the harrying and slaying of man and beast, the felling of fruit trees and firing of the vineyards, are intended; but not so as to exclude the ravages of pestilence and droughts {Jer 14:1-22} and famine. All these evils are manifestations of the wrath of Iahvah., cattle and trees and “the fruit of the ground,” i.e., of the cornlands and vineyards, are to share in the general destruction, {cf. Hos 4:3} not, of course, as partakers of mans guilt, but only by way of aggravating his punishment. The final phrase is worthy of consideration, because of its bearing upon other passages. “It will burn and not be quenched,” or “it will burn unquenchably.” The meaning is not that the Divine wrath once kindled will go on burning forever; but that once kindled, no human or other power will be able to extinguish it, until it has accomplished its appointed work of destruction.
“Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Your holocausts add ye to your common sacrifices, and eat ye flesh!” that is, Eat flesh in abundance, eat your fill of it! Stint not yourselves by devoting any portion of your offerings wholly to Me. I am as indifferent to your “burnt offerings,” your more costly and splendid gifts, as to the ordinary sacrifices, over which you feast and make merry with your friends. {1Sa 1:4; 1Sa 1:13} The holocausts which you are now burning on the altar before Me will not avail to alter My settled purpose. “For I spake not with your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, concerning matters of holocaust and sacrifice, but this matter commanded I them, Hearken ye unto My voice, so become I God to you, and you-ye shall become to Me a people; and walk ye in all the way that I shall command you, that it may go well with you!” (Jer 7:22-23) cf. Deu 6:3. Those who believe that the entire priestly legislation as we now have it in the Pentateuch is the work of Moses, may be content to find in this passage of Jeremiah no more than an extreme antithetical expression of the truth that to obey is better than sacrifice. There can be no question that from the outset of its history. Israel, in common with all the Semitic nations, gave outward expression to its religious ideas in the form of animal sacrifice. Moses cannot have originated the institution, he found it already in vogue, though he may have regulated the details of it. Even in the Pentateuch, the term “sacrifice” is nowhere explained; the general understanding of the meaning of it is taken for granted. {see Exo 12:27; Exo 23:18} Religious customs are of immemorial use, and it is impossible in most cases to specify the period of their origin. But while it is certain that the institution of sacrifice was of extreme antiquity in Israel as in other ancient peoples, it is equally certain, from the plain evidence of their extant writings, that the prophets before the Exile attached no independent value either to it or to any other part of the ritual of the temple. We have already seen how Jeremiah could speak of the most venerable of all the symbols of the popular faith. {Jer 3:16} Now he affirms that the traditional rules for the burnt offerings and other sacrifices were not matters of special Divine institution, as was popularly supposed at the time. The reference to the Exodus may imply that already in his day there were written narratives which asserted the contrary; that the first care of the Divine Saviour after He had led His people through the sea was to provide them with an elaborate system of ritual and sacrifice, identical with that which prevailed in Jeremiahs day. The important verse already quoted {Jer 8:8} seems to glance at such pious fictions of the popular religious teachers: “How say ye, We are wise, and the instruction” (A.V. “law”) “of Iahvah is with us? But behold for lies hath it wrought-the lying pen of the scribes!”
It is, indeed, difficult to see how Jeremiah or any of his predecessors could have done otherwise than take for granted the established modes of public worship, and the traditional holy places. The prophets do not seek to alter or abolish the externals of religion as such; they are not so unreasonable as to demand that stated rites and traditional sanctuaries should be disregarded, and that men should worship in the spirit only, without the aid of outward symbolism of any sort, however innocent and appropriate to its object it might seem. They knew very well that rites and ceremonies were necessary to public worship; what they protested against was the fatal tendency of their time to make these the whole of religion, to suppose that Iahvahs claims could be satisfied by a due performance of these, without regard to those higher moral requirements of His law which the ritual worship might fitly have symbolised but could not rightly supersede. It was not a question with Hosea, Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, whether or not Iahvah could be better honoured with or without temples and priests and sacrifices. The question was whether these traditional institutions actually served as an outward expression of that devotion to Him and His holy law, of that righteousness and holiness of life, which is the only true worship, or whether they were looked upon as in themselves comprising the whole of necessary religion. Since the people took this latter view, Jeremiah declares that their system of public worship is futile.
“Hearken unto My voice”: not as giving regulations about the ritual, but as inculcating moral duty by the prophets, as is explained immediately, {Jer 7:25} and as is clear also from the statement that “they walked in the schemes of their own evil heart” (omit: “in the stubbornness,” with LXX, and read “moacoth” stat. constr.), “and fell to the rear and not the front.”
As they did not advance in the knowledge and love of the spiritual God, who was seeking to lead them by His prophets, from Moses downwards, {Deu 18:15} they steadily retrogaded and declined in moral worth, until they had become hopelessly corrupt and past correction. (Lit. “and they became back and not face,” which may mean, they turned their backs upon Iahvah and His instruction.) This steady progress in evil is indicated by the words, “and they hardened their neck, they did worse than their fathers.” {Jer 7:26} It is implied that this was the case with each successive generation, and the view of Israels history thus expressed is in perfect harmony with common experience. Progress, one way or the other, is the law of character; if we do not advance in goodness, we go back, or, what is the same thing, we advance in evil.
Finally, the prophet is warned that his mission also must fail, like that of his predecessors, unless indeed the second clause of Jer 7:27, which is omitted by the Septuagint, be really an interpolation. At all events, the failure is implied if not expressed, for he is to pronounce a sentence of reprobation upon his people. “And thou shalt speak all these words unto them” (“and they will not hearken unto thee, and thou shalt call unto them, and they will not answer thee”: LXX omits). “And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that hearkened not unto the voice of Iahvah its God, and received not correction: Good faith is perished and cut off from their mouth.” {cf. Jer 9:3 sq.} The charge is remarkable. It is one which Jeremiah reiterates: see Jer 7:9; Jer 6:13; Jer 7:5; Jer 9:3 sqq.; Jer 12:1. His fellow countrymen are at once deceivers and deceived. They have no regard for truth and honour in their mutual dealings; grasping greed and lies and trickery stamp their everyday intercourse with each other; and covetousness and fraud equally characterise the behaviour of their religious leaders. Where truth is not prized for its own sake, there debased ideas of God and lax conceptions of morality creep in and spread. Only he who loves truth comes to the light; and only he who does Gods will sees that truth is divine. False belief and false living in turn beget each other; and as a matter of experience it is often impossible to say which was antecedent to the other.
In the closing section of this first part of his long address (Jer 7:29 – Jer 8:3), Jeremiah apostrophises the country, bidding her bewail her imminent ruin. “Shear thy tresses” (coronal of long hair) “and cast them away, and lift upon the bare hills a lamentation!”-sing a dirge over thy departed glory and thy slain children, upon those unhallowed mountain tops which were the scene of thine apostasies: {Jer 3:21} “for Iahvah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.” The hopeless tone of this exclamation (cf. also Jer 7:15, Jer 7:16, Jer 7:20) seems to agree better with the times of Jehoiakim, when it had become evident to the prophet that amendment was beyond hope, than with the years prior to Josiahs reformation. His own contemporaries are “the generation of Iahvahs wrath,” i.e., upon which His wrath is destined to be poured out, for the day of grace is past and gone; and this, because of the desecration of the temple itself by such kings as Ahaz and Manasseh, but especially because of the horrors of the child sacrifices in the valley of ben Hinnom, {2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:3-6} which those kings had been the first to introduce in Judah. “Therefore behold days are coming, saith Iahvah, and it shall no more be called the Tophet” (an obscure term, probably meaning something like “Pyre” or “Burning place”: cf. the Persian tabidan “to burn,” and “to bury,” strictly “to burn” a corpse; also “to smoke,” Sanskrit dhup: to suppose a reproachful name like “Spitting” = “Object of loathing,” is clearly against the context: the honourable name is to be exchanged for one of dishonour), “and the Valley of ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, and people shall bury in (the) Tophet for want of room (elsewhere)!” A great battle is contemplated, as is evident also from Deu 28:25-26, the latter verse being immediately quoted by the prophet. {Jer 7:33} The Tophet will be defiled forever by being made a burial place; but many of the fallen will be left unburied, a prey to the vulture and the jackal. In that fearful time, all sounds of joyous life will cease in the cities of Judah and in the capital itself, “for the land will become a desolation.” And the scornful enemy will not be satisfied with wreaking his vengeance upon the living; he will insult the dead, by breaking into the sepulchres of the kings and grandees, the priests and prophets and people, and haling their corpses forth to lie rotting in face of the sun, moon, and stars, which they had so sedulously worshipped in their lifetime, but which will be powerless to protect their dead bodies from this shameful indignity. And as for the survivors, “death will be preferred to life in the case of all the remnant that remain of this evil tribe, in all the places whither I shall have driven them, saith Iahvah Sabaoth” (omit the second “that remain,” with LXX as an accidental repetition from the preceding line, and as breaking the construction). The prophet has reached the conviction that Judah will be driven into banishment; but the details of the destruction which he contemplates are obviously of an imaginative and rhetorical character. It is, therefore, superfluous to ask whether a great battle was actually fought afterwards in the valley of ben Hinnom, and whether the slain apostates of Judah were buried there in heaps, and whether the conquerors violated the tombs. Had the Chaldeans or any of their allies done this last, in search of treasure for instance, we should expect to find some notice of it in the historical chapters of Jeremiah. But it was probably known well enough to the surrounding peoples that the Jews were not in the habit of burying treasure in their tombs. The prophets threat, however, curiously corresponds to what Josiah is related to have done at Bethel and elsewhere, by way of irreparably polluting the high places; {2Ki 23:16 sqq.} and it is probable that his recollection of that event, which he may himself have witnessed, determined the form of Jeremiahs language here.
In the second part of this great discourse {Jer 8:4-22} we have a fine development of thoughts which have already been advanced in the opening piece, after the usual manner of Jeremiah. The first half (or strophe) is mainly concerned with the sins of the tuition (Jer 8:4-13), the second with a despairing lament over the punishment (Jer 8:14-22; Jer 9:1). “And thou shalt say unto them: Thus said Iahvah, Do men fall and not rise again? Doth a man turn back, and not return? Why doth Jerusalem make this people to turn back with an eternal” (or perfect, utter, absolute) “turning back? Why clutch they deceit, refuse to return?” The LXX omits “Jerusalem,” which is perhaps only a marginal gloss. We should then have to read “shobebah,” as “this people” is masc.
The “He” has been written twice by inadvertence. The verb, however, is transitive in Jer 50:19; Isa 47:10, etc.; and I find no certain instance of the intrans, form besides Eze 38:8, participle. “I listened and heard; they speak not aright”; {Exo 10:29; Isa 16:6} “not a man repenteth over his evil, saying (or thinking), What have I done? They all” (lit. “all of him,” i.e., the people) “turn back into their courses” (plur. Heb. text; sing. Heb. marg.), “like the rushing horse into the battle.”
There is something unnatural in this obstinate persistence in evil. If a man happens to fall he does not remain on the ground, but quickly rises to his feet again; and if he turn back on his way for some reason or other, he will usually return to that way again. There is a play on the word “turn back” or “return,” like that in Jer 3:12; Jer 3:14. The term is first used in the sense of turning back or away from Iahvah, and then in that of returning to Him, according to its metaphorical meaning “to repent.” Thus the import of the question is: Is it natural to apostatise and never to repent of it? Perhaps we should rather read, after the analogy of Jer 3:1 “Doth a man go away on a journey, and not return?”
Others interpret: “Doth a man return, and not return?” That is, if he return, he does it, and does not stop midway; whereas Judah only pretends to repent, and does not really do so. This, however, does not agree with the parallel member, nor with the following similar questions.
It is very noticeable how thoroughly the prophets, who, after all, were the greatest of practical moralists, identify religion with right aims and right conduct. The beginning of evil courses is turning away from Iahvah; the beginning of reform is turning back to Iahvah. For Iahvahs character as revealed to the prophets is the ideal and standard of ethical perfection; He does and delights in love, justice, and equity. {Jer 9:23} If a man look away from that ideal, if he be content with a lower standard than the Will and Law of the All-Perfect, then and thereby he inevitably sinks in the scale of morality. The prophets are not troubled by the idle question of medieval schoolmen and sceptical moderns. It never occurred to them to ask the question whether God is good because God wills it, or whether God wills good because it is good. The dilemma is, in truth, no better than a verbal puzzle, if we allow the existence of a personal Deity. For the idea of God is the idea of a Being who is absolutely good, the only Being who is such; perfect goodness is understood to be realised nowhere else but in God. It is part of His essence and conception; it is the aspect under which the human mind apprehends Him. To suppose goodness existing apart from Him, as an independent object which He may choose or refuse, is to deal in empty abstractions. We might as well ask whether convex can exist apart from concave in nature, or motion apart from a certain rate of speed. The human spirit can apprehend God in His moral perfections, because it is, at however vast a distance, akin to Him-a “divinae particula aurae”; and it can strive towards those perfections by help of the same grace which reveals them. The prophets know of no other origin or measure of moral endeavour than that which Iahvah makes known to them. In the present instance, the charge which Jeremiah makes against his contemporaries is a radical falsehood, insincerity, faithlessness: “they clutch” or “cling to deceit, they speak what is not right” or “honest, straightforward.” {Gen 42:11; Gen 42:19} Their treason to God and their treachery to their fellows are opposite sides of the same fact. Had they been true to Iahvah, that is, to His teachings through the higher prophets and their own consciences, they would have been true to one another. The forbearing love of God, His tender solicitude to hear and save, are illustrated by the words: “I listened and heard not a man repented over his evil, saying, What have I done?” (The feeling of the stricken conscience could hardly be more aptly expressed than by this brief question.) But in vain does the Heavenly Father wait for the accents of penitence and contrition: “they all return”-go back again and again {Psa 23:6} -“into their own race” or “courses, like a horse rushing” lit. “pouring forth”: of rushing waters, {Psa 78:20} “into the battle.” The eagerness with which they follow their own wicked desires, the recklessness with which they “give their sensual race the rein,” in set defiance of God, and wilful oblivion of consequences, is finely expressed by the simile of the warhorse rushing in headlong eagerness into the fray. {Job 39:25} “Also” (or “even”) “the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and turtledove, swift and crane observe the season of their coming; but My people know not the ordinance of Iahvah”-what He has willed and declared to be right for man (His Law; “jus divinum, relligio divina”). The dullest of wits can hardly fail to appreciate the force of this beautiful contrast between the regularity of instinct and the aberrations of reason. All living creatures are subject to laws upon obedience to which their well-being depends. The life of man is no exception; it too is subject to a law-a law which is as much higher than that which regulates mere animal existence as reason and conscience and spiritual aspiration are higher than instinct and sexual impulse. But whereas the lower forms of life are obedient to the laws of their being, man rebels against them, and dares to disobey what he knows to be for his good; nay, he suffers himself to be so blinded by lust and passion and pride and self-will that at last he does not even recognise the Law-the ordinance of the Eternal-for what it really is, the organic law of his true being, the condition at once of his excellence and his happiness.
The prophet next meets an objection. He has just alleged a profound moral ignorance-a culpable ignorance-against the people. He supposes them to deny the accusation, as doubtless they often did in answer to his remonstrances {cf. Jer 17:15; Jer 20:7 sq.} “How can ye say, We are wise”-morally wise-“and the teaching of Iahvah is with us!” (“but behold”: LXX omits: either term would be sufficient by itself) “for the Lie hath the lying pen of the scribes made it!” The reference clearly is to what Jeremiahs opponents call “the teaching (or law: torah) of Iahvah”; and it is also clear that the prophet charges the “scribes” of the opposite party with falsifying or tampering with the teaching of Iahvah in some way or other. Is it meant that they misrepresent the terms of a written document, such as the Book of the Covenant, or Deuteronomy? But they could hardly do this without detection, in the case of a work which was not in their exclusive possession. Or does Jeremiah accuse them of misinterpreting the sacred law, by putting false glosses upon its precepts, as might be done in a legal document wherever there seemed room for a difference of opinion, or wherever conflicting traditional interpretations existed side by side? (Cf. my remarks on Jer 7:31). The Hebrew may indicate this, for we may translate: “But lo, into the lie the lying pen of the scribes hath made it!” which recalls St. Pauls description of the heathen as changing the truth of God into a lie. {Rom 1:26} The construction is the same as in Gen 12:2; Isa 44:17. Or, finally, does he boldly charge these abettors of the false prophets with forging supposititious law books, in the interest of their own faction, and in support of the claims and doctrines of the worldly priests and prophets? This last view is quite admissible, so far as the Hebrew goes, which, however, is not free from ambiguity. It might be rendered, “But behold, in vain,” or “bootlessly” {Jer 3:23} “hath the lying pen of the scribes laboured”; taking the verb in an absolute sense, which is not a common use. {Rth 2:19} Or we might transpose the terms for “pen” and “lying,” and render, “But behold, in vain hath the pen of the scribes fabricated falsehood.” In any case, the general sense is the same: Jeremiah charges not only the speakers, but the writers, of the popular party with uttering their own inventions in the name of Iahvah. These scribes were the spiritual ancestors of those of our Saviours time, who “made the word of God of none effect for the sake of their traditions.” {Mat 15:6} “For the Lie” means, to maintain the popular misbelief. It might also be rendered, “for falsehood, falsely,” as in the phrase “to swear falsely,” i.e., for deceit. It thus appears that conflicting and competing versions of the law were current in that age. Has the Pentateuch preserved elements of both kinds, or is it homogeneous throughout? Of the scribes of the period we, alas! know little beyond what this passage tells us. But Ezra must have had predecessors, and we may remember that Baruch, the friend and amanuensis of Jeremiah, was also a scribe. {Jer 36:26}
“The wise will blush, they will be dismayed and caught! Lo, the word of Iahvah they rejected, and wisdom of what sort have they?” {Jer 6:10} The whole body of Jeremiahs opponents, the populace as well as the priests and prophets, are intended by “the wise,” that is, the wise in their own conceits; {Jer 7:8} there is an ironical reference to their own assumption of the title. These self-styled wise ones, who preferred their own wisdom to the guidance of the prophet, will be punished by the mortification of discovering their folly when it is too late. Their folly will be the instrument of their ruin, for “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” as in a snare. {Pro 5:22}
They who reject Iahvahs word, in whatever form it comes to them, have no other light to walk by; they must needs walk in darkness, and stumble at noonday. For Iahvahs word is the only true wisdom, the only true guide of mans footsteps. And this is the kind of wisdom which the Holy Scriptures offer us; not a merely speculative wisdom, not what is commonly understood by the terms science and art, but the priceless knowledge of God and of His will concerning us; a kind of knowledge which is beyond all comparison the most important for our well-being here and hereafter. If this Divine wisdom, which relates to the proper conduct of life and the right education of the highest faculties of our being, seem a small matter to any man, the fact argues spiritual blindness on his part; it cannot diminish the glory of heavenly wisdom.
Some well meaning but mistaken people are fond of maintaining what they call “the scientific accuracy of the Bible,” meaning thereby an essential harmony with the latest discoveries, or even the newest hypotheses, of physical science. But even to raise such a preposterous question, whether as advocate or as assailant, is to be guilty of a crude anachronism, and to betray an incredible ignorance, of the real value of the Scriptures. That value I believe to be inestimable. But to discuss “the scientific accuracy of the Bible” appears to me to be as irrelevant to any profitable issue, as it would be to discuss the meteorological precision of the Mahabharata, or the marvellous chemistry of the Zendavesta, or the physiological revelations of the Koran, or the enlightened anthropology of the Nibelungenlied.
A man may reject the word of Iahvah, he may reject Christs word, because he supposes that it is not sufficiently attested. He may urge that the proof that it is of God breaks down, and he may flatter himself that he is a person of superior discernment, because he perceives a fact to which the multitude of believers are apparently blind. But what kind of proof would he have? Does he demand more than the case admits of? Some portent in earth or sky or sea, which in reality would be quite foreign to the matter in hand, and could have none but an accidental connection with it, and would, in fact, be no proof at all, but itself a mystery requiring to be explained by the ordinary laws of physical causation? To demand a kind of proof which is irrelevant to the subject is a mark not of superior caution and judgment, but of ignorance and confusion of thought. The plain truth is, and the fact is abundantly illustrated by the teachings of the prophets and, above all, of our Divine Lord, that moral and spiritual truths are self-attesting to minds able to realise them: and they no more need supplementary corroboration than does the ultimate testimony of the senses of a sane person.
Now the Bible as a whole is a unique repertory of such truths; this is the secret of its age-long influence in the world. If a man does not care for the Bible, if he has not learned to appreciate this aspect of it, if he does not love it precisely on this account, I, in turn, care very little for his opinion about the Bible. There may be much in the Bible which is otherwise valuable, which is precious as history, as tradition, as bearing upon questions of interest to the ethnologist, the antiquarian, the man of letters. But these things are the shell, that is the kernel; these are the accidents, that is the substance; these are the bodily vesture, that is the immortal spirit. A man who has not felt this has yet to learn what the Bible is in his text as we now have it, Jeremiah proceeds to denounce punishment on the priests and prophets, whose fraudulent oracles and false interpretations of the Law ministered to their own greedy covetousness, and who smoothed over the alarming state of things by false assurances that all was well (Jer 8:10-12). The Septuagint, however, omits the whole passage after the words, “Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors!” and as these words are obviously an abridgment of the threat, Jer 6:12, {cf. Deu 28:30} while the rest of the passage agrees verbatim with Jer 6:13-15, it may be supposed that a later editor inserted it in the margin here, as generally apposite (cf. Jer 6:10 to with Jer 8:9), whence it has crept into the text. It is true that Jeremiah himself is fond of repetition, but not so as to interrupt the context, as the “therefore” of Jer 8:10 seems to do. Besides, the “wise” of Jer 8:8 are the self-confident people; but if this passage be in place here, “the wise” of Jer 8:9 will have to be understood of their false guides, the prophets and priests. Whereas, if the passage be omitted, there is manifest continuity between the ninth verse and the thirteenth: “I will sweep, sweep them away, saith Iahvah; no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the foliage is withered, and I have given them destruction” (or “blasting”).
The opening threat is apparently quoted from the contemporary prophet Zephaniah. {Zep 1:2-3} The point of the rest of the verse is not quite clear, owing to the fact that the last clause of the Hebrew text is undoubtedly corrupt. We might suppose that the term “laws” had fallen out, and render, “and I gave them laws which they transgress.” {cf. Jer 5:22; Jer 31:35} The Vulgate has an almost literal translation, which gives the same sense: “et dedi eis quae praetergressa sunt.” The Septuagint omits the clause, probably on the ground of its difficulty. It may be that bad crops and scarcity are threatened. {cf. Jer 14:1-22, Jer 5:24-25} In that case, we may correct the text in the manner suggested above; Jer 17:18, for Amo 4:9). Others understand the verse in a metaphorical sense. The language seems to be coloured by a reminiscence of Mic 7:12; and the “grapes” and “figs” and “foliage” may be the fruits of righteousness, and the nation is like Isaiahs unfruitful vineyard {Isa 5:1-30} or our Lords barren fig tree, {Mat 21:19} fit only for destruction (cf. also Jer 6:9 and Jer 7:20). Another passage which resembles the present is Hab 3:17 “For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no yield on the vines; the produce of the olive will disappoint, and the fields will produce no food.” It was natural that tillage should be neglected upon the rumour of invasion. The country folk would crowd into the strong places, and leave their vineyards, orchards, and cornfields to their fate. {Jer 7:14} This would, of course, lead to scarcity and want, and aggravate the horrors of war with those of dearth and famine. I think the passage of Habakkuk is a precise parallel to the one before us. Both contemplate a Chaldean invasion, and both anticipate its disastrous effects upon husbandry. It is possible that the original text ran: “And I have given (will give) unto them their own work” (i.e., the fruit of it: used of fieldwork, Exo 1:14; of the earnings of labour. {Isa 32:17} This, which is a frequent thought in Jeremiah, forms a very suitable close to the verse. The objection is that the prophet does not use this particular term for “work” elsewhere. But the fact of its only once occurring might have caused its corruption. (Another term, which would closely resemble the actual reading, and give much the same sense as this last) “their produce.” This, too, as a very rare expression, only known from Jos 5:11-12, might have been misunderstood and altered by an editor or copyist. It is akin to the Aramaic and there are other Aramaisms in our prophet. One thing is certain; Jeremiah cannot have written what now appears in the Masoretic text.
It is now made clear what the threatened evil is, in a fine closing strophe, several expressions of which recall the prophets magnificent alarm upon the coming of the Scythians (cf. Jer 4:5 with Jer 8:14; Jer 4:15 with Jer 8:16; Jer 4:19 with Jer 8:18). Here, however, the colouring is darker, and the prevailing gloom of the picture unrelieved by any ray of hope. The former piece belongs to the reign of Josiah, this to that of the worthless Jehoiakim. In the interval between the two, moral decline and social and political disintegration had advanced with fearfully accelerated speed, and Jeremiah knew that the end could not be far off.
The fatal news of invasion has come, and he sounds the alarm to his countrymen. “Why are we sitting still” (in silent stupefaction)? “assemble yourselves, that we may go into the defenced cities, and be silent” (or “amazed, stupefied,” with terror) “there! for Iahvah our God hath silenced us” (with speechless terror) “and given us water of gall to drink; for we trespassed toward Iahvah. We looked for peace” or, weal, prosperity, “and there is no good; for a time of healing, and behold panic fear!” So the prophet represents the effect of the evil tidings upon the rural population. At first they are taken by surprise; then they rouse themselves from their stupor to take refuge in the walled cities. They recognise in the trouble a sign of Iahvahs anger. Their fond hopes of returning prosperity are nipped in the bud; the wounds of the past are not to be healed; the country has hardly recovered from one shock, before another and more deadly blow falls upon it. The next verse describes more particularly the nature of the bad news; the enemy, it would seem, had actually entered the land, and given no uncertain indication of what the Judeans might expect, by his ravages on the northern frontier.
“From Dan was heard the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighings of his chargers all the land did quake: and they came in” (into the country) “and eat up the land and the fulness thereof, a city and them that dwelt therein.” This was what the invaders did to city after city, once they had crossed the border; ravaging its domain, and sacking the place itself. Perhaps, however, it is better to take the perfects as prophetic, and to render: “From Dan shall be heard . . . shall quake: and they shall come and eat up the land,” etc. This makes the connection easier with the next verse, which certainly has a future reference: “For behold I am about to send” (or simply, “I send”) “against you serpents.” {Isa 11:8}, a small but very poisonous snake; (Aquila basili Vulg. regulus), “for whom there is no charm, and they will bite you! saith Iahvah.” If the tenses be supposed to describe what has already happened, then the connection of thought may be expressed thus: all this evil that you have heard of has happened, not by mere ill fortune, but by the Divine will: Iahvah Himself has done it, and the evil will not stop there, for He purposes to send these destroying serpents into your very midst. {cf. Num 21:6}
The eighteenth verse begins in the Hebrew with a highly anomalous word, which is generally supposed to mean “my source of comfort.” But both the strangeness of the form itself, which can hardly be paralleled in the language, and the indifferent sense which it yields, and the uncertainty of the Hebrew MSS., and the variations of the old versions, indicate that we have here another corruption of the text. Some Hebrew copies divide the word, and this is supported by the Septuagint and the Syro-Hexaplar version, which treat the verse as the conclusion of Jer 8:17, and render “and they shall bite you incurably, with pain of your perplexed heart” (Syro-Hex. “without cure”). But if the first part of the word is “without” (“for lack of”), what is the second? No such root as the existing letters imply is found in Hebrew or the cognate languages. The Targum does not help us: “Because they were scoffing” “against the prophets who prophesied unto them, sorrow and sighing will I bring” “upon them on account of their sins: upon them, saith the prophet, my heart is faint,” It is evident that this is no better than a kind of punning upon the words of the Masoretic text. I incline to read “How shall I cheer myself? Upon me is sorrow; upon me my heart is sick.” The prophet would write for “against,” without a suffix. {Job 9:27; Job 10:20} The passage is much like Jer 4:19.
Another possible emendation is: “Iahvah causeth sorrow to flash forth upon me”: after the archetype of Amo 5:9; but I prefer the former.
Jeremiah closes the section with an outpouring of his own overwhelming sorrow at the heart rending spectacle of the national calamities. No reader endued with any degree of feeling can doubt the sincerity of the prophets patriotism, or the willingness with which he would have given his own life for the salvation of his country. This one passage alone says enough to exonerate its author from the charge of indifference, much more of treachery to his fatherland. He imagines himself to hear the cry of the captive people, who have been carried away by the victorious invader into a distant land: “Hark! the sound of the imploring cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away! Is Iahvah not in Sion? or is not her King in her?”. {cf. Mic 4:9} Such will be the despairing utterance of the exiles of Judah and Jerusalem; and the prophet hastens to answer it with another question, which accounts for their ruin by their disloyalty to that heavenly King; “O why did they vex Me with their graven images, with alien vanities?” Compare a similar question and answer in an earlier discourse. {Jer 5:19} It may be doubted whether the pathetic words which follow-“The harvest is past, the fruit gathering is finished, but as for us, we are not delivered!”-are to be taken as a further complaint of the captives, or as a reference by the prophet himself to hopes of deliverance which had been cherished in vain, month after month, until the season of campaigns was over. In Palestine, the grain crops are harvested in April and May, the ingathering of the fruit falls in August. During all the summer months, Jehoiakim, as a vassal of Egypt, may have been eagerly hoping for some decisive interference from that quarter. That he was on friendly terms with that power at the time appears from the fact that he was allowed to fetch back refugees from its territory. {Jer 26:22 sq.} A provision for the extradition of offenders is found in the far more ancient treaty between Ramses II and the king of the Syrian Chetta (fourteenth century B.C.). But perhaps the prophet is alluding to one of those frequent failures of the crops, which inflicted so much misery upon his people, {cf. Jer 7:13; Jer 3:3; Jer 5:24-25} and which were a natural incident of times of political unsettlement and danger. In that case, he says, the harvest has come and gone, and left us unhelped and disappointed. I prefer the political reference, though our knowledge of the history of the period is so scanty that the particulars cannot be determined.
It is clear enough from the lyrical utterance which follows (Jer 8:21-22), that heavy disasters had already befallen Judah: “For the shattering of the daughter of my people am I shattered; I am a mourner: astonishment hath seized me!” This can hardly be pure anticipation. The next two verses may be a fragment of one of the prophets elegies (qinoth). At all events, they recall the metre of Lam 4:1-22; Lam 5:1-22 :
Doth balm in Gilead fail?
Fails the healer there?
Why is not bound up
My peoples deadly wound?
“Oh that my head were springs,
Mine eye a fount of tears!
To weep both day and night
Over my peoples slain.”
It is not impossible that these two quatrains are cited from the prophets elegy upon the last battle of Megiddo and the death of Josiah. Similar fragments seem to occur below {Jer 9:17-18; Jer 9:20} in the instructions to the mourning women, the professional singers of dirges over the dead.
The beauty of the entire strophe, as an outpouring of inexpressible grief, is too obvious to require much comment. The striking question “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?” has passed into the common dialect of religious aphorism: and the same may be said of the despairing cry, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!”
The wounds of the state are past healing; but how, it is asked, can this be? Does nature yield a balm which is sovereign for bodily hurts, and is there nowhere a remedy for those of the social organism? Surely that were something anomalous, strange, and unnatural. {cf. Jer 8:7} “Is there no balm in Gilead?” Yes, it is found now here else (cf. Plin., “Hist. Nat.,” 12:25 ad init. “Sed omnibus odoribus praefertur balsamum, uni terrarum Judaeae, concessum”). Then has Iahvah mocked us, by providing a remedy for the lesser evil, and leaving us a hopeless prey to the greater? The question goes deep down to the roots of faith. Not only is there an analogy between the two realms of nature and spirit; in a sense, the whole physical world is an adumbration of things unseen, a manifestation of the spiritual. Is it conceivable that order should reign everywhere in the lower sphere, and chaos be the normal state of the higher? If our baser wants are met by provisions adapted in the most wonderful way to their satisfaction, can we suppose that the nobler-those cravings by which we are distinguished from irrational creatures-have not also their satisfactions included in the scheme of the world? To suppose it is evidence either of capricious unreason, or of a criminal want of confidence in the Author of our being.
“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there?” There is a panacea for Israels woes-the “law” or teaching of Iahvah; there is a Healer in Israel, Iahvah Himself, {Jer 3:22; Jer 17:14} who has declared of Himself, “I wound and I heal.” {Deu 32:39; Deu 30:17; Deu 33:6} “Why then is no bandage applied to the daughter of my people?” This is like the cry of the captives, “Is Iahvah not in Sion, is not her King in her?” {Jer 8:19} The answer there is, Yes! it is not that Iahvah is wanting; it is that the national guilt is working out its own retribution. tie leaves this to be understood here; having framed his question so as to compel people, if it might be, to the right inference and answer.
The precious balsam is the distinctive glory of the mountain land of Gilead, and the knowledge of Iahvah is the distinctive glory of His people Israel.
Will no one, then, apply the true remedy to the hurt of the state? No, for priests and prophets and people “know not-they have refused to know” Iahvah. {Jer 8:5} The nation will not look to the Healer and live. It is their misfortunes that they hate not their sins. There is nothing left for Jeremiah but to sing the funeral song of his fatherland.
While weeping over their inevitable doom, the prophet abhors with his whole soul his peoples wickedness, and longs to fly from the dreary scene of treachery and deceit. “O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men”-some lonely khan on a caravan track, whose bare, unfurnished walls, and blank almost oppressive stillness, would be a grateful exchange for the luxury and the noisy riot of Judahs capital-“that I might leave my people and go away from among them!” The same feeling finds expression in the sigh of the psalmist, who is perhaps Jeremiah himself: “O for the wings of a dove!” {Psa 55:6 sqq.} The same feeling has often issued in actual withdrawal from the world. And under certain circumstances, in certain states of religion and society, the solitary life has its peculiar advantages. The life of towns is doubtless busy, practical, intensely real; but its business is not always of the ennobling sort, its practice in the strain and struggle of selfish competition is often distinctly hostile to the growth and play of the best instincts of human nature; its intensity is often the mere result of confining the manifold energies of the mind to one narrow channel, of concentrating the whole complex of human powers and forces upon the single aim of self-advancement and self-glorification; and its reality is consequently an illusion, phenomenal and transitory as the unsubstantial prizes which absorb all its interest, engross its entire devotion, and exhaust its whole activity. It is not upon the broad sea, nor in the lone wilderness, that men learn to question the goodness, the justice, the very being of their Maker. Atheism is born in the populous wastes of cities, where human beings crowd together, not to bless, but to prey upon each other; where rich and poor dwell side by side, but are separated by the gulf of cynical indifference and social disdain; where selfishness in its ugliest forms is rampant, and is the rule of life with multitudes:-the selfishness which grasps at personal advantage and is deaf to the cries of human pain; the selfishness which calls all manner of fraud and trickery lawful means for the achievement of its sordid ends; and the selfishness of flagrant vice, whose activity is not only earthly and sensual, but also devilish, as directly involving the degradation and ruin of human souls. No wonder that they whose eyes have been blinded by the god of this world, fail to see evidence of any other God; no wonder that they in whose hearts a coarse or a subtle self-worship has dried the springs of pity and love can scoff at the very idea of a compassionate God; no wonder that a soul, shaken to its depths by the contemplation of this bewildering medley of heartlessness and misery, should be tempted to doubt whether there is indeed a Judge of all the earth, who doeth right.
There is no truth, no honour in their dealings with one another; falsehood is the dominant note of their social existence: “They are all adulterers, a throng of traitors!” The charge of adultery is no metaphor. {Jer 5:7-8} Where the sense of religious sanctions is weakened or wanting, the marriage tie is no longer respected; and that which perhaps lust began, is ended by lust, and man and woman, are faithless to each other, because they are faithless to God.
“And they bend their tongue, their bow, falsely.” The tongue is as a bow of which words are the arrows. Evildoers “stretch their arrow, the bitter word. to shoot in ambush at the blameless man.” {Psa 64:4; cf. Psa 11:2} The metaphor is common in the language of poetry; we have an instance in Longfellows “I shot an arrow into the air,” and Homers familiar, “winged words,” is a kindred expression. Others render, “and they bend their tongue as their bow of falsehood,” as though the term “sheqer, mendacium” were an epithet qualifying the term for “bow.” I have taken it adverbially, a use justified by Psa 38:20; Psa 69:5; Psa 119:78; Psa 119:86. In colloquial English a man who exaggerates a story is said to “draw the long bow.”
Their tongue is a bow with which they shoot lies at their neighbours, “and it is not by truth”-faithfulness, honour, integrity-“that they wax mighty in the land”; their riches and power are the fruit of craft and fraud and overreaching. As was said in a former discourse, “their houses are full of deceit, therefore they become great, and amass wealth.” {Jer 5:27} “By truth,” or more literally “unto truth, according to the rule or standard of truth according {cf. Isa 32:1} to right”; Gen 1:11 “according to its kind.” With the idea of the verb, we may compare Psa 112:2 “Mighty in the land shall his seed become.” {cf. also Gen 7:18-19} The passage Jer 5:2-3, is essentially similar to the present, and is the only one besides where we find the term “by truth.” The idiom seems certain, and the parallel passages, especially Jer 5:27, appear to establish the translation above given; otherwise one might be tempted to render: “they stretch their tongue, their bow, for lying,” {Jer 5:2} “and it is not for truth that they are strong in the land.” “Noblesse oblige” is no maxim of theirs; they use their rank and riches for unworthy ends.
“For out of evil unto evil they go forth”-they go from one wickedness to another, adding sin to sin. Apparently, a military metaphor. What they have and are is evil, and they go forth to secure fresh conquests of the same kind. Neither good nor evil is stationary; progress is the law of each-“and Me they know not, saith Iahvah”-they know not that I am truth itself, and therefore irreconcilably opposed to all this fraud and falsehood.
“Beware ye, every one of his companion, and in no brother confide ye; for every brother will surely play the Jacob, -and every companion will go about slandering. And they deceive each his neighbour, and truth they speak not: they have trained their tongue to speak falsehood, to pervert” {their way, Jer 3:21} “they toil.” {Jer 20:9; cf. Gen 19:11} “Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith Iahvah” (Jer 8:3-5). As Micah had complained before him, {Mic 7:5} and as bitter experience had taught our prophet, {Jer 11:18 sqq., Jer 12:6} neither friend nor brother was to be trusted; and that this was not merely the melancholy characteristic of a degenerate age, is suggested by the reference to the unbrotherly intrigues of the far-off ancestor of the Jewish people, in the traditional portrait of whom the best and the worst features of the national character are reflected with wonderful truth and liveliness, Every brother will not fail to play the Jacob (Gen 25:29 sqq., Gen 27:36; Hos 12:4), to outwit, defraud, supplant: cunning and trickery will subserve acquisitiveness. But though an inordinate love of acquisition may still seem to be specially characteristic of the Jewish race, as in ancient times it distinguished the Canaanite and Semitic nations in general, the tendency to cozen and overreach ones neighbour is so far from being confined to it that some modern ethical speculators have not hesitated to assume this tendency to be an original and natural instinct of humanity. The fact, however, for which those who would account for human nature upon purely “natural” grounds are bound to supply some rational explanation, is not so much that aspect of it which has been well known to resemble the instincts of the lower animals ever since observation began, but the aspect of revolt and protest against those lower impulses which we find reflected so powerfully in the documents of the higher religion, and which makes thousands of lives a perpetual warfare.
Jeremiah presents his picture of the universal deceit and dissimulation of his own time as something peculiarly shocking and startling to the common sense of right, and unspeakably revolting in the sight of God, the Judge of all. And yet the difficulty to the modern reader is to detect any essential difference between human nature then and human nature now-between those times and these. It is still true that avarice and lust destroy natural affection; that the ties of blood and friendship are no protection against a godless love of self. The work of slander and misrepresentation is not left to avowed enemies; your own acquaintance will ratify their envy, spite, or mere ill will in this unworthy way. A simple child may tell the truth; but tongues have to be trained to expertness in lying, whether in commerce or in diplomacy, in politics or in the newspaper press, in the art of the salesman or in that of the agitator and the demagogue. Men still make a toil of perverting their way, and spend as much pains in becoming accomplished villains as honest folk take to excel in virtue. Deceit is still the social atmosphere and environment, and “through deceit” men “refuse to know Iahvah.” The knowledge, the recognition, the steady recollection of what Iahvah is, and what His law requires, does not suit the man of lies; his objects oblige him to shut his eyes to the truth. Men “do not will” and “will not,” to know the moral impediments that lie in the way of self-seeking and self-pleasing. Sinning is always a matter of choice, not of nature, nor of circumstances alone. To desire to be delivered from moral evil is, so far, a desire to know God.
“Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit”: who that ever lifts an eye above the things of time has not at times felt thus? “This is a Christian country.” Why? Because the majority are as bent on self-pleasing, as careless of God, as heartlessly and systematically forgetful of the rights and claims of others, as they would have been had Christ never been heard of? A Christian country? Why? Is it because we can boast of some two hundred forms or fashions of supposed Christian belief, differentiated from each other by heaven knows what obscure shibboleths, which in the lapse of time have become meaningless and obsolete; while the old ill will survives, and the old dividing lines remain, and Christians stand apart from Christians in a state of dissension and disunion that does despite and dishonour to Christ, and must be very dear to the devil? Some people are bold enough to defend this horrible condition of things by raising a cry of Free Trade in Religion. But religion is not a trade, not a thing to make a profit of, except with Simon Magus and his numerous followers both inside and outside of the Church.
A Christian country! But the rage of avarice, the worship of Mammon, is not less rampant in London than in old Jerusalem. If the more violent forms of oppression and extortion are restrained among us by the more complete organisation of public justice, the fact has only developed new and more insidious modes of attack upon the weak and the unwary. Deceit and fraud have been put upon their mettle by the challenge of the law, and thousands of people are robbed and plundered by devices which the law can hardly reach or restrain. Look where the human spider sits, weaving his web of guile, that he may catch and devour men! Look at the wonderful baits which the company monger throws out day by day to human weakness and cupidity! Do you call him shrewd and clever and enterprising? It is a sorry part to play in life, that of Satans decoy, tempting ones fellow creatures to their ruin. Look at the lying advertisements, which meet your eyes wherever you turn, and make the streets of this great city almost as hideous from the point of view of taste as from that of morality! What a degrading resource! To get on by the industrious dissemination of lies, by false pretences, which one knows to be false! And to trade upon human misery-to raise hopes that can never be fulfilled-to add to the pangs of disease the smart of disappointment and the woe of a deeper despair, as countless quacks in this Christian country do!
A Christian country: where God is denied on the platform and through the press; where a novel is certain of widespread popularity if its aim be to undermine the foundations of the Christian faith; where atheism is mistaken for intelligence, and an inconsistent agnosticism for the loftiest outcome of logic and reason; where flagrant lust walks the streets unrebuked, unabashed; where every other person you meet is a gambler in one form or another, and shopmen and labourers and loafers and errand boys are all eager about, the result of races, and, all agog to know the forecasts of some wily tipster, some wiseacre of the halfpenny press!
A Christian country: where the rich and noble have no better use for profuse wealth than horse training, and no more elevating mode of recreation than hunting and shooting down innumerable birds and beasts; where some must rot in fever dens, clothed in rags, pining for food, stifling for lack of air and room; while others spend thousands of pounds upon a whim, a banquet, a party, a toy for a fair woman. I am not a Socialist, I do not deny a mans right to do what he will with his own, and I believe that state interference would be in the last degree disastrous to the country. But I affirm the responsibility before God of the rich and great; and I deny that they who live and spend for themselves alone are worthy of the name of Christian.
A Christian country: where human beings die, year after year, in the unspeakable, unimaginable agonies of canine madness, and dogs are kept by the thousand in crowded cities, that the sacrifice to the fiend of selfishness and the mocking devil of vanity may never lack its victims! There is a more than Egyptian worship of Anubis, in the silly infatuation which lavishes tenderness upon an unclean brute, and credulously invests instinct with the highest attributes of reason; and there is a worse than heathenish besottedness in the heart that can pamper a dog, and be utterly indifferent to the helplessness and the sufferings of the children of the poor. And people will go to church, and hear what the preacher has to say, and “think he said what he ought to have said,” or not, as the case may be, and return to their own settled habits of worldly living, as a matter of course. Oh yes! it is a Christian country the name of Christ has been named in it for fifteen centuries past; and for that reason Christ will judge it.
“Therefore, thus said Iahvah Sabaoth: Lo, I am about to melt them and put them to proof”; {Job 12:11; Jdg 17:4; Jer 6:25} “for how am I to deal in face of” (“the wickedness of,” LXX: the term has fallen out of the Hebrews text: cf. Jer 4:4, Jer 7:12) “the daughter of My people?” This is the meaning of the disasters that have fallen and are even now falling upon the country. Iahvah will melt and assay this rough, intractable human ore in the fiery furnace of affliction; the strain of insincerity that runs through it, the base earthy nature, can only thus be separated and purged away. {Isa 48:10} “A deadly arrow” (LXX a “wounding” one, i.e., one which does not miss, but hits and kills) “is their tongue; deceit it spake: with his mouth peace with his companion he speaketh, and inwardly he layeth his ambush.” {Psa 55:22} The verse again specifies the wickedness complained of, and justifies our restoration of that word in the previous verse.
Perhaps, with the Peshito Syriac and the Targum, we ought rather to render: “a sharp arrow is their tongue.” There is an Arabic saying quoted by Lane, “Thou didst sharpen thy tongue against us,” which seems to present a kindred root {cf. Psa 52:3; Psa 57:4 Pro 25:18} The Septuagint may be right, with its probable reading: “deceit are the words of his mouth.” This certainly improves the symmetry of the verse.
“For such things” (emphatic) “shall I not”-or “should I not,” with an implied “ought-shall I not punish them, saith Iahvah, or on such a nation shall not My soul avenge herself?” {Jer 5:9; Jer 5:29, after which the LXX omits “them” here} These questions, like the previous one, “How am I to deal”-or, “how could I act-in face of the wickedness of the daughter of My people?” imply the moral necessity of the threatened evils. If Iahweh be what He has taught mans conscience that He is, national sin must involve national suffering, and national persistence in sin must involve national ruin. Therefore He will “melt and try” this people, both for their punishment and their reformation, if it may be so. For punishment is properly retributive, whatever may be alleged to the contrary. Conscience tells us that we deserve to suffer for ill-doing, and conscience is a better guide than ethical or sociological speculators who have lost faith in God. But Gods chastisements as known to our experience, that is to say, in the present life, are reformatory as well as retributive; they compel us to recollect, they bring us, like the Prodigal, back to ourselves, out of the distractions of a sinful career, they humble us with the discovery that we have a Master, that there is a Power above ourselves and our apparently unlimited capacity to choose evil and to do it: and so by Divine grace we may become contrite and be healed and restored.
The prophet thus, perhaps, discerns a faint glimmer of hope, but his sky darkens again immediately. The land is already to a great extent desolate, through the ravages of the invaders, or through severe droughts, {cf. Jer 4:25; Jer 8:20(?}; Jer 12:4). “Upon the mountains will I lift up weeping and wailing, and upon the pastures of the prairie a lamentation, for they have been burnt up,” {Jer 2:15; 2Ki 22:13} “so that no man passeth over them, and they have not heard the cry of the cattle: from the birds of the air to the beasts, they are fled, are gone.” {Jer 4:25} The perfects may be prophetic and announce what is certain to happen hereafter. The next verse, at all events, is unambiguous in this respect: “And I will make Jerusalem into heaps, a haunt of jackals; and the cities of Judah will I make a desolation without inhabitant.” Not only the country districts, but the fortified towns, and Jerusalem itself, the heart and centre of the nation, will be desolated. Sennacherib boasts that he took forty-six strong cities, and “little towns without number,” and carried off 200,150 male and female captives, and an immense booty in cattle, before proceeding to invest Jerusalem itself; a statement which shows how severe the sufferings of Judah might be, before the enemy struck at its vitals.
In the words “I will make Jerusalem heaps,” there is not necessarily a change of subject. Jeremiah was authorised to “root up and pull down and destroy” in the name of Iahvah.
He now challenges the popular wise men {Jer 8:8-9} to account for what, on their principles, must appear an inexplicable phenomenon. “Who is the (true) wise man, so that he understands this,” {Hos 14:9} “and who is he to whom the mouth of Iahvah hath spoken, so that he can explain it” (“unto you?” LXX). “Why is the land undone, burnt up like the prairie, without a passer by?” Both to Jeremiah and to his adversaries the land was Iahvahs land; what befell it must have happened by His will, or at least with His consent. Why had He suffered the repeated ravages of foreign invaders to desolate His own portion, where, if anywhere on earth, He must display His power and the proof of His deity? Not for lack of sacrifices, for these were not neglected. Only one answer was possible, to those who recognised the validity of the Book of the Law, and the binding character of the covenant which it embodied. The people and their wise men cannot account for the national calamities; Jeremiah himself can only do so, because he is inwardly taught by Iahvah himself: {Jer 7:12} “And Iahvah said.” It may be supposed that Jer 7:11 states the popular dilemma, the anxious question which they put to the official prophets, whose guidance they accepted. The prophets could give no reasonable or satisfying answer, because their teaching hitherto had been that Iahvah could be appeased “with thousands of rams, and ten thousand torrents of oil.” Mic 6:7 On such conditions they had promised peace, and their teaching had been falsified by events. Therefore Jeremiah gives the true answer for Iahvah. But why did not the people cease to believe those whose word was thus falsified? Perhaps the false prophets would reply to objectors, as the refugees in Egypt answered Jeremiahs reproof of their renewed worship of the Queen of Heaven: “It was in the years that followed the abolition of this worship that our national disasters began” (Jer 44:18). It is never difficult to delude those whose evil and corrupt hearts make them desire nothing so much as to be deluded.
“And Iahvah said: Because they forsook” (lit. “upon” = on account of “their forsaking”) “My Law which I set before them”, {Deu 4:18} “and they hearkened not unto My voice,” {Deu 28:15} “and walked not therein” (in My Law; LXX omits the clause); “and walked after the obstinacy of their own” (“evil”: LXX) “heart, and after the Baals” {Deu 4:3} “which their fathers taught them”-instead of teaching them the laws of Iahvah. {Deu 11:19} Such were, and had always been, the terms of the answer of Iahvahs true prophets. Do you ask “upon what ground” (“al mah”) misfortune has overtaken you? Upon the ground of your having forsaken Iahvahs “law” or instruction, His doctrine concerning Himself and your consequent obligations towards Him. They had this teaching in the Book of the Law, and had solemnly undertaken to observe it, in that great national assembly of the eighteenth year of Josiah. And they had had it from the first in the living utterances of the prophets.
This, then, is the reason why the land is waste and deserted. And therefore-because past and present experience is an index of the future, for Iahvahs character and purpose are constant-therefore the desolation of the cities of Judah and of Jerusalem itself will ere long be accomplished. “Therefore thus said Iahvah Sabaoth,” the God of Armies and “the God of Israel; Lo, I am about to feed them” or, “I continue to feed them”-to wit, “this people” (an epexegetical gloss omitted by the LXX) “with wormwood, and I will give them to drink waters of gall” Deu 29:17. An Israelite inclining to foreign gods is “a root bearing wormwood and gall”-bearing a bitter harvest of defeat, a cup of deadly disaster for his people; {cf. Amo 6:12} “and I will scatter them among the nations, whom they and their fathers knew not.” {Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64} The last phrase is remarkable as evidence of the isolation of Israel, whose country lay off the beaten track between the Trans-Euphratean empires and Egypt, which ran along the seacoast. They knew not Assyria, until Tiglath Pilesers intervention (circ. 734), nor Babylon till the times of the New Empire. In Hezekiahs day, Babylon is still “a far country.” {2Ki 20:14} Israel was in fact an agricultural people, trading directly with Phoenicia and Egypt, but not with the lands beyond the Great River. The prophets heighten the horror of exile by the strangeness of the land whither Israel is to be banished.
“And I will send after them the sword, until I have consumed them.” The survivors are to be cut off; {cf. Jer 8:3} there is no reserve, as in Jer 4:27, Jer 5:10, Jer 5:18; a “full end” is announced; which, again, corresponds to the aggravation of social and private evils in the time of Jehoiakim, and the prophets despair of reform.
The judgment of Judah is the ruin of her cities, the dispersion of her people in foreign lands, and extermination by the sword. Nothing is left for this doomed nation but to sing its funeral song; to send for the professional wailing women, that they may come and chant their dirges, not over the dead, but over the living who are condemned to die: “Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth” (here as in Jer 7:6, LXX omits the expressive “Sabaoth”), “Mark ye well” the present crisis, and what it implies (cf. Jer 2:10; LXX wrongly omits this emphatic term), “and summon the women that sing dirges, that they come, and unto the skilful women send ye, that they come” (LXX omits), “and hasten” (LXX “and speak and”) “to life up the death wail over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids pour down waters.” The “singing women” of 2Ch 35:25, or the “minstrels” of St. Mat 9:23, are intended. The reason assigned for thus inviting them assumes that the prophets forecast is already fulfilled. Already, as in Jer 8:19, Jeremiah hears the loud wailing of the captives as they are driven away from their ruined homes: “For the sound of the death wail is heard from Sion, How are we undone! We are sore ashamed”-of our false confidence and foolish security and deceitful hopes-“for,” after all, “we have left the land, for our dwellings have cast (us) out!” The last two lines appear to be parallels, which is against the rendering, “For men have cast down our dwellings.” {Cf. Lev 18:25; Lev 22:28} From the wailing women, the address now seems to turn to the Judean women generally; but perhaps the former are still intended, as their peculiar calling was probably hereditary and passed on from mother to daughter: “For hear, ye women, the word of Iahvah, and let your ear take in the word of His mouth! and teach ye your daughters the death wail, and each her companion the lamentation”; for
“Death scales our lattices,
Enters our palaces,
To cut off boy without,
The young men from the streets.”
“And the corpses of men will fall”-the tense certifies the future reference of the others-“like dung” {Jer 8:2} “on the face of the field” 2Ki 9:37, of Jezebels corpse-left without burial rites to rot and fatten the soil-“and like the corn swath behind the reaper, and none shall gather (them).” The quatrain {Jer 8:20} is possibly quoted from some familiar elegy; and the allusion seems to be to a mysterious visitation like the plague, which used to be known in Europe as “the Black Death.” {cf. Jer 15:2; Jer 18:21; Jer 43:11} In this time of closed gates and barred doors, death is represented as entering the house, not by the door, but “climbing up some other way” like a thief. {Joe 2:9; St. Joh 10:1} Bars and bolts will be futile against such an invader. The figure is not continued in the second half of the stanza. The point of the closing comparison seems to be that whereas the corn swaths are gathered up in sheaves and taken home, the bodies will lie where the reaper Death cuts them down.
“Thus said Iahvah: Let not a wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might! Let not a rich man glory in his riches, but in this let him glory that glorieth, in being prudent and knowing Me,” {LXX omits pronoun, cf. Gen 1:4} “that I, Iahvah, do lovingkindness” (“and” LXX and Orientals), “justice and righteousness upon the earth: for in these I delight, saith Iahvah.”
It is not easy, at first sight, to see the connection of this, one of the finest and deepest of Jeremiahs oracles, with the sentence of destruction which precedes it. It is not satisfactory to regard it as stating “the only means of escape and the reason why it is not used” (the latter being set forth in Jer 7:24-25); for the leading idea of the whole composition, from Jer 7:13 to Jer 9:22, is that retribution is coming, and no escape, not even that of aremnant, is contemplated. The passage looks like an appendix to the previous pieces, such as the prophet might have added at a later period when the crisis was over, and the country had begun to breathe again, after the shock of invasion had rolled away. And this impression is confirmed by its contents. We have no details about the first interference of the new Chaldean power in Judah; we only read that in Jehoiakims days “Nebucladrezzar the king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him” {2Ki 24:1} But before this, for some two or three years, Jehoiakim was the vassal of the king of Egypt to whom he owed his crown, and Nebuchadrezzar had lo reduce Necho before he could attend to Jehoiakim. It may be, therefore, that the worst apprehensions of the time not having been realised, in the year or two of lull which followed, the politicians of Judah began to boast of their foresight and the caution and sagacity of their measures for the public safety, instead of ascribing the respite to God; the warrior class might vaunt the bravery which it had exhibited or intended to exhibit in the service of the country; and the rich nobles might exult in the apparent security of their treasures and the new lease of enjoyment accorded to themselves. To these various classes, who would not be slow to ridicule his dark forebodings as those of a moody and unpatriotic pessimist, {Jer 20:7; Jer 26:11; Jer 29:26; Jer 37:13} Jeremiah now speaks, to remind them that if the danger is over for the present, it is the lovingkindness and the righteous government of Iahvah which has removed it, and to declare that it is only suspended and postponed, not abolished forever: “Behold, days are coming, saith Iahvah, when I will visit” (his guilt) “upon every one that is circumcised in foreskin” (only, and not “in heart” also): “upon Egypt and upon Judah, and upon Edom and upon the ben Ammon and upon Moab, and upon all the tonsured folk that dwell in the wilderness: For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” Egypt is mentioned first, as the leading nation, to which at the time the petty states of the west looked for help in their struggle against Babylon. {cf. Jer 27:3} The prophet numbers Judah with the rest, not only as a member of the same political group, but as standing upon the same level of unspiritual life. Like Israel, Egypt also practised circumcision, and both the context here requires and their kinship with the Hebrews makes it probable that the other peoples mentioned observed the same custom (Herod., 2:36, 104), which is actually portrayed in a wall painting at Karnak. The “tonsured folk” or “cropt heads” of the wilderness are north Arabian nomads like the Kedarenes, {Jer 49:28; Jer 49:32} and the tribes of Dedan, Tema, and Buz Jer 25:23, whose ancestor was the circumcised Ishmael. {Gen 25:13 sqq., Gen 17:23} Herodotus records their custom of shaving the temples all round, and leaving a tuft of hair, on the top of the head (Herod., 3:8), which practice, like circumcision, had a religious significance, and was forbidden to the Israelites. {Lev 19:27; Lev 21:5}
Now why does Jeremiah mention circumcision at all? The case is, I think, parallel to his mention of another external distinction of the popular religion, the Ark of the Covenant. {Jer 3:15} Just as in that place God promises “shepherds according to Mine heart which shall shepherd” the restored Israel “with knowledge and prudence,” and then directly adds that, in the light and truth of those days, the ark will be forgotten; {Jer 3:15-16} so here, he bids the ruling classes, the actual shepherds of the nation, not to trust in their own wisdom or valour or wealth, {cf. Jer 17:5 sqq.} but in “being prudent and knowing Iahvah,” and then adds that the outward sign of circumcision, upon which the people prided themselves as the mark of their dedication to Iahvah, was in itself of no value, apart from a “circumcised heart,” i.e., a heart purified of selfish aims and devoted to the will and glory of God. {Jer 4:4} So far as Iahvah is concerned, all Judahs heathen neighbours are uncircumcised, in spite of their observance of the outward rite.
The Jews themselves would hardly admit the validity of heathen circumcision, because the manner of it was different, just as at this day the Muhammadan method differs from the Jewish. But Jeremiah puts “all the house of Israel,” who were circumcised in the orthodox manner, on a level with the imperfectly circumcised heathen peoples around them. All alike are uncircumcised before God; those who have the orthodox rite, and those who have but an inferior semblance of it; and all alike will in the day of judgment be visited for their sins. {cf. Amo 1:1-15}
With the increasing carelessness of moral obligations, an increasing importance would be attached to the observance of such a rite as circumcision, which was popularly supposed to devote a man to Iahvah in such sense that the tie was indissoluble. Jeremiah says plainly that this is a mistaken view. The outward sign must have an inward and spiritual grace corresponding thereto; else the Judeans are no better than those whose circumcision they despise as defective. His meaning is that of the Apostle, “Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of law, thy circumcision hath become uncircumcision.” {Rom 2:25} “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God, ” scil., is everything. {1Co 7:19} It is “faith working by love,” it is the “new creature” that is essential in spiritual religion. {Gal 5:6; Gal 6:15}
Haec dicit Dominus: Non glorietur sapiens in sapientia sua. Glancing back over the whole passage, we discern an inward relation between these verses and the preceding discourse. It is not the outward props of statecraft, and strong battalions, and inexhaustible wealth, that really and permanently uphold a nation; not these, but the knowledge of Iahvah, a just insight into the true nature of God, and a national life regulated in all its departments by that insight. At the outset of this third section of his discourse, {Jer 9:3-6} Jeremiah declared that corrupt Israel “knew not” and “refused to know” its God. At the beginning of the entire piece Jer 7:3 sq.), he urged his countrymen to “amend their ways and their doings,” and not go on trusting in “lying words” and doing the opposite of “lovingkindness and justice and righteousness,” which alone are pleasing to Iahvah, {Mic 6:8} Who “delighteth in lovingkindness and not sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God more than in burnt offerings.” {Hos 6:6} And just as in the opening section the sacrificial worship was disparaged, taken as an “opus operatum,” so here at the close circumcision is declared to have no independent value as a means of securing Divine favour. {Jer 9:25} Thus the entire discourse is rounded off by the return of the end to the beginning; and the main thought of the whole, which Jeremiah has developed and enforced with so much variety of feeling and oratorical and poetical ornament, is the eternally true thought that a service of God which is purely external is no service at all, and that rites without a loving obedience are an insult to the Majesty of Heaven.
Jer 10:17-25. The latter part of Jer 10:1-25 resumes the subject suspended at Jer 9:22. It evidently contemplates the speedy departure of the people into banishment. “Away out of the land with thy pack” (or “thy goods”; “property,” Targ. “merchandise,” the Heb. term, which is related to “Canaan,” occurs here only), “O thou that sittest in distress!” (or “abidest in the siege.” {Jer 52:5; 2Ki 24:10} Sion is addressed, and bidden to prepare her scanty bundle of bare necessaries for the march into exile. So Egypt is bidden to “make for herself vessels of exile,” Jer 46:19. Some think that Sion is warned to withdraw her goods from the open country to the protection of her strong walls, before the siege begins, as in Jer 8:14; but we have passed that stage in the development of the piece, and the next verse seems to show the meaning: “For thus hath Iahvah said, Lo, I am about to sling forth the inhabitants of the land this time”-as opposed to former occasions, when the enemy retired unsuccessful, {2Ki 16:5; 2Ki 19:36} or went off satisfied with plunder or an indemnity, like the Scythians {see 2Ki 14:14} -“and I will distress them that they may find out” the truth, which now they refuse to see. The aposiopesis “that they may find out!” is very striking. The Vulgate renders the verb in the passive: Tribulabo eos ita ut inveniantur. This, however, does not give so good a sense as the Masoretic pointing, and Ewalds reference of the term to the goods of the panic-stricken fugitives seems flat and tasteless (“the inhabitants of the land will this time not be able to hide their goods from the enemy!”). The best comment on the phrase is supplied by a later oracle: “Lo, I am about to make them know this time-I will make them know My hand and My might; that they may know that My name is Iahvah.” {Jer 16:21} Cf. also Jer 17:9; Ecc 8:17.
The last verse (Jer 10:17) resembles a poetical quotation; and this one looks like the explication of it. There the population is personified as a woman; here we have instead the plain prose expression, “inhabitants of the land.” The figurative, “I will sling them forth” or “cast them out,” explains the bidding of Sion to “pack up her bundle” or “belongings”-there seems to be a touch of contempt in this isolated word, as much as to signify that the people must go forth into exile with no more of their possessions than they can carry like a beggar in a bundle. The expression, “I will distress them,” seems to show that “thou that sittest in the distress” is proleptic, or to be rendered “thou that art to sit in distress,” which comes to the same thing.
And now the prophet imagines the distress and the remorse of this forlorn mother, as it will manifest itself when her house is ruined and her children are gone and she realises the folly of the past:-{cf. Jer 4:31}
“Woes me for my wound!
Fatal is my stroke!”
(perhaps quoted from a familiar elegy). “And yet I-I thought,” {Jer 22:21; Psa 30:7} “Only this”-no more than this-“is my sickness: I can bear it!” The people had never fully realised the threatenings of the prophets, until they began to be accomplished. When they heard them, they had said half-incredulously, half-mockingly, Is that all? Their false guides, too, had treated apparent danger as a thing of little moment, assuring them that their half reforms, and zealous outward worship, were sufficient to turn away the Divine displeasure. {Jer 6:14} And so they said to themselves, as sinners are still in the habit of saying, “If the worst come to the worst, I can bear it. Besides, God is merciful, and things may turn out better for frail humanity than your preachers of wrath and woe predict. Meanwhile-I shall do as I please, and take my chance of the issue.”
The lament of the mourning mother continues: “My tent is laid waste and all my cords are broken; My sons went forth of me” (to battle) “and are not; There is none to spread my tent any more, And to set up my curtains.” {Amo 9:11} Overhearing, as it were, this sorrowful lamentation (“qinah”), the prophet interposes with the reason of the calamity: “For the shepherds became brutish” or “behaved foolishly,” stulte egerunt (Vulg.)-the leaders of the nation showed themselves as insensate and silly as cattle-“and Iahvah they sought not”; {Jer 2:8} “Therefore”-as they had no regard for Divine counsel-“they dealt not wisely,” {Jer 3:15; Jer 9:23; Jer 20:11} “and all their flock was scattered abroad.”
Once more, and for the last time, the prophet sounds the alarm: “Hark! a rumour! lo, it cometh! and a great uproar from the land of the north; to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt of jackals!” It is not likely that the verse is to be regarded as spoken by the mourning country; she contemplates the evil as already done, whereas here it is only imminent. {cf. Jer 4:6; Jer 6:22; Jer 1:15} The piece concludes with a prayer (Jer 10:23-25), which may be considered either as. an intercession by the prophet on behalf of the nation, {cf. Jer 18:20} or as a form of supplication which he suggests as suitable to the existing crisis. “I know, Iahvah, that mans way is not his own; That it pertaineth not to a man to walk and direct his own steps: Correct me, Iahvah, but with justice; Not in Thine anger, lest Thou make me small!” Partly quoted, {Psa 6:1; Psa 38:1} “Pour out Thy fury upon the nations that know Thee not, And upon tribes that have not called upon Thy name; For they have devoured Jacob” (“and will devour him”) (“and consumed him”), “and his pasture they have desolated!” {Psa 79:6-7, quoted from this place. In Jeremiah the LXX omits “and will devour him”; while the psalm omits both of the bracketed expressions.}
The Vulgate renders Jer 7:23 “Scio, Domine, quia non est hominis via ejus; nec viri est ut ambulet, et dirigat gressus suos.” I think this indicates the correct reading of the Hebrew text; cf. Jer 9:23, where two infinitives absolute are used in a similar way. The Septuagint also must have had the same text, for it translates, “nor will (can) a man walk and direct his own walking.” The Masoretic punctuation is certainly incorrect; and the best that can be made of it is Hitzigs version, which, however, disregards the accents, although their authority is the same as that of the vowel points: “I know Iahvah that not to man belongeth his way, not to a perishing” (lit. “going,” “departing”) “man-and to direct his steps.” Any reader of Hebrew may see at once that this is a very unusual form of expression. {For the thought, cf. Pro 16:9; Pro 19:21; Psa 37:23}
The words express humble submission to the impending chastisement. The penitent people does not deprecate the penalty of its sins, but only prays that the measure of it may be determined by right rather than by wrath. {cf. Jer 46:27-28} The very idea of right and justice implies a limit, whereas wrath, like all passions, is without limit, blind and insatiable. “In the Old Testament, justice is opposed, not to mercy, but to high-handed violence and oppression, which recognise no law but subjective appetite and desire. The just man owns the claims of an objective law of right.”
Non est hominis via ejus. Neither individuals nor nations are masters of their own fortunes in this world. Man has not his fate in his own hands; it is controlled and directed by a higher Power. By sincere submission, by a glad, unswerving loyalty, which honours himself as well as its Object, man may cooperate with that Power, to the furtherance of ends which are of all possible ends the wisest, the loftiest, the most beneficial to his kind. Self-will may oppose those ends, it cannot thwart them; at the most it can but momentarily retard their accomplishment, and exclude itself from a share in the universal blessing.
Israel now confesses, by the mouth of his best and truest representative, that he has hitherto loved to choose his own path, and to walk in his own strength, without reference to the will and way of God. Now, the overwhelming shock of irresistible calamity has brought him to his senses, has revealed to him his powerlessness in the hands of the Unseen Arbiter of events, has made him see, as he never saw, that mortal man can determine neither the vicissitudes nor the goal of his journey. Now he sees the folly of the mighty man glorying in his might, and the rich man glorying in his riches; now he sees that the how and the whither of his earthly course are not matters within his own control; that all human resources are nothing against God, and are only helpful when used for and with God. Now he sees that the path of life is not one which we enter upon and traverse of our own motion, but a path along which we are led; and so, resigning his former pride of independent choice, he humbly prays, “Lead Thou me on!” Lead me whither Thou wilt, in the way of trouble and disaster and chastisement for my sins; but remember my human frailty and weakness, and let not Thy wrath destroy me! Finally, the suppliant ventures to remind God that others are guilty as well as he, and that the ruthless destroyers of Israel are themselves fitted to be objects as well as instruments of Divine justice. They are such
(1) because they have not “known” nor “called upon” Iahvah; and
(2) because they have “devoured Jacob” who was a thing consecrated to Iahvah, {Jer 2:3} and therefore are guilty of sacrilege. {cf. Jer 50:28-29}
It has never been our lot to see our own land overrun by a barbarous invader, our villages burnt, our peasantry slaughtered, our towns taken and sacked with all the horrors permitted or enjoined by a non-Christian religion. We read of but hardly realise the atrocities of ancient warfare. If we did realise them, we might even think a saint justified in praying for vengeance upon the merciless destroyers of his country. But apart from this, I see a deeper meaning in this prayer. The justice of this terrible visitation upon Judah is admitted by the prophet. Yet in Judah many righteous were involved in the general calamity. On the other hand, Jeremiah knew something of the vices of the Babylonians, against which his contemporary Habakkuk inveighs so bitterly. They “knew not” nor “called upon” Iahvah; but a base polytheism reflected and sanctioned the corruption of their lives. A kind of moral dilemma, therefore, is proposed here. If the propose of this outpouring of Divine wrath be to bring Israel to “find out” {Jer 7:18} and to acknowledge the truth of God and his own guiltiness, can wrath persist, when that result is attained? Does not justice demand that the torrent of destruction be diverted upon the proud oppressor? So prayer, the forlorn hope of poor humanity, strives to overcome and compel and prevail with God, and to wrest a blessing even from the hand of Eternal Justice.