Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 15:9
She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while [it was] yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
9. She that hath borne seven ] and therefore, from the Jewish point of view, might have thought herself secure and prosperous. Seven was the perfect number. Cp. 1Sa 2:5.
hath given up the ghost ] hath died.
while it was yet day ] before she had reached the evening of her life. Cp. Amo 8:9.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
She hath been ashamed – Or, is ashamed. To a Hebrew mother to be childless was a disgrace. Many consider that Jer 15:7-9 refer to the battle of Megiddo, and depict the consternation of Jerusalem at that sad event. If so, in the sun going down while it was day, there will be a reference to the eclipse on September 30, 610 b.c.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 15:9
Her sun is gone down while it is yet day.
Beautiful, but brief
I. Her life was like the sun in its shining.
1. Gloriously bright with faith and joy.
2. Blessedly useful in diffusing light.
3. Constantly comforting, by its warmth of love and hope.
4. Christianly generous, always giving.
5. A centre of attraction, in the house, in the class, in the social circle, and in the Church.
II. Her death was like the sun in its setting.
1. Gradual
2. Beautiful.
3. Peaceful.
4. To rise again.
III. Her sunset was early in the day of life.
1. In the prime and beauty of being.
2. In the midst of work.
3. It seems unnatural, and suggests questions.
4. It is an interposition of God in His providence, doubtless wise and loving.
5. It leads us from the creature to the. Creator.
6. It suggests that we be all ready, always ready. (W. Whale.)
Premature sunset
I. In nature.
1. Would be unnatural.
2. Would be injurious to all life.
3. Would make us less confident as to the unerring regularity of natures law.
II. In history. Many cases in which nations have fallen, not with decrepitude of age, but through early and self-wrought ruin.
III. In individual life. The young, the immoral, the unprincipled in character generally. Obedience to God gives a long day and beautiful sunset. (W. Whale.)
The Christians sun
I. The Christian has a sun. A Sun is a globe which keeps other globes in connection with it in their proper spheres and at their assigned work, and which imports light and heat to them and to all the creatures which inhabit them. In a sense, all men have a sun to which they look for present and future good. But it differs with different men. With some it is nature; some, the traditions of their fathers; some, fancied superior morality; and the portion of good to every man, with regard to its character and intent, is determined by the capability and quality of his sun. Oh, how miserably off must be all who depend on the finite! The Christian does not. His sun is Jesus as set forth in Holy Writ. From Him every true believer has the light and heat of spiritual life, and through Him he gets into his place, and is put to his appropriate work in creation (Joh 1:1-14; Joh 8:12; Joh 12:46). Receptivity is the beginning of that state of mind which, if rightly followed up, issues in the likeness, love, and enjoyment of God; and as Jesus, the source to which the Christian looks for lasting, ennobling good, is infinite, his felicity and glory will be forever enlarging.
II. The Christian is sunnified by his sun. He is a retainer, as well as a receiver, of its beneficent outflow. All the colours, and all the shades of colours, and every form of animal and vegetable life, are owing to the retention and appropriation of solar rays. The wealth, and beauty, and blessed activity of earth arise in this way. In like manner, the rays of the worlds spiritual Sun–the divinely inspired record of the history of incarnate Deity–must be kept and fittingly used if His fruits are to be enjoyed.
III. The Christian sunnifies others. He is a reflector and spreader of the brightness and goodness of his sun. Ye are the light of the world. The globes which emit light and heat as well as have them, the animals which add usefulness to life, and the flowers which are fragrant besides being beautiful, are highest in the scale of existence and of greatest worth. To those Christians who are active besides being pious, who spread the Gospel in addition to living it, who enrich and bless others as well as seek to be enriched and blessed themselves, are the most like Jesus, the most dear to the Father, the most useful to men, the most honoured in the Church. Their death is a calamity to others, but auspicious to themselves. Apply the subject–
1. To sinners. Get spiritual light and life while you can.
2. To saints. Prize and make good use of your privileges. Diffuse your light.
3. To Christian workers.
Be not weary in works of faith and labours of love. The more light you spread, and the more men you illumine, the greater your joy now, the greater your blessedness hereafter. (W. J. Stuart.)
Death the setting of the sun
I. The sun, in setting, disappears from view. As the great central orb is lost to our part of the world as he sinks beneath the horizon, so man is lost to the view of earth as he descends to the grave. The places that knew him know him no more.
II. The sun in setting obeys its law. The sun knoweth his going down. Death is a law of nature. It is as natural for the body to die as for the sun to go down.
III. The sun in setting is often gorgeous. Often have we seen the monarch of the day ride down in a chariot of glittering gold. Many a man has died under a halo of moral splendour. Like Stephen, they have seen the heavens open, and reflected the celestial rays as they came down.
IV. The setting sun will rise again. So with man in death. He does not go out of existence: he only sinks from view, and sinks to rise again in new splendour. Conclusion–Let us fulfil our mission as the sun does his, move in our little circle in harmony with Divine law, enlightening, vivifying, and beautifying all, and then death need have no terror for us. Our path will be as a shining light, etc. (Homilist.)
Sunset at noonday
These words are illustrative of death in lifes meridian. They remind us of–
I. Premature darkness. Sunsetting is the harbinger of night.
1. In nature. We do not expect sunset until eventide.
2. In morals. The departure of moral integrity. This sun should never set.
3. In physical life. Death is sunset to the aged, at night; to the young, at noon.
4. Unexpected darkness is unanticipated sorrow to community, family, individual.
II. Uncompleted work. Man goeth forth unto his work. Ordinarily, man has work enough to last all day; when called away prematurely, he leaves part untouched. So in lifes aggregation. In lifes morning his work is largely preparatory for mightier accomplishments of his post meridian.
III. Frustrated design. Man lives in the future–
(1) intellectually,
(2) socially,
(3) religiously.
Setting suns of life. Permanently overwrought powers. Commercial disasters. Succumbing to evil. In each case failure to realise the hope.
IV. A speedier enjoyment of rest. Darkness suggests night; night suggests repose. As in the physical, so in the souls life. Blessed are the dead, etc. There remaineth therefore, etc. (Homiletic Monthly.)
Death in the midst of life
I. The sun as an emblem of the saints of God. When we contemplate the great orb of day we are impressed–
1. With his greatness and elevation. This greatness and elevation fitly represents the true character of the Christian, contrasted with what he was, with what others are around him. Knowledge makes a man great. Grace of God elevates and lifts up to heaven. I will set him on high, etc.
2. Natural glory and magnificence. The most glorious of all the heavenly bodies. The kings daughter, etc. (Psa 45:13). See this strikingly set forth (2Co 3:18).
3. As the great diffuser of light and beauty. The Christian is first the recipient of light, and then he is called to shine. Arise, shine, etc. So let your light shine, etc.
4. As the chief source of fertility and fruitfulness. Where Christians live there is knowledge, benevolence, happiness, and life. Look at all our institutions of temporal and moral goodness.
II. The setting of the sun as a striking representation of the morality of the Christian.
1. The going down of the sun is a usual and therefore expected event. So sure as he arises we know he will go down. Man is born to die, etc. I know that Thou wilt bring me to death, etc. The living know, etc.
2. The period of the going down of the sun is very diversified. Look at the short winters day and the long summers day. So in life,–every age is alike mortal, etc. But the text speaks of the sun going down while it is yet day–prematurely. How often is this the case.
3. The going down of the sun is often peculiarly splendid and beautiful. How characteristic of the good mans death!
4. The sun goes down to arise and shine on another horizon. (J. Burn, D. D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 9. She that hath borne seven] She that hath had a numerous offspring; Jerusalem, the parent of so many cities, villages, and families in the land. Seven signifies a complete or full number.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Seven signifies many, 1Sa 2:5; Job 5:19. The prophet complains that Jerusalem, or the country of Judah, that had been very numerous in people, now grew feeble, neither able to maintain those she had borne, nor yet to bear more.
Her sun is gone down while it was yet day; in the midst of her prosperity she became thus miserable.
She hath been ashamed and confounded: a part of them were confounded by the judgments of God, which came upon them before their captivity. For the remainder of them, (saith God,) they shall be destroyed by the sword of the enemy.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
9. borne seven (1Sa2:5). Seven being the perfect number indicates full fruitfulness.
languishethbecause noteven one is left of all her sons (Jer15:8).
sun is gone down while . . .yet dayFortune deserts her at the very height of herprosperity (Am 8:9).
she . . . ashamedThemothers (she being collective) are put to the shame ofdisappointed hopes through the loss of all their children.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
She that hath borne seven languisheth,…. Either the mother that has borne many children, seven being put for a large number, now being able to bear no more, and being bereaved of what she had, and who were her staff and support, and from whom she had her expectation, faints away, and dies through grief and trouble; or Jerusalem, which formerly abounded with young men, is now in a forlorn and destitute state; her children, the inhabitants of it, being slain with the sword, or dying of famine and the pestilence. In the Talmud i, this is interpreted of seven wicked kings of Israel, as Jeroboam, Baasha, Ahab, Jehu, Pekah, Menahem, and Hoshea; and elsewhere of seven kings of Judah, thus reckoned, Jehoram, Joash, Ahaz, Manasseh, Amon, Jehoiakim, and Zedekiah k:
she hath given up the ghost; or, “blew out her soul l”; her breath departs; no life can be kept in her; she faints away at the calamities coming on her:
her sun is gone down while it was yet day; the darkness of affliction, and the evening of distress and calamity came upon her sooner than was expected, while in the midst of peace and prosperity that was promised, and hoped to be enjoyed for a long time to come; see Am 8:9:
she hath been ashamed and confounded; of her vain hope, trust, and confidence:
and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the Lord; that is; such who died not of the famine and pestilence, but at the breaking up of the city endeavoured to make their escape, these fell into the hands of the enemy, and perished by the sword, as the Lord here predicts; for whatsoever he says certainly comes to pass.
i T. Bab. Gittin, fol. 88. 1. k Vid. Jarchi Abendana in loc. l “efflabit animam suam”, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator “exspiravit animam suam”, Cocceius.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
He proceeds with his narrative; he says, that fruitful women had been weakened, not as we see to be often the case, for by frequent child — bearing we know the strength of women is diminished; but here he speaks of the strength which mothers derive from their children; for a numerous offspring is the support of mothers. She then who has many children seems strong, as she is by so many shields defended. As then mothers were wont to place much dependence on their offspring, he says that they were weakened as to their strength when they were bereaved of all their children, as though they had been barren.
He afterwards adds, that the soul, the people, had expired; for he speaks not here of women, but of the whole people. For it afterwards follows, Set hath her sun while it was yet day; that is, when prosperity seemed certain, God suddenly involved them in adversity, and as it were surrounded them with darkness, when they thought that prosperous fortune was slhining on them. He at last says, that they were confounded and ashamed; and at the same time he declares, that he would give all who remained to the sword before their enemies; as though he had said, “They have not yet suffered all the punishment allotted to them, for they are not subdued, though I have heavily and severely chastised them; as then they are incurable, the sword shall destroy the remainder; for my vengeance shall not cease to pursue them, until I shall utterly consume them. (137)
(137) The whole passage, including the 7 th, 8 th, and 9 th verses (Jer 15:7) presents difficulties as to the time intended. The verbs, from the middle of the 7 th to the last clause in verse the 9 th, are all in the past tense, and are so given in the Septuagint, Vulgate, and the Targum; but in the Syriac in the future tense. Our version is not uniform. It is better to give the tenses as they are, for the reference seems to be to God’s past judgments; and at the end of the 9 th verse, God speaks of what he would do, —
7. And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land. I have bereaved, I have destroyed my people; From their ways have they not turned:
8. Increased to me have their (people) widows More than the sand of the sea; I brought on them, on the mother of they youth, A disaster at mid-day; I caused to come upon her suddenly Tumult and terrors:
9. Languish did she who gave birth to seven, Pant for breath did her soul, Set did her sun during the day time, Ashamed has she been and confounded: And the remainder of them to the sword will I give, In the presence of their enemies, saith Jehova.
As he speaks of bereavement, of widows, and of giving birth to seven, it seems evident, that “the mother of the youths,” or of young men. Whether mother is to be taken here metaphorically for Jerusalem, is another question; but I think otherwise. The loss of mothers as to their children is what is spoken of. And from having mentioned the case of mothers in their bereavement, the Prophet in the next verse refers to his own mother, and to his own unhappy condition, — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(9) She that hath borne seven.In the picture of the previous verse the glory of the mother was found in the valour of her son, here in the number of her children. Seven, as the perfect number, represented, as in 1Sa. 2:5, Rth. 4:15, the typical completeness of the family.
Her sun is gone down while it was yet day.The image of this eclipse of all joy and brightness may possibly have been suggested by the actual eclipse of the sun (total in Palestine), Sept. 30; B.C. 610, the year of the battle of Megiddo, just as the earthquake in the reign of Uzziah suggested much of the imagery of Isaiah and Amos (Isa. 2:19; Amo. 1:1-2; Amo. 4:11; Zec. 14:5). A like image meets us in Amo. 8:9.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 15:9. Her sun is gone down, &c. See Amo 8:9. Isa 59:9. The expression is extremely strong, and denotes a sudden change from the highest prosperity to the lowest distress.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jer 15:9 She that hath borne seven languisheth: she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while [it was] yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
Ver. 9. She that hath born seven languisheth. ] Jerusalem, that mater multipara, a fruitful mother.
She hath given up the ghost.
Her sun is gone down.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
seven = the seven. Not even these will suffice.
given up the ghost = breathed out her soul. Hebrew. nephesh.
deliver = give.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
She that hath: She that hath had a numerous offspring, Jerusalem, the mother city, the parent of so many cities, villages, and families in the land. 1Sa 2:5, Isa 47:9, Lam 1:1, Lam 4:10
her sun: Amo 8:9, Amo 8:10
and the: Jer 15:2, Jer 15:3, Jer 44:27, Eze 5:12
Reciprocal: 2Ch 36:17 – who slew Jer 19:7 – I will cause Mic 3:6 – the sun
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 15:9. The pronoun she stands for the nation or kingdom of Judah. Sun is gone dawn is figurative aud refers to the national daylight that ceased to shine. While it tons yet day Is also figurative and means that Judah’s national sun was to go dovvn prematurely. It will be like the natural sun going dovvn when I he timepiece said it was noon time. Not only will Judah lose control of her capital city of Jerusalem. thus suffering a national sunset, but many of her citizens will be destroyed by the enemy. (See the fulfillment of this in 2 Kings 24, 25.)
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 15:9. She that hath borne seven languisheth Seven is put for many, (see 1Sa 2:5,) and the multitude of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the mother-city, is here alluded to; the prophet pursuing the metaphor of the former verse, and describing the mother-city under the figure of a woman that had been fruitful, but was now become feeble, and bore no children. He means that the people of Judah, which had been very numerous, were now greatly diminished. Her sun is gone down while it was yet day In the midst of her prosperity she is reduced to this state of misery, being of a sudden overwhelmed with the greatest calamities, when she might have expected a long continuance of happiness. The expression is extremely strong, and denotes a sudden change from the highest dignity to the lowest abasement. She hath been ashamed and confounded The judgments of God oppressed and confounded a part of the Jews before their captivity. And the residue of them The remainder of them, saith God, shall be destroyed by the sword of the enemy.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
15:9 She that hath borne {h} seven languisheth: she hath breathed her last; her sun is {i} gone down while [it was] yet day: she hath been ashamed and confounded: and the remnant of them will I deliver to the sword before their enemies, saith the LORD.
(h) She who had many lost all her children.
(i) She was destroyed in the midst of her prosperity.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
The woman who had had a perfect family and complete happiness would become so sad that she would hardly be able to breathe (cf. 1Sa 2:5; Rth 4:15). It would be as though the day of her rejoicing ended at noon. Her sunshine disappeared at noon with the death(s) of her son(s). She would have no heirs and comforters in her old age (cf. Jer 14:3-4). It is possible that Jeremiah was personifying Jerusalem and or Judah as a widow, but a literal fulfillment is also probably in view (cf. Mat 23:37-38; Luk 23:28-31).
The swords of the enemy would also devour many survivors of earlier invasions. This seems to indicate that at least one invasion of Jerusalem had already occurred when Jeremiah wrote this prophecy, probably the one in 597 B.C. (cf. 2Ki 24:10-17).
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Deportations of Judahites to Babylon |
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First deportation |
605 B.C. |
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Second deportation |
597 B.C. |
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Third deportation |
586 B.C. |