Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 8:2
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 worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
2. host of heaven ] Such worship was frequent, as we see from 2Ki 17:16; 2Ki 21:3; Zep 1:5, in the time of the later kings. Cp. Jer 19:13; Eze 8:16.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Loved … served … walked … sought … worshipped – There is great force in the piled-up verbs by which their worship of the heavenly bodies is described. The prophet beginning with the hearts love describes that worship) in the various stages of its development, and then contrasts its fulness with the miserable reward which ensues.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
They shall spread them before the sun; not gather them together into charnel-houses, as we usually do out of humanity, but scatter them about as it were to be turned into dust and dung.
And the moon, and all the host of heaven, viz. all the rest of the stars, to show that they should not lie out in the day time only, but night also, before the moon and stars, Jer 36:30. Their carcasses shall be cast to their idols, Lev 26:30; 2Ki 23:14,20; a kind of lex talionis, that as they had served and worshipped these creatures, God doth, as it were, appoint them as spectators and witnesses of his vengeance, and what contempt he pours upon them, their carcasses being brought before their idols, which will be so shameful, as if one should draw forth the adulteress with the adulterer into open view, and expose them together; and it also insinuates the inability that is in these dumb idols to help them in their misery.
Whom they have loved: this and the following term serve to express the greatness and variety of their affection and zeal in their worshipping of them, Deu 4:19; 2Ki 23:5; Jer 7:18; he multiplies words, as it were implying that there can hardly be words enough to express their folly and madness, the Gentiles worshipping these creatures, not only for their beauty and lustre, but, according to their ancient philosophy, apprehending them to have been living creatures, and that all events were ordered by them.
They shall be for dung upon the face of the earth; on the superficies of it; there shall be no care taken of them, but they shall lie in the open country in the air, till they rot into dung, or dry into dust, as in the beginning of the verse; see Psa 83:10; Jer 9:22; they shall be ignominious even after death.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
2. spread . . . before the sun,c.retribution in kind. The very objects which received theiridolatries shall unconcernedly witness their dishonor.
loved . . . served . . .after . . . walked . . . sought . . . worshippedWords areaccumulated, as if enough could not be said fully to express the madfervor of their idolatry to the heavenly host (2Ki23:5).
nor . . . buried (Jer22:19).
dung (Jer 9:22Psa 83:10).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And they shall spread them before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven,…. The stars. This shows, not only that they should be publicly exposed; but, as it refers to their idolatrous worship of the sun, moon, and stars, that these deities will not be able to help them; as they could not prevent their dead bodies being dug up, so neither could they order or cause them to be gathered together, and buried again:
whom they have loved; whereas they ought to have loved the Lord their God, and him only: it means an idolatrous love of and affection for them; and not the love of them, as creatures for use and delight; otherwise the light of the sun, moon, and stars, is sweet, and their influence great; and a pleasant thing it is to behold them, and especially the former of them, the fountain of light and heat: and whom they have served; more and besides the Creator of them, whom they should have served, the Lord of hosts, and him only:
and after whom they have walked; not in a natural and literal sense, but in a religious one, as is after explained:
and whom they have sought; for advice and counsel, and by making their prayers and supplications to them:
and whom they have worshipped; by bowing the knee, or kissing the hand; by offering sacrifices, and burning incense, and putting up petitions to them; by trusting in them, and expecting good things from them; see
2Ki 21:3:
they shall not be gathered, nor be buried: meaning not the men that should die in those times, but the bones that should be brought out of the graves; these, having been scattered about, should not be collected together again, and replaced in their sepulchres:
they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth; that is, they should lie and rot upon the face of the earth, and crumble into dust, and become dung for it; see Ps 83:10.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
It was, because they served the sun, and the moon, and the stars It was God’s just vengeance, that their bones should be taken from their graves, in order that the sun and moon and all the stars might be witnesses of his judgment. By these words Jeremiah indirectly reprobates the senselessness of the people for thinking that they performed an acceptable service to the sun and moon. He therefore says, that all the stars and the planets would become as it were spectators of the vengeance which God would execute; as though he had said, that the whole celestial host would approve of that punishment; for nothing is more detestable to creatures, than when the glory of their Maker is ascribed to them. It is indeed true that the sun, moon, and stars are without sense or reason; but the Prophet here attributes reason to them, in order that he might shake off from the Jews that stupidity in which they hardened themselves, while they thought that they were rendering to the sun an acceptable service. At the same time he alludes, as it appears also from other places, to the punishment inflicted on adulterers: for when a harlot is drawn out and led forth in contempt and disgrace in the presence of her adulterers, it is deemed a most just punishment. And thus as the Jews had as it were committed adultery with the sun and the moon and the stars, so the Prophet says here, that their disgrace and baseness would be made manifest in the sight of the sun, and the moon, and the stars.
He says, which they have loved He no doubt alludes to the blind ardor by which idolaters were possessed, when they zealously pursued their illicit devotions; for it was a species of an unbridled and mad passion, as it appears from other places; for no fornicator burns with a more impetuous lust after a woman, than idolaters do, when Satan dazzles their eyes and fascinates their hearts. Of this impure love then does the Prophet now speak; and at the same time, he indirectly condemns the Jews for having alienated themselves without a cause from God, who was their legitimate husband. There is indeed nothing less tolerable than for men thus perfidiously to forsake God, when he has invited them to himself, and contracted as it were with them a holy and an inviolable marriage.
He afterwards adds, whom they have served This was still more base; they devoted themselves to the work of serving the sun, the moon, and the stars. He mentions in the third place, that they walked after them. God had shewn them the right way, and had commanded them to follow him: but they forsook God, says the Prophet, and followed the stars of heaven. He states in the fourth place, that they sought them. By this he refers to their perverseness. Some render the word “consulted,” of which I do not approve, for it is strained and far-fetched. (215) The Prophet, I doubt not, denotes here the persevering attention of the Jews to the objects of their worship; for they followed their idols not by a sudden and momentary impulse, but they resolutely devoted themselves to them and became as it were fixed in their wicked purpose. And he says in the last place, that they prostrated themselves before them. This was the way in which they served them. It is an evidence of reverence when men prostrate themselves before their idols; and thus they serve them, for it is an act of worship. The Prophet might indeed have sufficiently expressed in one sentence the impiety of the people; but he joins together several sentences for the sake of amplification, in order that he might render more evident the ingratitude of the people in seeking for themselves unknown gods, and in setting up false and fictitious modes of worship, rather than to render obedience to the only true God and to acquiesce in his law, which is a certain rule, and never leads any astray. (216)
He afterwards adds, They shall not be gathered, nor be buried; for dung shall they be on the face or surface of the land He confirms what he had said of the punishment before mentioned, — that they had acted disdainfully towards God, and had prostrated themselves before their idols, so after death they would be made base and detestable, so that the mind would revolt at such a hateful sight. This is the meaning. It follows —
(215) Though it be improper to render the word “consult;” yet the meaning is the same: they sought them, that is, their counsel and direction. They sought them in all emergencies. “To inquire of the Lord,“ in Gen 25:22, is literally “to seek the Lord;” and “to inquire of God,” in Exo 18:15, is literally “to seek God.” Indeed, to inquire of or to ask, that is, counsel, seems to be the most common meaning of the word. “Sought,“ is the Vulgate and Targum, — “consulted,“ is the Syriac, — and “cleaved to,“ is the Septuagint and Arabic; and this is the idea of Calvin. — Ed.
(216) It would be better to render אמונה before the verbs here as an adverb, because, as, or inasmuch as. There is a pronoun following every verb, —
2. And they shall expose them to the sun, And to the moon, and to all the host of heaven: As they had loved them, and as they had served them, And as they had walked after them, And as they had sought them, And as they had bowed down to them, They shall not be gathered, nor buried; For dung on the face of the land shall they be.
The order here is from the principle to the action, and not the contrary, as is often the case: love — service — walking according to the rules prescribed — seeking counsel-and worshipping. — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(2) Whom they have loved . . .Here, again, there is a peculiar characteristic emphasis in the piling up, one upon another, of verbs more or less synonymous. So far as there is a traceable order, it is from the first inward impulse prompting to idolatry to the full development of that feeling in ritual. The sun, moon, and stars shall look, not on crowds of adoring worshippers, but on the carcases of those whose love and worship, transferred from Jehovah to the host of heaven, have brought on them that terrible doom.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
2. They shall spread them before the sun, etc. Observe the cumulative force of the verbs used to express their worship of the heavenly bodies. The passage is an excellent illustration of the genius of the Hebrew language as to emphasis. But the stars looked coldly down on the discomfiture of their worshippers.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2.
The Growing Wickedness of the Leaders and Teachers. Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:24.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 8:2. And they shall spread them And they shall leave them exposed, &c.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 8:2 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.
Ver. 2. And they shall spread them before the sun. ] Whom these idolaters had worshipped while they were alive, and thought they could never do enough for, as is hinted by those many expressions in the text.
Whom they have loved, and whom they have served, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
and. Particularizing here the details of the idolatry.
not be gathered. Compare 2Sa 21:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
and all: Jer 19:13, Jer 44:17-19, Deu 4:19, Deu 17:3, 2Ki 17:16, 2Ki 21:3, 2Ki 21:5, 2Ki 23:5, 2Ch 33:3-5, Eze 8:16, Zep 1:5, Act 7:42
they shall be: Jer 9:22, Jer 16:4, Jer 22:19, Jer 36:30, 2Ki 9:36, 2Ki 9:37, Psa 83:10, Ecc 6:3, Zep 1:17
Reciprocal: Gen 2:1 – host Gen 15:15 – buried Gen 48:15 – did walk Exo 23:25 – And ye 1Ki 14:10 – as a man taketh 1Ki 18:15 – of hosts liveth 2Ki 23:14 – the bones of men 2Ch 34:5 – he Job 20:7 – perish Job 27:19 – gathered Job 31:26 – beheld Psa 33:6 – the host Psa 79:3 – and there Isa 5:25 – torn Isa 14:19 – thou Isa 34:3 – slain Jer 7:33 – General Jer 16:11 – walked Jer 19:7 – and their Jer 25:33 – they shall not Eze 6:4 – and I Eze 29:5 – I will leave Eze 32:4 – General Eze 39:5 – open field Amo 2:4 – after Amo 4:10 – the stink Mal 2:3 – spread
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 8:2. The pronouns in this verse have three antecedents implied and I shall express the passage as follows: “And then (the Babylonians) shall spread them (the bones) before the sun . . . whom they (kings and other idolaters) have loved, etc. The dishonor will be further shown after having dragged the bones from the tombs, by refusing to reinter them even after having secured the valuables that had been buried with them. Shall be for dung is used figuratively here and in many other passages in the Bible. Dung is and has been regarded as a valuable substance, both as fuel and fertilizer. Its use in a bad sense, therefore, is due to its being the refuse of other articles or bodies of living beings, and to the further fact that it is scattered out and made to disappear from view.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
The enemy soldiers would expose these bones to the sun, moon, and stars, which the Judahites had loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshipped.
". . . as if in fulfillment of the desires of the dead, their bones are laid out upon the earth, exposed to the very astral ’powers’ whom once the dead had worshiped. And in the humiliation of the dead, their former heavenly masters were uncaring, complacently shining in the heavens, unconcerned about human fate on the face of the earth. Although in life the citizens of Judah had served these astral deities, offering them affection, soliciting their advice and counsel (much as their modern counterparts might read an astrological chart), in human death the futility of their actions was at last made plain." [Note: Craigie, p. 127.]
Worship of astral deities was popular in the days of Manasseh (2Ki 21:3; 2Ki 23:4) and later revived after Josiah’s reforms (Eze 8:16). The land would resemble a boneyard, because there would be few, if any, survivors from Judah to gather up the bones for burial (cf. ch. 37). Human bones would serve as fertilizer for the land instead of animal bones, which were often used for this purpose (cf. Jer 16:4).