Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 9:1
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Jer 9:1 . Cp. Jer 13:16 f. This is the climax of the prophet’s lamentation, and so to be disconnected from the section that follows.
Ch. Jer 9:2-26. Judah’s corruption described. Her consequent sufferings. The recognition of Jehovah alone secures the weal of any nation
The section may be subdivided as follows.
(i) Jer 9:2-9. The prophet yearns for any retreat, even of the most dreary type, if it will deliver him from the sights he must behold in the city, viz., mutual distrust, treachery, and falsehood, which vitiate even the closest kinship, and lead to rejection of Jehovah, who must punish all this wickedness. (ii) Jer 9:10-16. Disaster is set forth in detail. The land is laid waste. All vegetation and animate life have vanished. Jerusalem itself shall be sacked. Can the wise interpret this? It is because of idolatrous excesses. (iii) Jer 9:17-22. The professional mourning women are bidden to come, and words are given them in which to bewail the fallen nation. Death steals in like a thief. No place is exempt; while the young are cut off in the open. (iv) Jer 9:23-26 are foreign to the context. See notes.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Chs. Jer 8:4 to Jer 9:1. Forecast of punishment as the result of sin
The section may be thus summarized.
(i) Jer 8:4-9. Human fortunes and conduct are as a rule liable to change, but Israel pursues a steady course of disobedience. Migratory birds obeying unerringly their instincts compare favourably with the men who have intellect to understand Jehovah’s teaching, yet falsify or ignore it. (ii) Jer 8:10-12. Even prophets and priests are covetous, insincere, foolishly optimistic, and unblushingly wicked. They must suffer the penalty. Their wives and lands shall be given to others. (iii) Jer 8:13-17. They are as a tree without fruit or leaf. It remains only in despair to take refuge within walls. The northern foes’ approach can be already heard. They devastate city and country alike. No charm can avert this serpent-like attack. (iv) Jer 8:18 to Jer 9:1. There sounds from afar the cry of dismay from those who have moved Jehovah to anger. The time for deliverance has gone by. Is there indeed no remedy? No, none. Would that my tears were as limitless as the calamity which calls them forth.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This verse is joined in the Hebrew to the preceding chapter. But any break at all here interrupts the meaning.
A fountain – Rather, a reservoir, in which tears had been stored up, so that the prophet might weep abundantly.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Jer 9:1-2
Oh that my head were waters.
Christian anguish over spiritual desolation
There is a solemn beauty in Jeremiahs devotion to the welfare of his fellow countrymen. Blinded as they were by sin, they could not appreciate his anxiety, and when his loving devotion broke into the tenderest words of warning, they regarded him in the light of an enemy instead of a sincere friend. The depth of his feeling, the tenderness of his words, remind us strongly of another scene which took place more than five hundred years after these events: O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, etc. The most beautiful sight on earth is unselfish devotion to the social, mental, moral and spiritual interests of humanity. While the less thoughtful may be dazzled by the great military achievements of conquering heroes, the more thoughtful are rather charmed by that self-sacrificing devotion which, losing sight of worldly applause and worldly honour, has thought of nothing but the opportunity of doing good. As the prodigal son, in his ingratitude, profligacy, and sinful wanderings, did not check the pulsations of his fathers heart, but rather intensified them and brought to light the richness of his fathers love, so the unbelief, idolatry, and sinful lives of the Jewish people only served to reveal the strength, the sweetness and richness of the prophets nature. The history of the Christian Church is history of men and women who have not counted their lives dear unto themselves, but who have bestowed their warmest affections and divinest endeavours upon those who seemed the least likely to respond to such manifestations of interest and of love. The history of Jewish backslidings, of vows solemnly taken and as readily broken, reminds us in a vivid manner of scenes which have transpired from time to time in the Christian dispensation. For the progress of the Christian Church toward a larger benevolence, a broader charity, a purer morality, and a more intelligent piety has neither been rapid nor uniform. Seasons of great revival have been followed by periods of marked decline. Into the midst of torrid heat comes a wave of arctic cold. A narrow denominationalism has often thrown its dark shadow across the pathway of Christian catholicity. Creeds, catechisms, formulas, confessions of faith have often outweighed sobriety, virtue, benevolence, and all the other graces which adorn the Christian character, while practical unbelief, clothed in the formulas of an accepted dogma, has passed for genuine Christianity without even the semblance of a challenge. As each period of Jewish history was favoured with some that were true and brave–whose words of instruction, reproof, and warning were spoken above the din of the busy multitudes–so each period of the Christian dispensation has been honoured with some John the Baptist, whose earnest words have resounded from valley to valley, from peak to peak, and from land to land, echoing the Gospel of the blessed Lord, and summoning men to self-sacrifice, to holiness, and to purity. Our interest in the human race will depend largely upon our faith in human possibilities. If we see in man simply the possibilities of an animal, possibilities, to be sure, greater than belong to any other earthly creature, but possibilities determined by material conditions, limited to threescore years and ten, possibilities that have no relation to a future world–if we see in man nothing but the ability to trace in the sands of time a few illegible characters, then our interest in his welfare and prosperity can neither be deep nor abiding. But if, on the other hand, we see in man a creature made in the Divine image, with feeling, with thought, with spirituality, with volition, with freedom, with immortal properties, created for a higher sphere and for a better world, capable of companionship with angels, capable of communion with the omnipotent Author of his existence, endowed with power to love and serve the mighty Ruler of the universe, with unlimited capacity for growth and development–if we see in him an intelligent, moral, responsible, and immortal being, then we have an object worthy of our broadest sympathies, our warmest affections and our divinest endeavours. (Ezra Tinker, B. D.)
Genuine philanthropy
I. Genuine philanthropy melting with earnestness.
1. Heart intensely earnest concerning the temporal condition of men. Chaldean army among them, etc. Weeps as patriot.
2. Heart intensely earnest concerning the moral condition of men. Their carnalities, idolatries, and crimes affect his pious spirit more than physical sufferings and political disasters. Think of the soul–
(1) In relation to its capacity of suffering and happiness.
(2) In relation to the influences for good or evil it is capable of exerting.
(3) In relation to its power of being a delight or a grief to the heart of infinite Love.
II. Genuine philanthropy sighing for isolation.
1. The sigh of a spiritually vexed soul.
2. The sigh of disappointed love. Nothing is more saddening to generous souls than the discovery of indifference, ingratitude, and growing vice in the very men they seek to bless.
Conclusion–
1. The vicariousness of genuine philanthropy. It inspires the possessor with the spirit that will prompt him to sacrifice his very being for the good of others.
2. The abuse of genuine philanthropy. The greatest sin in the universe is sin against love.
3. The imperfection of genuine philanthropy. Like the best of everything human, love is not perfect here. Disheartened, Jeremiah sought isolation. (Homilist.)
Englands sorrows
Sometimes tears are base things; the offspring of a cowardly spirit. Some men weep when they should knit their brows, and many a woman weepeth when she should resign herself to the will of God. But ofttimes tears are the noblest things in the world. The tears of penitents are precious: cup of them were worth a kings ransom. He that loveth much, must weep much; much love and much sorrow must go together in this vale of tears. Jeremiah was not weak in his weeping; the strength of his mind and the strength of his love were the parents of his sorrow. It would seem as if some men had been sent into this world for the very purpose of being the worlds weepers. Men have their sorrows; they must have their weepers; they must have men of sorrows who have it for their avocation to be ever weeping, not so much for themselves as for the woes of others.
I. To begin, then, with actual murder and real bloodshed.
II. But I have now a greater reason for your sorrow–a more disregarded, and yet more dreadful, source of woe. Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night, for the morally slain of the daughter of my people. The old adage is still true, One half of the world knows nothing about how the other half lives. Oh, how many of our sons and daughters, of our friends and relatives, are slain by sin! Ye weep over battlefields, ye shed tears on me plains of Balaklava; there are worse battlefields than there, and worse deaths than those inflicted by the sword. Ah, weep ye for the drunkenness of this land! How many thousands of our race reel from our gin palaces into perdition! But there are other crimes too. Alas, for that crime of debauchery! What scenes hath the moon seen every night! Are these the only demons that are devouring our people? Ah, would to God it were so. Behold, throughout this land, how are men falling by every sin, disguised as it is under the shape of pleasure. O members of churches, ye may well take up the wary of Jeremiah when ye remember what multitudes of these you have in your midst men who have a name to live and are dead: and others, who though they profess not to be Christians, are almost persuaded to obey their Lord and Master, but are yea not partakers of the Divine life of God. But now I want, I can, to press this pathetic subject a little further upon our minds. In the day when Jeremiah wept this lamentation with an exceeding loud and bitter cry, Jerusalem was in all her mirth and merriment. Jeremiah was a sad man in the midst of a multitude of merry makers; he told them that Jerusalem should be destroyed, that their temple should become a heap, and Nebuchadnezzar should lay it with the ground. They laughed him to scorn; they mocked him. Still the viol and dance were only to be seen. And now, today, here are many of you merry makers in this ball of life; ye are here merry and glad today, and ye marvel that I should talk of you as persons for whom we ought to weep. Weep ye for No! you say; I am in health, I am in riches, I am enjoying life; why weep me? I need none of your sentimental weeping! Ah, but we weep because foresee the future. Oh, if today some strong archangel could unbolt the gates hell, and for a solitary second permit the voice of wailing and weeping to come to our ears: oh, how should we grieve! Remember, again, O Christian, that those for whom we ask you to weep this day are persons who have had great; privileges, and consequently, if lost, must expect greater punishment. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Why the righteous should weep for the wicked
I. Because they are infinite blessings.
1. There are many present blessings men lose by rebellion against God. There is a peace that passeth all understanding, and a joy unspeakable and full of glory, attending belief in, and devotion to, His service. The having ones passions in subjection gives serenity of mind. But enjoying of Gods favour, and the light of His countenance, is the source of richest blessings mortals possess on earth. But what peace is there for the cursed?
2. But the eternal blessings they lose are beyond imagination.
3. And not these things matters of just lamentation? How must we pity him who, when there is a rest prepared, and a supper spread for him, in heaven, provokes God to swear that he shall not enter in, nor even taste of that supper.
II. Because of the influence woes they entail on themselves.
1. How inexpressibly dreadful are the torments which the wicked will endure in hell.
2. And can we view sinners hastening to that place of torment and not weep over them?
III. Because of the aggravated guilt under which they perish. Every offer of salvation aggravates the guilt of those who reject it; and every increase of guilt is followed by increase of misery. Infer–
1. How little true charity is there in the world. Charity to the soul is the soul of charity.
2. How earnest should men be in seeking the salvation of their own souls. (Evangelical Preacher.)
Grief for sinners
There is an anecdote told of a careless Sabbath breaker who stumbled into Mr. Shermans chapel one Sunday evening when he was engaged in prayer. He took his stand in the aisle, and, seeing the tears rolling down the ministers cheeks and falling on the book as he was pleading for the conversion of sinners, he was aroused, and said to himself: This man is evidently in earnest; there must be something in the condition of sinners that I do not understand. He remained, was instructed and converted, and became a useful and steady member of the congregation.
Painful solicitude for the souls of others
This concern was incessant with the apostle. I have continual sorrow in my heart. The pain was unceasing. His interest in sinners was not spasmodic; it had become blessedly chronic. There are some of us who every now and then get a passing qualm of conscience and a consequent spurt in the matter, but how long does it last? It is a mere emotion, a transient feeling, a spasm that scarcely suffices to stir us for so much as a single Sabbath. Oh, that there were in the pastors heart, and in the hearts of all his people, a breaking, a yearning that cannot be satisfied, for the salvation of London, and of all who know not Jesus! I find myself weeping, but I weep because I weep so little. I confess myself this morning grieving, but I fear my greatest grief is that I do not grieve as I should. Well, that is a hopeful beginning. Let us all get to this at least, and we shall reach the other by and by. (Thomas Spurgeon.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
CHAPTER IX
The prophet bitterly laments the terrible judgments about to be
inflicted upon his countrymen, and points out some of the evils
which have provoked the Divine Majesty, 1-9.
Judea shall be utterly desolated, and the inhabitants
transplanted into heathen countries, 10-17.
In allusion to an ancient custom, a band of mourning women is
called to lament over the ruins of Jerusalem, 17, 18;
and even the funeral dirge is given in terms full of beauty,
elegance, and pathos, 19-22.
God is the fountain of all good; man, merely an instrument by
which a portion of this good is distributed in the earth;
therefore none should glory in his wisdom, might, or riches,
23, 24.
The judgments of God shall fall, not upon the land of Judea
only, but also upon many heathen nations, 25, 26.
NOTES ON CHAP. IX
Verse 1. O that my head were waters] mi yitten roshi mayim, “who will give to my head waters?” My mourning for the sins and desolations of my people has already exhausted the source of tears: I wish to have a fountain opened there, that I may weep day and night for the slain of my people. This has been the sorrowful language of many a pastor who has preached long to a hardened, rebellious people, to little or no effect. This verse belongs to the preceding chapter.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Oh that my head were waters! Heb. Who will give, &c.? by way of inquiry, because the Hebrews do want the imperative mood. The prophet in this chapter principally bewailing his poor countrymens calamity, whom Its therefore calls
the daughter of his people, he expresseth the greatness and excess of his sorrows, by wishing that his brains were as it were dissolved into water, (for the word is singular,) as if he wished it were all one water, signifying plenty, and that his eyes might distil tears like a fountain; the same word in the Hebrew for eye signifies a fountain; noting the continuance of it, as not to be drawn dry, expressed by day and night, apprehending it a misery so great, as never sufficiently to be bewailed. See Luk 19:41.
The slain; or that are to be slain, viz. by the Babylonians; a prophetical style; as sure to be slain as if they were slain already.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
1. This verse is more fitlyjoined to the last chapter, as verse23 in the Hebrew (compare Isa 22:4;Lam 2:11; Lam 3:48).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears,…. Or, “who will give to my head water, and to mine eyes a fountain of tears?” as the Septuagint, Vulgate Latin, and Arabic versions. The prophet wishes that his head was turned and dissolved into water, and that tears might flow from his eyes as water issues out from a fountain; and he suggests, that could this be, it would not be sufficient to deplore the miserable estate of his people, and to express the inward grief and sorrow of his mind on account of it.
That I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people; the design of all this is to set forth the greatness and horribleness of the destruction, signifying that words were wanting to express it, and tears to lament it; and to awaken the attention of the people to it, who were quite hardened, insensible, and stupid. The Jewish writers close the eighth chapter with this verse, and begin the ninth with the following.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Jer 9:1. “Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfarers! then would I leave my people, and go away from them. For they be all adulterers, a crew of faithless ones. Jer 9:2. They bend their tongue like their bow with lying; and not according to faithfulness do they manage in the land, but go on from evil to evil, and me they know not, saith Jahve. Jer 9:3. Beware each of his neighbour, and trust not in any brother; for every brother supplanteth, and every friend goeth slandering. Jer 9:4. And one overreaCheth the other, and truth they speak not; they teach their tongue to speak lies, to deal perversely they weary themselves. Jer 9:5. Thy dwelling is in the midst of deceit; in deceit they refuse to know me, saith Jahveh. Jer 9:6. Therefore thus hath spoken Jahveh of hosts: Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how should I deal in regard to the daughter of my people? Jer 9:7. A deadly arrow is their tongue; they speak deceit; with his mouth one speaketh peace with his neighbour, and inwardly within him he layeth ambush. Jer 9:8. Shall I not visit this upon them? saith Jahveh; or on such a people as this shall not my soul take vengeance?” Jeremiah would flee into the wilderness, far away from his people; because amidst such a corrupt, false, and cunning people, life had become unbearable, Jer 9:1. , as in Isa 27:4, equivalent to , Psa 55:7: who would give me = Oh that I had! The “lodging-place” is not a resting-place under the open sky, but a harbour for travellers – a building (khan) erected on the route of the caravans, as a shelter for travellers. Adultery and faithlessness are mentioned as cardinal sins. The first sin has been rebuked in Jer 5:7, the second is exposed in Jer 9:2-4. , faithless either towards God or one’s fellow-men; here in the latter sense. The account of the unfaithful conduct is introduced in Jer 9:2 by the imperf. with consec., and is carried on in the perf. Manifestations of sin are the issue of a sinful state of heart; the perfects are used to suggest the particular sins as accomplished facts.
In the clause, “they bend,” etc., is the second object; and “their bow” is in apposition to “their tongue:” they bend their tongue, which is their bow, with lying. For this construction the Hiph. is the proper form, and this is not to be changed into the Kal (as by Hitz., Gr., Ng. ). In Job 28:8 the Hiph. is used instead of the Kal in the sense of tread upon, walk upon; here it is used of the treading of the bow to bend it, and lying is looked upon as the arrow with which the bow is stretched or armed for shooting. If the verb be changed into the Kal, we must join with : their lying-bow. For this connection , Eze 16:27, may be cited; but it gives us the unnatural figure: their tongue as a bow, which is lying. It is neither the tongue nor the bow which is lying, but that which they shoot with their tongue as with a bow. According to faithfulness; of the rule, norm, as in Jer 5:3. Not faithfulness to their convictions (Hitz.), but in their behaviour towards their fellow-man. , be strong, exercise strength, rule, and manage. The prophet has in view the great and mighty who had power in their hands, and who misused it to oppress their inferiors. From evil to evil they go on, i.e., they proceed from one sin to another; but God the Lord they know not, i.e., are determined to know nothing of Him; cf. 1Sa 2:12; Job 18:21. Hence each must keep himself on his guard against the other. To express this in the most emphatic manner, Jeremiah gives it the form of a command: Beware each of his neighbour, trust not in a brother; for each seeks to overreach and trip up the other. In the words there seems to be an allusion to Jacob’s underhand dealing with his brother Esau, Gen 27:36. On “goes slandering,” cf. Jer 6:28, and cf. also the similar description in Mic 7:5-6.
Jer 9:4-8 In Jer 9:4 these sinful ways are exposed in yet stronger words. , uncontracted form of the imperf. Hiph. of , trip up, deceive. On the infin. , cf. Ew. 238, e, and Gesen. 75, Rem. 17. They weary themselves out, put themselves to great labour, in order to deal corruptly; as in Jer 20:9; Isa 16:12, elsewhere to be weary of a thing; cf. Jer 6:11; Jer 15:6. – In Jer 9:5 the statement returns to the point at which it commenced: thy sitting (dwelling) is in the midst of deceit. In deceit, i.e., in the state of their mind, directed as it is by deceit and cheating, they refuse to know me, i.e., they are resolved to have nothing to do with the knowledge of God, because in that case they must give up their godless ways.
(Note: The lxx have not understood dootsr . They have split it up into , joined to , and translated, after adding : (i.e., usury upon usury) . Ew. has adopted this construction, and so translates: “have accustomed their tongue to speak lies, to do perversity, are weary of turning again; wrong upon wrong, deceit upon deceit, they are not willing to know me.” But this text is not better, but worse, than the Masoretic: for, 1st, the perverse dealing or action is attributed to the tongue; 2nd, the thought, they are weary of turning again, does not suit the context, since the persons described here have never sought to return or repent, and so cannot have become weary of it. For these reasons, neither Hitz. nor Graf has given countenance to the lxx text.)
By reason of this depravity, the Lord must purge His people by sore judgments. He will melt it in the fire of affliction (Isa 48:10), to separate the wicked: cf. Isa 1:25; Zec 13:9; and on , Jer 6:27. For how should I do, deal? Not: what dreadful judgments shall I inflict (Hitz., Gr.), in which case the grounding would not have its proper force; but: I can do none otherwise than purge. Before the face of, i.e., by reason of, the daughter, because the daughter of my people behaves herself as has been described in Jer 9:2-4, and as is yet to be briefly repeated in Jer 9:7. The lxx have paraphrased : . This is true to the sense, but it is unfair to argue from it, as Ew., Hitz., Gr. do, that has been dropped out of the Hebrew text and should be restored. – In Jer 9:7 what has been said is recapitulated shortly, and then in Jer 9:8 the necessity of the judgment is shown. , a slaying, slaughtering, i.e., murderous arrow. Instead of this Chet., which gives a good sense, the Keri gives , which, judging from the Chald. translation, is probably to be translated sharpened. But there is no evidence for this sig., since occurs only in connection with , 1Ki 10:16, and means beaten, lit., spread gold. At the plural passes into the singular: he (one of them) speaks; cf. Psa 55:22. for insidious scheming, as in Hos 7:6. With Jer 9:8 cf. Jer 5:9, Jer 5:29.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Prophet’s Lamentation; Wickedness of Judah. | B. C. 606. |
1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! 2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 3 And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. 4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. 5 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. 6 Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. 7 Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? 8 Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait. 9 Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. 11 And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.
The prophet, being commissioned both to foretel the destruction coming upon Judah and Jerusalem and to point out the sin for which that destruction was brought upon them, here, as elsewhere, speaks of both very feelingly: what he said of both came from the heart, and therefore one would have thought it would reach to the heart.
I. He abandons himself to sorrow in consideration of the calamitous condition of his people, which he sadly laments, a one that preferred Jerusalem before his chief joy and her grievances before his chief sorrows.
1. He laments the slaughter of the persons, the blood shed and the lives lost (v. 1): “O that my head were waters, quite melted and dissolved with grief, that so my eyes might be fountains of tears, weeping abundantly, continually, and without intermission, still sending forth fresh floods of tears as there still occur fresh occasions for them!” 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. Jeremiah wept much, and yet wished he could weep more, that he might affect a stupid people and rouse them to a due sense of the hand of God gone out against them. Note, It becomes us, while we are here in this vale of tears, to conform to the temper of the climate and to sow in tears. Blessed are those that mourn, for they shall be comforted hereafter; but let them expect that while they are here the clouds will still return after the rain. While we find our hearts such fountains of sin, it is fit that our eyes should be fountains of tears. But Jeremiah’s grief here is upon the public account: he would weep day and night, not so much for the death of his own near relations, but for the slain of the daughter of his people, the multitudes of his countrymen that fell by the sword of war. Note, When we hear of the numbers of the slain in great battles and sieges we ought to be much affected with the intelligence, and not to make a light matter of it; yea, though they be not of the daughter of our people, for, whatever people they are of, they are of the same human nature with us, and there are so many precious lives lost, as dear to them as ours to us, and so many precious souls gone into eternity.
2. He laments the desolations of the country. This he brings in (v. 10), for impassioned mourners are not often very methodical in their discourses: “Not only for the towns and cities, but for the mountains, will I take up a weeping and wailing” (not barren mountains, but the fruitful hills with which Judea abounded), and for the habitations of the wilderness, or rather the pastures of the plain, that used to be clothed with flocks or covered over with corn, and a goodly sight it was; but now they are burnt up by the Chaldean army (which, according to the custom of war, destroyed to the custom of war, destroyed the forage and carried off all the cattle), so that no one dares to pass through them, for fear of meeting with some parties of the enemy, no one cares to pass through them, every thing looks so melancholy and frightful, no one has any business to pass through them, for they hear not the voice of the cattle there as usual, the bleating of the sheep and the lowing of the oxen, that grateful music to the owners; nay, both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts have fled. either frightened away by the rude noises and terrible fires which the enemies make, or forced away because there is no subsistence for them. Note, God has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein; and the havoc war makes in a country cannot but be for a lamentation to all tender spirits, for it is a tragedy which destroys the stage it is acted on.
II. He abandons himself to solitude, in consideration of the scandalous character and conduct of his people. Though he dwells in Judah where God is known, in Salem where his tabernacle is, yet he is ready to cry out, Woe is me that I sojourn in Mesech! Ps. cxx. 5. While all his neighbours are fleeing to the defenced cities, and Jerusalem especially, in dread of the enemies’ rage (Jer 4:5; Jer 4:6) he is contriving to retire into some desert, in detestation of his people’s sin (v. 2): “O that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men, such a lonely cottage to dwell in as they have in the deserts of Arabia, which are uninhabited, for travellers to repose themselves in, that I might leave my people and go from them!” Not only because of the ill usage they gave him (he would rather venture himself among the wild beasts of the desert than among such treacherous barbarous people), but principally because his righteous soul was vexed from day to day, as Lot’s was in Sodom, with the wickedness of their conversation,2Pe 2:7; 2Pe 2:8. This does not imply any intention or resolution that he had thus to retire. God had cut him out work among them, which he must not quit for his own ease. We must not go out of the world, bad as it is, before our time. If he could not reform them, he could bear a testimony against them; if he could not do good to many, yet he might to some. but it intimates the temptation he was in to leave them, involves a threatening that they should be deprived of his ministry, and especially expresses the holy indignation he had against their abominable wickedness, which continued notwithstanding all the pains he had taken with them to reclaim them. It made him even weary of his life to see them dishonouring God as they did and destroying themselves. Time was when the place which God had chosen to put his name there was the desire and delight of good men. David, in a wilderness, longed to be again in the courts of God’s house; but now Jeremiah, in the courts of God’s house (for there he was when he said this), wishes himself in a wilderness. Those have made themselves very miserable that have made God’s people and ministers weary of them and willing to get from them. Now, to justify his willingness to leave them, he shows,
1. What he himself had observed among them.
(1.) He would not think of leaving them because they were poor and in distress, but because they were wicked. [1.] They were filthy: They are all adulterers, that is, the generality of them are, ch. v. 8. They all either practised this sin or connived at those that did. Lewdness and uncleanness constituted that crying sin of Sodom at which righteous Lot was vexed in soul, and it is a sin that renders men loathsome in the eyes of God and all good men; it makes men an abomination. [2.] They were false. This is the sin that is most enlarged upon here. Those that had been unfaithful to their God were so to one another, and it was a part of their punishment as well as their sin, for even those that love to cheat, yet hate to be cheated. First, Go into their solemn meetings for the exercises of religion, for the administration of justice, or for commerce–to church, to court, or to the exchange–and they are an assembly of treacherous men; they are so by consent, they strengthen one another’s hands in doing any thing that is perfidious. There they will cheat deliberately and industriously, with design, with a malicious design, for (v. 3) they bend their tongues, like their bow, for lies, with a great deal of craft; their tongues are fitted for lying, as a bow that is bent is for shooting, and are as constantly used for that purpose. Their tongue turns as naturally to a lie as the bow to the strong. But they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth. Their tongues are like a bow strung, with which they might do good service if they would use the art and resolution which they are so much masters of in the cause of truth; but they will not do so. They appear not in defence of the truths of God, which were delivered to them by the prophets; but even those that could not deny them to be truths were content to see them run down. In the administration of justice they have not courage to stand by an honest cause that has truth on its side, if greatness and power be on the other side. Those that will be faithful to the truth must be valiant for it, and not be daunted by the opposition given to it, nor fear the face of man. They are not valiant for the truth in the land, the land which has truth for the glory of it. Truth has fallen in the land, and they dare not lend a hand to help it up, Isa 59:14; Isa 59:15. We must answer, another day, not only for our enmity in opposing truth, but for our cowardice in defending it. Secondly, Go into their families, and you will find they will cheat their own brethren (every brother will utterly supplant); they will trip up one another’s heels if they can, for they lie at the catch to seek all advantages against those they hope to make a hand of. Jacob had his name from supplanting; it is the word here used; they followed him in his name, but not in his true character, without guile. So very false are they that you cannot trust in a brother, but must stand as much upon your guard as if you were dealing with a stranger, with a Canaanite that has balances of deceit in his hand. Things have come to an ill pass indeed when a man cannot put confidence in his own brother. Thirdly, Go into company and observe both their commerce and their conversation, and you will find there is nothing of sincerity or common honesty among them. Nec hospes ab hospite tutus–The host and the guest are in danger from each other. The best advice a wise man can give you is to take heed every one of his neighbour, nay, of his friend (so some read it), of him whom he has befriended and who pretends friendship to him. No man thinks himself bound to be either grateful or sincere. Take them in their conversation and every neighbour will walk with slander; they care not what ill they say one of another, though ever so false; that way that the slander goes they will go; they will walk with it. They will walk about from house to house too, carrying slanders along with them, all the ill-natured stories they can pick up or invent to make mischief. Take them in their trading and bargaining, and they will deceive every one his neighbour, will say any thing, though they know it to be false, for their own advantage. Nay, they will lie for lying sake, to keep their tongues in use to it, for they will not speak the truth, but will tell a deliberate lie and laugh at it when they have done.
(2.) That which aggravates the sin on this false and lying generation is, [1.] That they are ingenious to sin: They have taught their tongue to speak lies, implying that through the reluctances of natural conscience they found it difficult to bring themselves to it. Their tongue would have spoken truth, but they taught it to speak lies, and by degrees have made themselves masters of the art of lying, and have got such a habit of it that use has made it a second nature to them. They learnt it when they were young (for the wicked are estranged from the womb, speaking lies, Ps. lviii. 3), and now they have grown dexterous at it. [2.] That they are industrious to sin: They weary themselves to commit iniquity; they put a force upon their consciences to bring themselves to it; they tire out their convictions by offering them continual violence, and they take a great deal of pains, till they have even spent themselves in bringing about their malicious designs. They are wearied with their sinful pursuits and yet not weary of them. The service of sin is a perfect drudgery; men run themselves out of breath in it, and put themselves to a great deal of toil to damn their own souls. [3.] That they grow worse and worse (v. 3): They proceed from evil to evil, from one sin to another, from one degree of sin to another. They began with less sins. Nemo repente fit turpissimus–No one reaches the height of vice at once. They began with equivocating and bantering, but at last came to downright lying. And they are now proceeding to greater sins yet, for they know not me, saith the Lord; and where men have no knowledge of God, or no consideration of what they have known of him, what good can be expected from them? Men’s ignorance of God is the cause of all their ill conduct one towards another.
2. The prophet shows what God had informed him of their wickedness, and what he had determined against them.
(1.) God had marked their sin. He could tell the prophet (and he speaks of it with compassion) what sort of people they were that he had to deal with. I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, Rev. ii. 13. So here (v. 6): “Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit, all about thee are addicted to it; therefore stand upon thy guard.” If all men are liars, it concerns us to beware of men,. and to be wise as serpents. They are deceitful men; therefore there is little hope of thy doing any good among them; for, make things ever so plain, they have some trick or other wherewith to shuffle off their convictions. This charge is enlarged upon, v. 8. Their tongue was a bow bent (v. 3), plotting and preparing mischief; here it is an arrow shot out, putting in execution what they had projected. It is as a slaying arrow (so some readings of the original have it); their tongue has been to many an instrument of death. They speak peaceably to their neighbours, against whom they are at the same time lying in wait; as Joab kissed Abner when he was about to kill him, and Cain, that he might not be suspected of any ill design, talked with his brother, freely and familiarly. Note, Fair words, when they are not attended with good intentions, are despicable, but, when they are intended as a cloak and cover for wicked intentions they are abominable. While they did all this injury to one another they put a great contempt upon God: “Not only they know not me, but (v. 6) through deceit, through the delusions of the false prophets, they refuse to know me; they are so cheated into a good opinion of their own ways, the ways of their own heart, that they desire not the knowledge of my ways.” Or, “They are so wedded to this sinful course which they are in, and so bewitched with that, and its gains, that they will by no means admit the knowledge of God, because that would be a check upon them in their sins.” This is the ruin of sinners: they might be taught the good knowledge of the Lord and they will not learn it; and where no knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? Hos. iv. 1.
(2.) He had marked them for ruin, Jer 9:7; Jer 9:9; Jer 9:11. Those that will not know God as their lawgiver shall be made to know him as their judge. God determines here to bring his judgments upon them, for the refining of some and the ruining of the rest. [1.] Some shall be refined (v. 7): “Because they are thus corrupt, behold I will melt them and try them, will bring them into trouble and see what that will do towards bringing them to repentance, whether the furnace of affliction will purify them from their dross, and whether, when they are melted, they will be new-cast in a better mould.” He will make trial of less afflictions before he brings upon them utter destruction; for he desires not the death of sinners. They shall not be rejected as reprobate silver till the founder has melted in vain,Jer 6:29; Jer 6:30. For how shall I do for the daughter of my people? He speaks as one consulting with himself what to do with them that might be for the best, and as one that could not find in his heart to cast them off and give them up to ruin till he had first tried all means likely to bring them to repentance. Or, “How else shall I do for them? They have grown so very corrupt that there is no other way with them but to put them into the furnace; what other course can I take with them? Isa 5:4; Isa 5:5. It is the daughter of my people, and I must do something to vindicate my own honour, which will be reflected upon if I connive at their wickedness. I must do something to reduce and reform them.” A parent corrects his own children because they are his own. Note, When God afflicts his people, it is with a gracious design to mollify and reform them; it is but when need is and when he knows it is the best method he can use. [2.] The rest shall be ruined (v. 9): Shall I not visit for these things? Fraud and falsehood are sins which God hates and which he will reckon for. “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this, that is so universally corrupt, and, by its impudence in sin, even dares and defies divine vengeance? The sentence is passed, the decree has gone forth (v. 11): I will make Jerusalem heaps of rubbish, and lay it in such ruins that it shall be fit for nothing but to be a den of dragons; and the cities of Judah shall be a desolation.” God makes them so, for he gives the enemy warrant and power to do it: but why is the holy city made a heap? The answer is ready, Because it has become an unholy one?
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 9
LAMENTATION OVER JUDAH’S SIN
Vs. 2-9: JEREMIAH’S BURDEN FOR THE DEPRAVITY OF JUDAH
1. Considering their incorrigible wickedness, Jeremiah longs to get away from his people, (vs. 2a; comp. Psa 55:6-7; Psa 120:5-6).
2. He views them all as adulterous deceivers, (vs. 2b; Jer 5:78;23:10;5:11; 12:1, 6).
a. Instead of being valiant in faithfulness, their tongues are weapons of falsehood, (vs. 3a, 8; Psa 64:2-4; Isa 59:4) – having become major instruments of political strategy in the land.
b. Proceeding from evil to evil, they do not even know the Lord, (vs. 3b; Jer 4:22; Jer 5:4-5; 1Sa 2:12; Hos 4:1).
3. They are warned to beware of both brother and neighbor, (vs. 4-5; Psa 12:1-2; Pro 26:24-25).
a. Who can trust a brother that is as crafty as Jacob, the supplanter? (Jer 12:6; Gen 27:35).
b. Who can trust a neighbor whose tongue has been trained to lie, and to peddle slander? (Jer 6:28; comp. Psa 15:3; Pro 10:18; Mic 6:12).
4. Perverted, and too weak to change, injury feeds on injury, and deceit on deceit – because of which they refuse to know the Lord, (vs. 6; Jer 8:5; Jer 11:10; Jer 13:10; Joh 3:19-20). 5. Thus, the Lord announces His intention to “refine” them by severe discipline (Jer 6:27; Isa 1:25; Mal 3:3) -purging away their dross, (vs. 7).
a. The Lord despises such deception as permits one to speak peace to his neighbor, while devising an ambush for him within his heart, (vs. 8; Psa 28:3; Psa 55:21; Psa 62:4).
b. His very holiness requires that He punish such sin! (vs. 9a; Jer 5:9; Jer 5:29).
c. On such a nation, therefore, He will surely avenge Himself! (vs. 9b: Isa 1:24; Isa 59:18).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
He follows the same subject. During times of tranquillity, when nothing but joyful voices were heard among the Jews, he bewails, as one in the greatest grief, the miseries of the people; and being not satisfied with this, he says, Who will set, or make, my head waters, and my eye a fountain of tears? He intimates by these words, that the ruin would be so dreadful that it could not be bewailed by a moderate or usual lamentation, inasmuch as God’s vengeance would exceed common bounds, and fill men with more dread than other calamities.
The meaning is, that the destruction of the people would be so monstrous that it could not be sufficiently bewailed. It hence appears how hardened the Jews had become; for doubtless the Prophet had no delight in such comparisons, as though he wished rhetorically to embellish his discourse; but as he saw that their hearts were inflexible, and that a common way of speaking would be despised, or would have no weight and authority, he was constrained to use such similitudes. And at this day, there is no less insensibility in those who despise God; for however Prophets may thunder, while God spares and indulges them, they promise to themselves perpetual quietness. Hence it is, that they ridicule and insult both God and his servants, as though they were too harshly treated. As then, the same impiety prevails now in the world as formerly, we may hence learn what vehemence they ought to use whom God calls to the same office of teaching. Plain teaching, then, will ever be deemed frigid in the world, except it, be accompanied with sharp goads, such as we find employed here by the Prophet (235) He adds —
(235) This verse is connected by some with the last chapter: and it seems to belong to it. It forms in all the Hebrew MSS. the 23d verse of the preceding chapter. The phrase, מי-יתן, “who will give,” means a wish, “O that my head,” etc., or “May my head,” etc. The Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Arabic, and the Targum express it literally, “Who will give;” but the Syriac has, “O, I wish my head were turned into water.” — Ed.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES. For Chronology and History, see chap. 7.
1. Geographical References. Jer. 9:26. Egypt. sit. on N.E. angle of Africa; a vast plain; in general features it may be regarded as the valley of the Nile, by which river it is nourished; the country anciently divided into two great divisions, Upper and Lower Egypt; subdivided into smaller sections called Nomes, or provinces; now divided into Lower Egypt, called Delta (because enclosed within the arms of the Nile, resembling a Greek ); stretching about 80 miles inland from Mediterranean Central Egypt, extending cir. 150 miles further south: Upper Egypt, which reaches cir. 250 miles still further from the Mediterranean, where the First Cataract forms its natural boundary. Common Bible name of the land is Mizraim; ancient Egyptian name, inscribed in hieroglyphics, is KEM. Contains 115, 200 square geological miles. Edom, or Idumea: a district north of the peninsula of Sinai, itself bounded on the north by Moab, a narrow, mountainous tract (about 100 miles long by 20 broad), extending along the eastern side of the Arabah.Dr. W. Smith. Ammon: originally the children of Ammon located themselves, together with Moabites, west of the Jordan, the Jabbok (midway between Sea of Galilee and Dead Sea) was anciently the northern border-line of their territory, and the Arnon (which flows into the Dead Sea nearly opposite to Engedi) the southern limit. In Jeremiahs time they were in possession of the cities of Gad (south of the Arnon), from which Tiglath-Pilesar had removed the Jews (Jer. 49:1-6). Moab, occupied the plain of the Jordan-valley on the eastern side of the Dead Sea; afterwards spread themselves south of Judea towards Idumea. But the boundary lines of Ammon and Moab were continually shifting; hence their localisation can only be indicated, not determined. All that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness. (See Lit. Crit. on these words, utmost corners, below). Arabian tribes who resided in the desert S. E. of Palestine.
2. Natural History. Jer. 9:11. Dragons, evidently dragons is a wrong interpretation, for serpents do not invade ruined cities, and make dens amid the heaps; the jackal is meant, whose habit is to prowl amid rocky places and ruins; size about that of a fox, but legs longer; colour, yellowish grey, with dark shades about the back; voice, hideous, a mingled bark and howl; generally jackals go in great troops (Maunder). Jer. 9:15. Wormwood, (Lanh); several species in Palestine; Kitto specifies four: Artemisia nilotica, judaica, fruticosa, and cinerea; all distinguished for intense bitterness, and probably not only nauseous but hurtful (Deu. 19:18; Pro. 5:4; Amo. 5:7; Amo. 6:12). Water of gall. See Nat Hist. on Jer. 8:14, supra.
3. Manners and Customs. Jer. 9:2. In the wilderness a lodging place. A caravanserai, usually a large, square building (khan), erected in deserts and regions far removed from towns, on the route of caravans, either at the public expense or by private charity; they are mere shelters for the night, without furniture, comfort, or supplies, and generally filthy and abound in vermin. Jer. 9:3. Bend their tongues like their bows, properly, they tread their bow, i.e., to string itthe bow being held by the foot while it is strung. Jer. 9:7. I will melt and try them: (See notes on Jer. 6:27). Simile of metal refining: smelting, in order to separate the pure metal from the ore, testing, to See if the metal is pure, or still mixed with alloySpeakers Com. Jer. 9:17. Mourning women: hired mourners, who, by frantic gestures, dreadful wailings, and doleful ditties, both professed grief and incited it in beholders. It demanded some skill to learn these shrieks, and gestures, and dirges, hence here described as cunning women. Jerome says the custom continued in Judea down to his days (Obit. A. D. 420). Lane states that it still exists in Egypt (Modern Egyptians); and Calmet, that the practice prevails in most of the provinces of the Levant. Jer. 9:20. Teach your daughters wailing: see above, Jer. 9:17 : the dead would be so numerous as to call for a much larger number of mourning women than at present were available; hence, train others in readiness for the appalling crisis. Jer. 9:22. The handful after the husbandman: i.e., the bundle of corn which the reaper cuts into his arm with a few strokes of his sickle, and which another who follows him gathers, to hind with several other such handfuls into a sheaf. Jer. 9:25. Circumcised with the un-circumcised: considerable difficulty among commentators as to whether the prophet asserted that circumcision was practised among the nations specified in Jer. 9:26; among which Judah is classed in this respect. Lange contends this is meant, and appeals to authority of Herodotus, who affirms that the practice existed both among the higher castes of Egyptians, and the Arabian tribesprobably Kedarenes descended from Ishmael, who was circumcised by Abraham (Gen. 17:23), and among whose descendants the rite still obtains, although the Koran nowhere enjoins the rite: the Edomites accepted circumcision at the dictation of John Hyrcanus, as the alternative of vacating their country (Josephus, Antiq. xiii. 9. 1). Lange urges that we must accept the prophets words as affirming that these people specified did practise circumcision. Yet he seems alone in this position, excepting that Jerome asserts that the rite did exist among these nations. It seems simple to accept the general verdict that these people are not all affirmed as circumcised, but that circumcised and uncircumcised indiscriminately are grouped together as forming the list of nations on whom Gods judgments would soon descend.
Literary Criticisms. Jer. 9:1. should be joined to chap. 8, it is so in Heb. Bibles. Jer. 9:3. Not valiant for truth: Lange, not by truth do they prevail in the land. Keil, not according to faithfulness do they manage in the land. Speakers Com., neither do they rule faithfully in the land. Maurer, they do not prevail by truth (Psa. 12:4). Jer. 9:8. As an arrow shot out: , a slaughtering arrow. In heart he layeth his wait: properly inwardly he layeth his ambush: = insidious scheming. Jer. 9:10. habitations of the wilderness: i.e., prairie, pasturage, encampment of the shepherds: the reference being probably to the wilderness of Judea, where cattle were pastured (cf. 1Sa. 17:28). Jer. 9:19. Our dwellings have cast us out: dwellings is not the nominative, but they, the enemies, who have thrown down our dwellings (cf. 2Ki. 25:9). Jer. 9:26. All in the utmost corners: Margin, Heb. cut off into corners, or, having the corners (of their hair) polled. Speakers Com., all who have the corners of their hair shorn. Hend., Cut as to the corner of the beard (cf. Lev. 19:27; Lev. 21:5), a custom the Jews were prohibited to imitate. The description points to the Arabs, who dwell in the wilderness.
HOMILETIC ARRANGEMENT OF THE ENTIRE CHAPTER 9
*** Sectional divisions of the chapter does violence to its structure and disorder; for its very confusion of topics, the intermingling of solemn messages with passionate exclamations, is characteristic of vivid dread and poignant grief; of these the chapter is full. Sections might, however, arranged thus:
Verses
Jer. 9:1-8.
Plaintive lamentations over sin.
Verses
Jer. 9:9-16.
Gods vindications of His judgments.
Verses
Jer. 9:17-22.
Vivid realisation of calamities.
Verses
Jer. 9:23-26.
Vainglorious confidences corrected.
The scope and significance of the entire chapter may be thus stated: Jeremiah presents to Judah:
1. A vivid portrayal of the direful disasters impending.
2. A justification of Gods judgments against sin.
By showing them how alarming would be the punishment, he would have them see how appalling was their sin. Their condition and conduct imprecated the retribution. Noticeable that appeal is made to the wisdom, the serious thought of his hearers, that they may understand (Jer. 9:12) the equity of Gods proceedings against them. Sinners would justify Gods punishments if they wisely considered their case, demerits, and the provocations of their sins: We indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our sins.
I. Sorrowful consternation over calamities. Both the revolting cause of these calamities (Jer. 9:2-6) and their poignant severity (Jer. 9:20-22) are carefully specified: thus the bemoaning is intelligently and adequately justified.
1. The prophets agony of grief (Jer. 9:1-2). Note the pathos of the reiteration, my people! Humanity, philanthropy, patriotism, and religious feeling, all summon us to bitter sorrow over(1) the sufferings of our people; (2) the slaughter wrought by tyranny (especially the tyranny of Satan over the lives and souls of men; and the slaughter of virtue, happiness, and hope); (3) the sinfulness which underlies and explains all mans woes. Characters wasted, lives degraded, hearts pierced with anguish, souls ruined: a sad world; the gentle, generous heart shudders amid these devastations, weeps for the slain.
2. The peoples realisation of their ruin (Jer. 9:17-19). It came late, yet it came: they awoke at last. God arrests the insensate nation with the appeal, Consider ye! The verses delineate the peoples (1) sudden consternation; (2) overwhelming distress, i. Professional mourners would have abundant occasion for wailing (Jer. 9:17). ii. The people would themselves be plunged into the agony of sorrow (Jer. 9:18). We cannot leave to others the bitter mourning, the pang in our hearts will be too keen. iii. Zion would resound with cries of anguish and desperation (Jer. 9:19). Sinners, though slow to recognise their dreadful state and prospects, are sure to realise them (Jer. 9:25). Because doom now tarries they make merry while godly men weep; but they will join the lamentations, though (alas! if as here) only when too late, when ruin is upon them (Jer. 9:19).
3. God summons the nation to grievous sorrow (Jer. 9:20-22). 1. He supplies the mourners with the national dirge (Jer. 9:21), than which no more piteous a refrain could be conceived. 2. He then portrays the awful disasters (Jer. 9:22): death in every home,the slain covering the lands, childhood and youth perishing with the men. Judgment comes on all, for that all have sinned. When God bids us sorrow, it is time to consider and humble ourselves penitently before Him. Now He hath commanded men everywhere to repent. A wide difference between this godly sorrow and the grief of despair and doom. Timely penitence may avert ultimate desperation. Predictions of disaster are intended as persuasives to the sorrow which averts woe.
II. Appalling corruption of the nation (Jer. 9:2-6; Jer. 9:8).
1. As viewed by the prophet (Jer. 9:2-6). He would fain hide himself from the sickening and revolting spectacle of his peoples guiltiness (Jer. 9:2). (a.) They were foul and false (Jer. 9:2); (b.) maliciously deceptive, tongues like bows (Jer. 9:3); (c.) careless of public honour and faith, not valiant for truth (see Lit. Grit, on ver. supra); (d.) abandoned to iniquitous practices, proceed from evil to evil; (e.) ignore God in His own land, know not Me, saith the Lord; (f.) social confidence and integrity violated (Jer. 9:4), utterly insincere, treacherous, and unjust in their domestic and neighbourly intercourse; (g.) their falsity was deliberate and resolute (Jer. 9:5), they actually trained themselves to lying, and defiantly refused to speak or act truthfully; (h.) evil-doing exhausted all their powers, they weary themselves, &c., leaving them incapable of anything else.
2. As estimated by the Lord (Jer. 9:6; Jer. 9:8). For His eyes are upon, and His eyelids try, the children of men. Note: God marks what are the surroundings of His servants: I know where thou dwellest (Rev. 2:13). Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit. Their case before God showed (1.) criminal falsity; (2.) determined repudiation of God in order to practise deceit (Jer. 9:7); (3.) cruel treachery (Jer. 9:8). Observe: How severely God regards the violation of social laws: wrong done by man to man, sins of the tongue, faithless conduct, scheming selfishness. Yet, further, men fall away from God as their first stage of decline; it therefore argues their complete degradation when they become avowedly false to their fellow-men,indicates utter moral corruption, loss of every virtue and of all worth.
3. Yet condoned by themselves (Jer. 9:23-26). They neglected loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness (Jer. 9:24), despised what God delighted in, and then gloried in their wisdom, might, and riches (Jer. 9:23). More: they relied upon the value of a rite, circumcision (Jer. 9:25-26), as a guarantee against being abandoned by God and consigned to heathen conquest. 1. Our own resources (wisdom, might, riches) will not protect us from hostile invasion. God menaced Judah with the Chaldean scourge because of their perfidious impiety, their neglect of loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness; Judah instantly comforted herself with looking at her resources of wisdom, might, and wealth. 2. Our religious professions (reliance on the covenant of circumcision) afford no answer to the denunciation against our sins, nor any excuse for them. Having violated practical pietyloving-kindness, judgment, righteousness, and knowing Godtheir vaunted circumcision would not protect them from the doom: they were uncircumcised in heart.
III. Gods vindication of His judgments. He does not leave it to His prophet to justify the ways of God with men: Himself expounds the righteousness of His proceedings.
1. The judgments delineated. The country devastated (Jer. 9:10). Jerusalem destroyed (Jer. 9:11). Cities desolated (Jer. 9:11). Life embittered (Jer. 9:15). The people banished and consumed in exile (Jer. 9:16). Zion a scene of spoliation and slaughter (Jer. 9:19; Jer. 9:21). Fields strewn with the unburied slain (Jer. 9:22). God will not respect their covenant distinction (Jer. 9:25-26) in the impartial visitation of retribution. (1.) Gods punishments are far-reaching, vast, majestic, even as are His mercy and His grace. All His doings are on a scale of stupendous, awful magnitude. Marvellous are Thy works, O Lord. Glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders. (2.) Gods punishments are all-inclusive, beyond evasion or escape,leaving for those condemned no refuge.
2. The judgments imperative. Note: (1.) His searching purpose (Jer. 9:7); (2.) His necessary severity (Jer. 9:9). Judgments have a twofold purpose: (a.) Corrective: melt and try them, purify some in the fires of affliction: when Thy judgments are abroad in the earth, the inhabitants will learn righteousness. This end must be sought, for nothing milder than severe punishments affected them for good. God asks, as if in perplexity, How shall I do? &c. Solicitous to secure their spiritual improvement even by the calamities which impended. (b.) Avenging: for they who will not be reformed must be ruined.
3. The judgments vindicated. Jehovah calls upon the thoughtful to ponder and declare for what the land perisheth, &c. (Jer. 9:12). Then follows (1.) The Divine indictment (Jer. 9:13-14): revolt against Gods law and service, abandonment to self-indulgence and idolatry. (2.) The Divine sentence (Jer. 9:15-16). Observe: Severity is wholly foreign to Gods designs and delight (Jer. 9:24). He desires not the death of a sinner, but delights in mercy; nevertheless, when all His loving-kindness avails nothing with sinners, when they resist His grace and repudiate salvation, there remains only this, a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries. Yet God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.
HOMILIES AND OUTLINES ON SUCCESSIVE VERSES OF CHAPTER 9
Jer. 9:1. Theme: ANGUISH OF GRIEF OVER SINNERS RUIN.
I. His vivid anticipation of coming woes. Times were now tranquil; no cry of grief rang through the land. He the sole weeper! Like to a Greater, who also was a Lone Weeper; Hosanas around Him, revelry in Jerusalem, none dreamt of doom Hearing: yet Jesus beheld the city and wept over it. (1.) Doom is not less real or near because ignored by those who are doomed. (2.) Eyes divinely opened foresee what is hid from the godless.
II. His passionate distress over coming woes. This is natural to the Christian patriot, the Christian pastor. I tell you even weeping (Rom. 9:2). (1.) Sinners ought to be concerned for themselves. (2.) Godliness creates true generosity,the peril of others embitters the soul.
III. His baffling helplessness before coming woes. He can bemoan them: would readily weep and ceaselessly weep over His peoples ruin, but what could avail? He could do nothing to avert the terrible fate. (1.) None can by any means redeem a brother. (2.) Sinners thwart the agonising solicitude of the godly by their own hardened indifference. (3.) Each must deliver his own soul by going himself to the Saviour; pastors and prophets cannot deliver them. They can weep, but cannot save. Reflection: What a luxury of joy there must be in possessing the power to save! Jesus has this joyHe only. He obtained it on Calvary. In order to possess it, He endured the cross, despising the shame. Yet earnest servants of Christ will enter into the joy of their Lord, inasmuch as they have entered into His distress over sinners, and longing to rescue them.
Comments: It becomes us, while, we are here in this vale of tears, to conform to the temper of the climate, and to sow in tears. While we find our hearts such fountains of sin, it is fit that our eyes should be fountains of tears.Henry. The meaning is, that the destruction of the people would be so monstrous and dreadful, that it could not be sufficiently bewailed. As he saw that their hearts were inflexible, and that a common way of speaking would be despised, he was constrained to use such similes. Learn what vehemence they ought to use whom God calls to the same office of teaching.Calvin. From the wish to be utterly dissolved in tears because of the misfortunes of his countrymen, the prophet passes naturally to the wish to flee away from the daily sight of those sins, which were the real cause of their sufferings,Speakers Com.
Jer. 9:1-2. Theme: GENUINE PHILANTHROPY.
Jeremiah a devout saint, true patriot, faithful prophet, model philanthropist. Early Church entertained so exalted an idea of him, that they pictured him as the very type of Him who was the most perfect incarnation of Heavens tenderness and love. Many in this age who are philanthropists for trade; impose on the credulous; they are an offence to genuine souls, and their lives a calumny on the holy cause. Two aspects of genuine philanthropy:
I. Genuine philanthropy melting with earnestness. Oh, that head waters, &c. He had wept copiously, but would weep moreRivers of waterif thereby serve God and country.
1. Heart intensely earnest concerning the temporal condition of men. Chaldean army among them, sword staining the country with blood, groans of the dying and wails of the bereaved: The slain of the daughter of my people. This distresses him; weeps as patriot over grief of his country. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!
2. Heart intensely earnest concerning the moral condition of men. Their carnalities, idolatries, and crimes affect his pious spirit more than physical sufferings and political disasters. He knew sin was the cause of all, that no salvation without removal of sin. No true philanthropists who not chiefly concerned with souls. My hearts desire, &c.: see Paul (Rom. 10:1). Rivers of water because keep not Thy law: see David (Psa. 119:136; Psa. 42:3). Why all this earnestness about the soul? (1.) Think of the soul in relation to its capacity of suffering and happiness. (2.) In relation to the influences for good or evil it is capable of exerting. (3.) In relation to its power of being a delight or a grief to the heart of Infinite Love.
II. Genuine philanthropy sighing for isolation. Oh, that in wilderness, &c.
1. This is the sigh of a spiritually vexed soul. Like Lot in Sodom, the hideous forms of sin every day vexed his righteous soul. Like David, when saw transgressors and was grieved. Like Paul at Athens, spirit stirred at revolting iniquities which met him at every turn. Natures spiritually refined and ennobled recoil with inexpressible disgust from vanities and crimes of their age.
Far from the world, O Lord, I flee,
From strife and tumult far;
From scenes where Satan wages still
His most successful war.
COWPER.
2. This sigh for isolation is the sigh of disappointed love. He had worked earnestly and with self-denial to improve the spiritual condition of his country, yet it grew worse, sank deeper in iniquities. Nothing is more saddening to generous souls than the discovery of indifference, ingratitude, and growing vice in the very men they seek to bless. Elijah felt it, and betook himself to a cave; David, and cried, Oh, that I had wings as of a dove, &c.; Christ, and said, I have laboured in vain.
There is danger of a corrupt age exhausting the love of genuine philanthropists. Instances of loving souls becoming misanthropic through the ill-treatment of those whom they endeavoured to serve. A sublime fact that Christs philanthropy survived the fiendish cruelty of the cross, rose with Him from the sepulchre, and despatched a message of mercy to His most malignant enemies at Jerusalem.
Conclusion:
(1.) The vicariousness of genuine philanthropy. It inspires the possessor with the spirit that will prompt him to sacrifice his very being for the good of others, to weep himself away. I would that accursed from Christ for my brethren. All genuine philanthropy bears the sins and sorrows of others.
(2.) The abuse of genuine philanthropy. How shamefully was the love of Jeremiah requited by countrymen! The greatest sin in universe is sin against love.
(3.) The imperfection of genuine philanthropy. Like the best of everything human, love is not perfect here. Disheartened, Jeremiah sought isolation. At one time we hear him exclaim, I will not make mention of Him, nor speak any more in His name.Homilist.
N.B.C. H. Spurgeon used Jer. 9:1 as text for sermon on INDIAS ILLS AND ENGLANDS SORROWS, at the time of the Sepoy mutiny, September 1857.
Some men sent into this world for the purpose of being the worlds weepers. Mankind must have their heroes to express their courage, their philanthropists to live out mankinds philanthropy, their weepers to weep from cradle to grave for the woes of others. If you have tears, these hard times will compel you to shed them now:
I. For persons actually slain: with murder and bloodshed. Our spirits, harrowed by the most fearful and unexpected cruelty, have felt the ties of kindred very strongly when found our race butchered in the East. Englands soldiers tortured; Englands daughters dishonoured. Who can read the tale of infamy without tears? Betake ourselves in agonies of prayer to God that He will interpose.
II. For those morally slain. Sin aboundeth, and iniquity is still mighty. Worse deaths than those inflicted by the sword.
1. Weep for the drunkenness of this land. Thousands every year murdered thereby. My soul might be an everlasting Niob, perpetually dropping showers of tears, if it might know the doom and destruction wrought by the demon of drunkenness.
2. Weep for the crime of debauchery.A shame even to speak of the things done in secret. Harlots and seducers.
3. Men are falling by every sin, disguised under the shape of pleasure. Ominous theatre noticeTo the PIT!
In Jeremiahs day Jerusalem was all mirth. They laughed him to scorn. So ye marvel I should weep for you! But I foresee the future; see you before the Judge; and the thought of your destruction bids us yield to tears. Wages of sin is death. We weep for those who have had great privileges, but have neglected them; and who, having had great privileges, if lost, must expect greater punishment. More tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah. Christians! cease not weeping amid prayerful pleadings for those in your families, for your neighbours, who are yet in the power of sin.Spurgeon.
I. He abandons himself to sorrow, in consideration of the calamitous condition of his people.
II. He abandons himself to solitude, in consideration of the scandalous character and conduct of his people.Henry. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 9:1, Fountain of tears;Jer. 9:2, Solitude.)
Jer. 9:3. Theme: FALSITY: ITS CRUELTY AND COWARDICE.
It has been wisely said that every violation of truth is not only a sort of suicide in the liar, but is a stab at the health of human society. Certainly falsity is a two-edged sword; it wounds the deceiver equally with the deceived. Heavens imprecations are upon, and heavens gates exclude, all liars.
Text contains:
I. Two affirmations: the positive side of a sinners life.
Charges upon these people:
1. Perfidious words: speech prostituted to falsity. A grievous crime to use words foully, to pervert speech. Like poisoning a public spring. It is the devils work; for he is a liar, and the father of lies. False words are crafty (Jer. 9:4), malicious (Jer. 9:5), ruinous (Jer. 9:8).
Curse on the coward or perfidious tongue!
THOMSON.
A lie should be trampled on and extinguished wherever found. I am for fumigating the atmosphere when I suspect that falsehood, like pestilence, breathes around me.Carlyle.
Dare to be true, nothing can need a lie;
A fault which needs it most grows two thereby.
HERBERT.
2. Iniquitous deeds. A transgressor may begin with abusing language, misusing words, speaking deceitfully, covering over his sins by fair speech; but he will soon advance from words to deeds. Evil-speakers are always evil-doers. A man who can speak foully can act basely. George Whitfield would fasten his pockets when he heard any one speak ill; because he who could speak wrong could act so; a liar can steal. As progression from words to deeds is natural, so progression from evil deeds to greater evils is inevitable. From iniquity unto iniquity. In the case of these people their iniquitous deeds were (a.) A violation of mutual obligations between man and man; each wronged the other, in the home, in neighbourly intercourse, in commerce, &c. (b.) A violation of Divine obligations; each revolted from the control and claims of God. These two affirmations give the positive and practical side of a sinners life.
II. Two negations: the desolate side of a sinners life.
There is much in a sinner which we should desire to be without, viz., a lying tongue, an evil life. But he lacks much we should desire to have, valour for truth, and knowledge of God.
1. Faithless towards men. Social and civil responsibilities contemned: Not valiant for the truth, i.e., not energetic to maintain righteousness and fairness. They let order, law, and duty fall into neglect. Not faithful to their convictions (Hitzig). Not faithful in their behaviour towards their fellow-men (Kiel). Those who had power in their hands did not use it faithfully for righteous ends. Not fidelity in their engagements with their fellow-men (Speakers Com.). Christs parable of unjust judge. It is indeed proof of impiety when men, trampling upon faithfulness and equity, allow themselves every kind of licentiousness (Calvin). Iniquitous persons are scarcely likely to respect social and civil duties; righteousness may have fallen among thieves, but they are content to pass by on the other side, intent on proceeding from evil to evil.
2. Indifferent towards God. Sacred realities and Divine claims ignored. They know not Me, saith the Lord. They are willingly ignorant of Him, and they are necessarily ignorant of Him; for while they desire not the knowledge of Gods ways, they are also blinded by the god of this world, walk in darkness, benighted by their sins. For guilt darkens the soul, deadens the conscience, disables the mind, degrades the life; hence, they know not Me.
Terrible negation! it means doom: Whom to know is life eternal. He who shuts from himself the light of God shuts against himself the gates of light and life. The pure in heart see God.
This above all, to thine own self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
SHAKESPEARE.
See Scripture illustrations of falsity and its issues: e.g., Jacob, Gehazi, Ananias. Truthfulness, like the light, moves in direct lines; and, like the suns rays, which start from and return to their source, so truthfulness is Divine in its origin and essence, and returns home to Him at last. But falsehood is as a wandering star, destined to the blackness of darkness for ever.
Jer. 9:4. Comments: Take ye heed, &c. In a state of such utter lawlessness, the bonds of mutual confidence are necessarily relaxed, and suspicion takes its place. The parallel passage in Mic. 7:5-6, shows that Jeremiahs complaint was not occasioned by his soreness at personal ill-treatment, but was too true a picture of the general faithlessness which existed at Jerusalem. Every brother will utterly supplant; an allusion to the name of. Jacob (Gen. 25:26; Gen. 25:34; Hos. 12:3). It might be rendered, Every brother is a thorough Jacob.Speakers Com.
Fratrum quoque gratia rara eat.OVID.
The words are very noticeable: . The verb is derived from the heel of the foot, and suggests the effort to trip up another.
Since this verb in Kal occurs besides only in Gen. 27:36 and Hos. 12:4, both times of Jacob, it is certainly probable that the prophet, speaking here of the deceit practised by one brother to another, had this early instance in view.Lange.
Jer. 9:4. Theme: SLANDERING. Every neighbour will walk with slanders. (Comp. Notes on Jer. 6:28.) (Addenda to chap. Jer. 9:4, Slander.)
I. Unanimity in sowing mischief: Every neighbour. Virulent treachery.
II. Activity in spreading calumny: Will walk, travel about on this nefarious business; feet run to evil (Pro. 1:16).
III. Malignity in neighbourly intercourse. This is to use familiarity to murder happiness. Poison of asps under their lips. Madmen, casting firebrands, arrows, and death. Such society intolerable, perilous, destructive of all honour and peace.
The world with calumny abounds,
The whitest virtue slander wounds;
There are whose joy is, night and day,
To talk a character away.
Eager, from rout to rout, they haste,
To blast the generous and the chaste,
And, hunting reputation down,
Proclaim their triumphs through the town.
POPE.
Jer. 9:5. Theme: SIN A VIOLENT OUTRAGE ON SELF.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies: they are artists at it (Trapp); make a study of it. i. They are ingenious to sin, have taught their tongues: implying that through the reluctances of natural conscience they found it difficult to bring themselves to it, but by degrees they have made themselves masters of the art of lying. ii. They are industrious to sin, weary themselves to commit iniquity: put a force upon their conscience to bring themselves to it, to tire out their convictions by offering them continual violence; are wearied with their sinful pursuits, and yet not weary of them. The service of sin is a perfect drudgery.Henry.
Weary themselves: are at laborious pains to act perversely.Maurer.
Take the utmost pains to go crookedly.Speakers Com.
Wrong-doing is an abuse of our nature. A chemist finds it a vexing and thankless attempt to fuse mutually repellant substances, or to mix antagonistic gases. Sin never thoroughly naturalises itself to mans conscience and aptitudes; all along there is a strife within as of conflicting forces. Hence the way of transgressors is hard; and the wicked are like a troubled sea; no peace to the wicked. This a benign fact, testifies of mans nobler calling and destiny, and is an incentive within us to cease to do evil and learn to do well; it is, moreover, the preparation in man for Christs redeeming and reforming grace.
Jer. 9:6. Theme: OUR LOCALISATION MARKED BY THE OMNISCIENT EYE.
I. That our dwelling-place is recognised by God.
II. That our social surroundings attract the Divine observance.
III. That the peril and painfulness of our situation is fully estimated by Him.
IV. That the struggle it costs us to live righteously is measured by God in the light of the antagonism and snares which endanger us.
V. That maintenance of a holy life in unlikely scenes is the triumph of godly heroism.
VI. That He who recognises our danger will send adequate grace to help, and proportion ultimate rewards to our courageous fidelity (Rev. 2:13).
Where duty calls or danger,
Be never wanting there.
Jer. 9:7. Theme: PUNISHMENT CORRECTIVE RATHER THAN RETRIBUTIVE.
I. Gods gracious design in our calamities. I will melt and try them. Even with a people so defiantly impious and utterly corrupt, and even in such calamities as Chaldean overthrow and captivity, God intends good issues, seeks their reform rather than their ruin. Blank punishment for its own sake, justice merely avenging itself on sinners, this is not God-like, not possible. This, a sublime truth in all ages, leads some to cherish the larger hope of the purifying issues of punishment even upon the lost,those who enter eternity doomed! A dark and solemn mystery.
II. Gods distress over the infatuation of sinners. How shall I do for, &c. 1. That infatuation frustrates His mercy. 2. It compels Him to harsh dealings. 3. It moves Him to reluctant anger. Milder processes were fruitless: tribulation must now be tried; in their anguish they may repent and return. He will melt the hardness of His people in the fire of affliction. Yes, and will consume the evil thereby. The exclamation, How shall I do? is not (as Hitzig and Graf), What dreadful forms of judgment shall I summon in vengeance? Note: How shall I do for the daughter? God still would find some way of blessing her even when He smites.
III. Gods necessary use of severe judgments. How shall I do for my people? i.e, What else can I do! (Maurer). How otherwise can I deal with her than to try her in the crucible of suffering? A corruption so deeply rooted and so widely extended can be removed only by a process of entire melting, which will certainly be grievous, but will also refine. The Lord here asks how He should act if not as here indicated? There is nothing else remaining but to do this (Naeg.). 1. Calamity is Gods last resort. 2. Sin must be severely punished. I will cast them into the fiery crucible of sharp affliction. What can I do less to them, though they are My people, since they are so shamelessly, lawlessly wicked? An unruly patient maketh a cruel physician; a desperate disease must have a desperate remedy (Trapp). Verily, it is right to ask, If judgment begin at the house of God (as here, My people), what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of Christ? In the melting process, their deceit (Jer. 9:6) would soon be consumed, and woful the issue; nothing to resist the fiery trial which is to try them! Yet, mayhap, they themselves might be saved, yet so as by fire (1Co. 3:15).
Jer. 9:8-9. Ruinous conduct (tongue, a deadly arrow, &c.), followed by avenging judgment. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. (See notes on chap. Jer. 5:9; Jer. 5:29.) (Addenda to chap. Jer. 9:8, Seductive speech.)
Jer. 9:10. An interruption by Jeremiah of Jehovahs address, for Jer. 9:11 continues the Divine utterance of maledictions against this guilty people. Amid Gods threats of coming woe, the prophet interposes a piteous and embittered wail over the threatened desolations of his country. (See Homily on chap. Jer. 4:23-26.) The verse is a frightful yet truthful picture of an invaded country wasted by hostile forces.
Mountains, not barren eminences, but fruitful hills, with which Judea abounded.
Habitations of the wilderness, pasture-lands lately occupied by numerous herds, restful and bountiful scenes where flocks fed in luxuriance and peace; now burned up. The Chaldeans would, as is usual in war; burn up the forage and carry off the cattle. And so utterly devastated would these fair and flourishing scenes become, that even the birds would take their flight from a land so parched as no longer to furnish them food.
Jer. 9:11. Theme: RUINED JERUSALEM. (Addenda on Jer. 9:11. Jerusalem in ruins.) God proceeds with His decree of desolating judgment. Not only shall the country be burned, but the cities; yea, Jerusalem specially shall be overthrown and become heaps. Note:
i. The prophecy, how apparently incredible! Jerusalem was at that very time a well-fortified city, and filled with valorous people ready to defend it as well as to boast of it. Predicted crises always seem incredible; e.g., the flood, the doom of mighty nations, the coming judgment and overthrow of the world.
ii. The prophet, how courageously invincible! Standing there in Jerusalem (Jer. 7:2), he proclaimed what looked impossible, was certainly exasperating to his hearers, was equally shocking to his own patriotic soul, and exposed him to no small animosity and danger.
(a.) Improbable events very commonly occur; foolish, therefore, to screen ourselves from danger by that futile delusion.
(b.) Despising Gods threatenings does not defeat them: they come upon mockers, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!
(c.) Divine heralds may convey tidings which evoke incredulity. Yet their part is to proclaim, let men act as they will.
(d.) Intrepidity is a seal and credential to a religious preacher. It asserts his own assurance of High Authority for his words. But for this, Jeremiah had grown disheartened by indifference and terrified by hostility. But, knowing in Whose name he spake, he feared not the wrath of the king nor his malevolent counsellors, but with all boldness delivered the tidings of doom.
Jer. 9:12-16. Theme: HUMAN VINDICATION OF DIVINE VENGEANCE.
Words imply that the wise would understand both the reason and the justice of the coming judgments, for what the land perished, i.e., on account of what provocations, and that the punishment was equitable and merited.
I. Providence acts on manifestly righteous principles. Fools may not recognise or receive this fact, but very little wisdom will avail to vindicate this.
1. Invariable laws regulate the Divine dispensations in every age. As with Israel (Jer. 7:12), so would it be with Judah (Jer. 7:15); and similarly with all who act their course.
2. The issues of human conduct are not obscured from men. They stand out vividly in the careers of men around us; while history is also full of illustrations: Well with the righteous; ill with the wicked. There is no equivocation, no uncertainty, no chance respecting these things: every age shows the same.
II. Human intelligence can recognise the justice of Gods ways.
1. By natural wisdom. Who is the wise man that may understand this? Needed no supernatural revelation to teach that desecration of holy scenes and defiance of holy laws must entail disaster; for unless so, there could be no God judging righteously in the earth. No one but can recognise that sin merits and must bring punishment.
2. By enlightened wisdom. For in their case they had wisdom which is from above, and boasted themselves wise, for the law of the Lord is with us (Jer. 8:8). We can open the Bible and read the curses against and the consequences of iniquity. Examine MY LAW, which I have set before them (Jer. 9:13).
III. Ample justification is furnished for severest judgments. God Himself gives the explanation (Jer. 9:13-14). He will allow to none the plea of ignorance. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.
1. How vividly our sins are arrayed before the Lord. Minutely specified by God: forsaken law, not obeyed voice, neither walked therein, walked after imagination, walked after Baalim. Our sins are set in the light of His countenance.
2. How repugnant our sins are to the holiness of God. The land perished, and none to pass through it (Jer. 9:12), shows how He will overthrow His chosen habitation rather than connive at guilt.
3. How provoking our sins are to the mind of God. He is angry with the wicked. Read that terrifying fact in Jer. 9:15-16. Of how much sorer punishment worthy who trampled under foot the Son of God?
IV. Direful maledictions forewarn the guilty of their future.
1. This forewarning is a merciful fact. It offers time of escape. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish. Flee for refuge to the hope set before you.
2. This forewarning is an appalling fact. God hath spoken, and He will perform His word. (1.) Bitter experiences; wormwood. (2.) Destructive calamities; water of gall. (See Literary Notes and Homilies on Jer. 8:14.) (3.) Banished to their adversaries (comp. Mat. 25:41). (4.) Escape impossible, either by flight or in far distance; I will send a sword after them, &c. When the Lord God, whose eyes are in every place, pursues, He will surely discover and overtake.
Conclusion: The wise should use their wisdom to find redemption from evidently nearing disasters. The prudent man foreseeth the evil and hideth himself. 2. The wise should use their wisdom to forwarn others to escape, that he may declare it (Jer. 9:12). Knowing the terrors of the Lord, we persuade men. Heedlessness is suicidal (Heb. 2:3); silence is criminal (Eze. 33:8).
Jer. 9:17-22. Theme: THE BITTERNESS AND BEMOANINGS OF DEATH. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 9:17. Mourning women; Jer. 9:21. Death.)
The citizens of Zion are called upon to give heed to the state of affairs now in prospect, i.e., the judgment preparing, and are to assemble mourning women that they may strike up a dirge for the dead.Keil.
Although the nation was now in no dirge-like mood, but made light of the woful predictions, yet God directs them to arrange their doleful obsequies as though death had already transpired.
I. The certainty of deaths approach. Though they as yet saw not the grim form, the spectre neared: the mourning women would have their melancholy task (Jer. 9:17).
II. The speed of deaths advance (Jer. 9:18). No time to waste in making preparations: quick, or not ready. This ever true: the interval is brief; therefore make haste; for death treads upon our heels. Weep, also, for there is cause.
III. The ravages of deaths desolations (Jer. 9:19). Spoiled, confounded; enforced desertion of cherished scenes [forsaken implies voluntary abandonment, but this was involuntary], driven from dwellings into homeless despair. Analogy of deaths work on the ungodly: their resources in which boasted spoiled; false hopes confounded; scenes where they fain would have tarried forsaken, the tabernacle they had occupied left. For what? for where? Alas! voice of wailing is heard over desolations, and despair attendant upon death.
IV. The vastness of deaths spoliation. The harvest of death would be so large that the number of trained women would not suffice.Speakers Com. Therefore Jer. 9:20. The mothers must therefore teach their daughters the melancholy refrain. Note: young voices (daughters) as well as old (ye women) will join in the dirge for the dead; for no age is sacred or screened from death. Evidently from Jer. 9:21 this is the reason why the daughters should be taught the wailing cry: they would soon have to lament the loss of children and young men. None, old or young, would be exempted from mourning.
V. The variety of deaths victims (Jer. 9:21-22).
1. Enters all scenes: palaces, streets (Jer. 9:21), open fields (Jer. 9:22).
2. Desolates all social ranks: those who dwell in palaces equally with labourers in streets, and shepherds in open field.
3. Strikes down all ages: children, young men, men.
VI. The irresistibleness of deaths invasions.
1. Bolted doors cannot exclude him from our dwellings: he comes up into our window.
2. Fortified palaces are no defence from his assaults: enters palaces.
3. The highways in the city he invades: where children play, and young men resort.
4. Lands groan with the burden of the slain (Jer. 9:22). So dreadful would be the slaughter that the carcases would be left unburied. But what a great sepulchre earth is!
Note 1. It was the custom anciently to give a fanciful interpretation to the words death is come up into our windowsviz., the windows are the five senses; and death comes in with the pleasures admitted by these windows.
Note 2. The degradation to which the body is reduced is suggested in Jer. 9:22. Just as the Chaldeans would lay all their glory in the dust, and make their beauty loathsome as dung, so does death turn our comeliness into corruption.
Jer. 9:21. Theme: DEATH AN INVADING ENEMY.
As an enemy:
I. He is cruel. 1. He strikes at the dearest objects of our affection. 2. He robs us of our most useful men: patriots, philanthropists, preachers, &c. 3. He drags us from the dearest things of the heart: occupation, social circles, cherished plans, &c. 4. He reduces our bodies to the dust. Cruel death! Deaf to the strongest and most piercing cries of social life.
II. He is unremitting. Never sheathes his sword; never pauses in march; not an hour that he does not strike a thousand fatal strokes; as restless as the sea; whoever idle, he is activein every man, in every family, in every community, in every nation; busy with all.
III. He is subtle. Fights in ambush, steals into the house, touches the food and it becomes poison, breathes into the air and it becomes pestiferous, lays his hand on the heart and it is still. While his victims speak of health, he instils mortal disease; works through the delicate dish and the sparkling wines.
IV. He is resistless. Men through ages have tried to resist him; every effort and expedient has failed. All that science, art, wealth, and caution could do failed. Granite castles and royal bodyguards are powerless before him. The mighty warrior drops his sword and becomes dust in his presence.
V. He is ubiquitous. No spot on earth where he is not at work. He is in the waves of air, on billows of deep, in valleys, on mountain, river, and brook, forest and flowers; whole earth is his dominion.
VI. He is conquerable. The last enemy shall be destroyed. There is One who will swallow up death in victory: Christ has conquered death. 1. In His own resurrection. 2. In His power upon the minds of His disciples. O death, where is thy sting?Homilist.
Jer. 9:20-21. To be used in times when death snatches many away. i. Who sends Him? ii. Wherefore He is sent? iii. How we may protect, ourselves against Him?Naeg. in Lange.
Jer. 9:22-23. Theme: HUMAN GLORYING CORRECTED. (Addenda on Jer. 9:23, Spurious glorying.)
The prophet concludes his discourse with a general moral reflection, the object of which is to present the only means of escape from such fearfully threatening dangersviz., a living and truly productive knowledge of the Lord.
I. The things in which they are not to glory.
1. Those which to the natural man seem most desirable, viz., wisdom, strength (power), riches. (Comp. 1Ki. 1:13, with 2Ch. 9:22; Job. 12:13.
2. Those in which these Jews inclined presumptuously to boast. Jeremiah had censured their boast of external carnal advantages. (Comp Jer. 7:4; Jer. 7:8; Jer. 7:10; Jer. 7:14; Jer. 7:24; Jer. 7:26; Jer. 7:28). They gloried in their wisdom (Jer. 8:8-9); in their strength; yet lo! (Jer. 9:1) slain in their riches (Jer. 9:26-26).
The wisdom in which they are not to glory is not that called better than strength (Ecc. 9:16), and which is identical with that recommended in Jer. 9:23, but worldly wisdom (Pro. 3:5). Strength, is both physical strength (Psa. 147:10; Job. 39:19), and power (2Ki. 10:34; 2Ki. 20:20).
II. Every man must have something in which to glory.
1. That which he esteems as his highest blessing and honour. (Comp. Isa. 51:16; 1Co. 1:31; 2Co. 10:17).
2. God sets before us the best objects of glorying. 1. Me; both understood, and known: God is to be known as the only true God. 2. The qualities in which God delights; mercy, or loving–kindness, as opposed to their vaunted strength; judgment and righteousness, as in distinction from their oppression of the weak and distressed (Jer. 7:5-6; Psa. 145:17).Arranged from Lange.
Theme: THE CHRISTIANS HIGHEST AND TRUE GLORY.
It consists in: i. Believing in the Lord. ii. Living in the Lord. iii. Working for the Lord. iv. Suffering for the Lords sake.Luther, quoted in Lange.
Theme: THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD.
i. Its nature: not dead science, but living experience.
ii. Its fruit: (a.) The highest blessing (mercy, justice, and righteousness in Jesus Christ); (b.) The highest honour (he who has it will not be put to shame, as he who glories in the flesh).Naeg.
i. The wisest and surest reasonings in religion are grounded on the unquestionable perfections of the Divine nature (e.g., belief in Divine Providence and veracity).
ii. The nature of God is the true idea and pattern of perfection and happiness.Abp. Tillotson, quoted in Lange.
Paul says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (2Co. 10:17), and Jesus, This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, and Jesus Christ, &c. (Joh. 17:3). This is to glory, as though one should say, God be praised, I am right well and sound! To be sound in the faith is to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ, to maintain it, to grow in it. To make a great noise of good works as our own, is ridiculous. For grace produces them, the power of God dwelling in us. We do nothing, and should do nothing if it were left to us; but the work of God in us, that we believe, is not to be passed over in silence, moroseness, and ingratitude. What a noise do humble saints in the Revelation make of their grace, freedom, priesthood, royal dignity, victory, redemption (chaps. 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 17, 19). Oh, that the whole earth were full of our glorying in the Lord!
Oh, that we were able, our songs so high to raise,
That all the country round might echo with His praise.
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify the Father in heaven.Zinzendorf.
Examples of the folly of glorying (or trusting) in wisdom (Solomon), might (Samson), riches (Ahab).Bp. Bull.
(Comp. Addenda on Jer. 9:23, Spurious glorying.)
Theme: A PROHIBITED AND A SANCTIONED GLORYING.
When Divine punishment for wrongdoing comes upon a people, there is proof made of the powerlessness of wisdom, might, and wealth to do their possessors any good. God refuses to tolerate the conceit of knowledge, strength, or wealthHis gifts; instead of glorying in the knowledge of His being and character, in what He delights.
I. The glorying which is prohibited by God.
The tendency and temptation to self-glorification over these things. For wisdom is a great good, so also strength, and wealth; but each being the gift of God, the Giver is to be gloried in, not the gifts; otherwise the glorying becomes the glorification of self.
1. Glorying in wisdom is the glorification of self; therefore forbidden. The mind that knows and the subjects known are both from God. Knowledge, possessed or contemplated apart from God, puffeth up; and so endangers. Scripture commends wisdom, which glories not in itself, but in God our Saviour. Christ is the wisdom of God. The law of Christian submission and adoration is that which we are called to follow.
2. Glorying in strength is forbidden as self-glorification. Many animals far surpass man in strength. The early history of man exhibits the consequences of glorying in mere physical strength. Giants performed astonishing feats of valour; but the ungigantic David made manifest the weakness of mere bodily bulk and strength. Need to be strengthened with might by Gods Spirit in the inner man. Sickness corrects our glorying in the forces of the flesh. History shows Gods repudiations of this boast: in destruction of Sennacheribs army, decline and fall of empires founded on mere force, &c. Not self, but Christ the power of God must be our glory.
3. Glorying in wealth is forbidden as self-glorification. The lust of possession strong in man. Sad to be behold a spirit entombed in a mausoleum of gold and silver.
II. The glorying which is Divinely sanctioned. To glory is an instinct in man; is right, therefore, where the object is worthy of him. God here presents Himself. There is a gradation set before us: God as the object of understanding; God as the object of knowledge; God as the object of glorying.
1. Understanding God. There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth him understanding. This common human faculty is a gracious gift of God. Early education calls it into exercise; events of life afford it discipline; profound spiritual verities may be by it examined. Man may understand God! By Divine inspiration even the uncultivated mind may be in communion with Eternal Love.
2. Knowing God. This is more than understanding Him. Life eternal to know Him and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Our filial relation to God in Christ is the true ground of our knowledge of Him. Deeply blessed is the knowledge of Christ, for it is the knowledge of God incarnate. Eternity will reveal new deeps of Gods eternal love and being.
3. In the understanding and knowledge of God, the spirit of man glories, and may glory for ever. God glories in our glorying in Him. That which a man glories in truly intimates his character. He who glories in music or art continually occupies himself in it. Thus day and night the soul delights in Christ Jesus.
Conclusion: Let us rightly estimate our being and our possessions in Christ. Because we are what we are, we are forbidden to glory in anything beneath our God.Rev. W. R. Percival, from Homilist.
Comments: Wisdompolitical sagacity; as if it could rescue from the impending calamities. Mightmilitary prowess. Richesaccumulated wealth; none of which boasted resources, nor all combined, would prove a means of defence, and their confidence in them would be a snare. Well would it be for them to abandon hope in these futile gloryings, and seek refuge and protection in God, which they might do by obedient and reverent regard to those duties in which He delights.
Understandeth metheoretically; knoweth mepersonally, experimentally, and practically.
Loving-kindnessGods mercy is put in the forefront, since that alone can save us from fleeing in fear from His presence; Judgment towards the rebellious who will not submit; Righteousness, His faithfulness to His gracious promises, to all who take refuge in His goodness and care. In the earth: which contradicts the heartless philosophy which teaches that God does not interest Himself or interfere in terrestrial affairs. (See Critical Commentary.)
This then is the prophets remedy for the healing of the nation. It is the true understanding and knowledge of God, of which the first, understanding, means the spiritual enlightenment of the mind (1Co. 2:13-14); the other, knowledge, the training of the heart unto obedience (Joh. 8:31-32). This knowledge of God is further said to find in Him three chief attributes: (1.) loving-kindness, i.e., readiness to show grace and mercy; (2.) judgment, a belief in which is declared (Heb. 11:6) to be essential to faith; (3.) righteousness, which is essential to religion absolutely. Unless men believe that Gods dealings with them in life and death are right and just, they can neither love nor reverence Him.Speakers Com.
In these things I delight, saith the Lord; i.e., both in doing them myself, and in seeing them done by others (Mic. 6:8; Mic. 7:18).
Jer. 9:25-26. Theme: TRUE AND FALSE CIRCUMCISION. I will punish all [omit words in italics here]circumcised with the uncircumcised.
The Jews gloried in their circumcision, ignoring the true circumcision of the heart. (See Rom. 2:25-29; Gal. 5:6; Col. 2:11, which are the best comments on the passage.) Therefore they are regarded as uncircumcised, and will be punished with the enemies of Israel and of GodAmmon and Moab. Jeremiah does not raise the question as to whether the Egyptians, &c., were also circumcised in the flesh, but combines Judah with Egypt, Edom, &c., the bitterest enemies of God and His Church; and tells them that they have made themselves to be as the uncircumcised among the nations by their apostasy from God. Here is a solemn warning to all that a mere formal observance of religious ceremonies, without spiritual holiness and dutiful obedience, is rejected and loathed by God, as no better than the abominations of idolatry; and apostates are reckoned as on a level with heathen votaries of false deities.Wordsworth.
Egypt is put first to degrade Judah, who, though in privileges above the Gentiles, by unfaithfulness sank below them. Egypt, too, was the power in which the Jews were so prone to trust, and by whose instigation they, as well as the other peoples specified, revolted from Babylon.Critical Com.
It is a common thing with Moses and the prophets to call an unrenewed heart uncircumcision, and to say that the people are uncircumcised in heart: for circumcision, while an evidence of free salvation in Christ, initiated the Jews into the worship and service of God, and proved the necessity of a new life; it was a sign of repentance and faith. When, therefore, the Jews presented only the sign, they were justly derided by Moses and the prophets; for they seemed as though they sought to pacify God with a thing of nought, without regarding the end. The same is the case when we boast of baptism, and are destitute of repentance and faith; our boasting is absurd and ridiculous; for the interior power is renovation, when our old man is crucified in us, and we rise again with Christ into newness of life.Calvin.
A clear testimony that the holy sacraments procure nothing for the works sake. For the Jews were indeed circumcised in the flesh, but this was to be a sign to them of righteousness, that they should be spiritually circumcised in faith and good works. But since such spiritual circumcision did not follow, and they remained uncircumcised at heart, the other fleshly circumcision helped them not, but redounded instead to their sin.Cramer.
Circumcision as a figure of the relation of man to God. i. The three stages of circumcisionuncircumcised, outwardly circumcised, truly circumcised, correspond to the three stages of our being without God, serving God outwardly, serving God in spirit and in truth. ii. As external circumcision, without that of the heart, is equivalent to uncircumcision, so the outward service of God without the inward is equivalent to no service at all.Naeg.
Theme: SUPERFICIAL PIETY A DELUSION.
I. External religious observances are not necessarily accompanied by internal spiritual elevation. They do not prove nor produce inward purity and piety.
II. Without inward spiritual elevation our external advantages aggravate our impiety. They ought to promote piety; they offer a pretence of piety; they continually pronounce against our impiety.
III. Aggravating our impiety, our abuse of external advantages will ensure heavier condemnation. Punished with the uncircumcised; classed with the godless; guiltier than the godless; condemned to the keener woe which such must feel, even though the punishment itself be the same as that borne by the godless (Luk. 13:26-28).
NOTICEABLE TOPICS AND TEXTS IN CHAPTER 9
Topic: LAMENT FOR THE SLAIN DAUGHTERS OF SOCIETY. Text: Oh, that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughters of my people (Jer. 9:1).
It is a fastidious morality which leads the virtuous to banish the wretched creatures of vice from thought, pity, effort. Wretchedness in any form should evoke commiseration. Physical suffering summons our ameliorating arts; surely moral degradation should not be passed by with stolidity or scorn! Guilty ones oft shed tears for themselves for the misery which has come upon them, and have shown themselves grateful for the tears of the virtuous who have wept with them that weep. There is a winning force in tears, a saving force. A word of scorn, a look of wrath, cast at a fallen being, drives the guilty one, maddened to shame, agony, and indignation, into deeper crime.
I. A sight for tears. Weep for the slain, &c. Over the moral and spiritual prostitution of his people, the prophet bewailed. The fair comeliness, the sweet, virginity, the chaste piety of the daughter of Zion was destroyed.
1. It displayed the ravages of cruelly. The slain. A strong figure: Gods fair daughters murdered!
(a.) Cruelty perpetrated: the slain speaks of slayers: and no language is too strong with which to denounce those who devastate virtue, assassinate happiness, ravage purity, and destroy character. The blood of victims cries out against them to heaven. (b.) Cruelty suffered: the slainthe word implies agonies. He mourns not the dead, who died in peace, but the murdered who perished by violence. Read the miserable case of the daughters of iniquity in the records of desperate deeds, who, mad from lifes history, glad to deaths mystery, rush out of the world.
2. It shocked the feelings of patriotism. Weep for the slain of the daughters of my people. He lacks true nobleness who lacks patriotism; and patriotism will urge him in whom it lives to alleviate all wretchedness under which his own people groan. We need more to feel that a brothers or sisters misery is our own misery. Thus Jesus bore our griefs, &c.
II. A cry of lament. Oh, that my head were waters, &c. A bitter wail bursting from an aching heart. Insensibility to the piteous condition of the fallen declares against our own moral consciousness. Think of: 1. Homes which mourn for daughters worse than dead, a silent shame breaking every tender heart! Think of: 2. Hopes which are destroyed; children, which promised to be the light of age, slain. And Christian hopes destroyed also,souls slain, twice dead,dead to happiness on earth, dead to happiness beyond.
Yet the cry of lament need not be a cry of despair. Can these slain live? Yes; for them Jesus atoned on Calvary, for them there is a quickening Spirit, for them room in heaven! Jesus spoke to a woman who was a sinner; saved her, loved her, severely rebuked those who repelled her; said tenderly to her, Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven; faith hath saved thee, go in peace. (a.) Banish not the degraded from purposes of mercy. From Mary the Magdalene Jesus cast out seven devils. (b.) Banish them not from hope. Jesus saves to the uttermost; and tells the self-righteous that publicans and harlots shall go into the kingdom of heaven before them.
III. An appeal to pity. Oh, for tears, that I might weep day and night.
1. Our pity need not be dried up by the consideration that the guilty and fallen merit censure. Let him that is without sin first cast a stone. If Christ so loved uswhile we were yet sinnerswe ought also to love one another. Being ourselves forgiven ten thousand talents,our delinquencies against Heaven, let us not seize on a fellow-creature cruelly because society has been wronged to the extent of five hundred pence. None can wrong society as humanity has wronged God. Be merciful, as your Father in heaven is merciful.
Touch her not scornfully, Think of her mournfully, Tenderly, humanely.
Let tears flow for the slain, as Jesus wept over Jerusalem, though it merited curses, and soon would clamour for His blood. Begin at Jerusalemtake to the worst sinners, and take first to them, the blessed message of love.
2. Nor should our pity be transient. Day and night let us weep for the slain. Our pity will soon be too late for many. Redeem the time, that the blessing of those ready to perish may be won. On some have compassion, making a difference; and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire, hating even the garments spotted by the flesh. The Fountain opened for sin and all uncleanness is open still.
Topic: JEREMIAH: A LESSON FOR THE DISAPPOINTED. Text: O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place, that I might leave my people, for they be all treacherous men (Jer. 9:2).
The prophets were ever ungratefully treated by the Israelites, themselves resisted, their warnings neglected, their good services forgotten. Yet the earlier prophets fared better than the later; for outward honour was paid them, as with Moses and Samuel; while those who came in after times suffered maltreatment, as Elijah, Micaiah, and Zechariah (Mat. 23:35).
No prophet commenced labours with greater encouragements than Jeremiah. A king reigned who was bringing back the times of the man after Gods own heart. This devout and zealous king was, moreover, young. What might not therefore be effected in the course of years? Bright fortunes seemed in store for the Church.
Schism, too, was at an end since Israels captivity. Kings of the house of David again ruled over the whole land. Idolatry was destroyed by Josiah in all the cities. Thus, at first sight, it seemed reasonable to anticipate further and permanent improvements.
I. Every one begins with being sanguine.
Jeremiah did. Gods servants entered on their office with more lively hopes than their after fortunes warranted. Very soon the cheerful prospect was overcast for Jeremiah, and he was left to labour in the dark.
Huldahs message fixed the coming fortunes of Judah: she foretold the early death of the good king, and a fierce destruction to the unworthy nation. This prophecy came five years after Jeremiah entered office; so early in his course were his hopes cut away.
Or the express word of God came to and undeceived him. Or the hardened state of sin in which the nation lay destroyed his hopes. But so it was that his mind sobered into the more blessed and noble temper, resignation.
II. Resignation a more blessed state of mind than sanguine hopei.e., hope of present success. Because:
1. It is a truer state of mind. 2. More consistent with our fallen state of being. 3. More improving to our hearts. 4. The grace for which the moat eminent servants of God have been conspicuous.
a. To expect great effects from our religious exertions is natural and innocent, but arises from inexperience of the kind of work we have to doto change the heart and will of men.
b. Far nobler frame of mind to labour, not with hope of seeing fruit, but for conscience sake, as matter of duty, and in faith, trusting good will be done though we see it not.
c. The Bible shows that though Gods servants began with success, they ended with disappointment. Not that Gods purposes or instruments fail, but because the time for reaping is not here, but hereafter. Thus: Moses began with leading forth Israel in triumph; ended before journey finished and Canaan gained. Samuels ministry wrought reformations; ended in the people wilfully choosing a king. Elijah, after his successes, fled from Jezebel into the wilderness to mourn his disappointments. Isaiah, after Hezekiahs religious reign and miraculous defeat of Sennacheribs army, fell upon the evil days of Manasseh. Apostles show the same order of experience; for after all the great works God enabled them to do, see 2Ti. 3:13.
III. The vicissitude of feeling which this transition from hope to disappointment produces.
Jeremiahs trials during Josiahs reign were considerable, but afterwards experienced persecution from every class of men: from the people (Jer. 18:18), men of Anathoth (Jer. 11:21), priests and prophets (Jer. 26:16 sq.), chief governor (Jer. 20:2), Zedekiah (Jer. 32:3), conspirators (Jer. 37:14). Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 39:14) and an Ethiopian were of the few persons who showed him any kindness. Such were his trials.
And their effect upon his spirit? Affliction, fear, despondency, sometimes restlessness, even impatience under his trials, find frequent expression in his writings (Jer. 5:3; Jer. 5:30-31; Jer. 12:1-3; Jer. 15:10-18; Jer. 20:7-14). Such is the succession and tide of feelings which most persons undergo before their minds settle into the calm of resignation.
IV. The issue of these changes and conflicts of feeling was resignation.
He comes to use language which expresses that chastened spirit and weaned heart which is the termination of all agitation and anxiety in religious minds.
He who at one time could not comfort himself, was sent to comfort a brother; and in comforting Baruch he speaks in that nobler temper of resignation which takes the place of sanguine hope and harassing fear, and betokens calm and clear-sighted faith and inward peace (chap 45):Seek not success; be not impatient; fret not thyself; be content if, after all thy labours, thou dost but save thyself, without seeing other fruit of them.
V. These truths apply not to the prophets only, but to all.
All live in a world which promises well but does not fulfil. All begin with hope, and (apart from religious prospects) end with disappointment. Much difference in our respective trials, arising from difference of tempers and fortune.
1. Still it is in our nature to hope: to begin life thoughtlessly and joyously; to seek great things in one way or other; to have vague notions of good to come; to love the world, believe its promises, and expect satisfaction and happiness from it.
2. And it is our lot, as life proceeds, to encounter disappointment. Exceptions may seem to show themselves in the retired ranks of society and settled wealth. Still all begin life with health and end it amid sickness. Youth leaves even those most favoured with fortunes, and they lament the days gone, remember them with pleasure mingled with pain. For they have lost something they once had; whereas at the outset they anticipated something they had not.
VI. It is not religion which suggests this sad view of things, but experience.
It is the worlds doing. Though the Bible said nothing about the perishing nature of all earthly pleasures, it is a fact from which we cannot escape.
1. Here it is that God Himself offers us His aid: by His Word and His Church. Left to ourselves we seek good from the world and cannot find it: in youth look forward, and in age look back. Well that we be persuaded of these things betimes, to gain wisdom and provide for evil days.
2. Seek we great things? We must seek them where and in the way they are to be found, as He who came into the world to enable us to gain them has set them before us. We must be willing to give up present hope for future enjoyment.
3. We must be changed before we can receive our greatest good. Our nature is not in a state to enjoy happiness, even if offered to us. We seek it, feel we need it, but are not fitted for it. If we would gain true bliss, cease to seek it as an end, postpone the prospect of enjoying it.
4. Learn to know ourselves, and have thoughts becoming ourselves. Impetuous hope and undisciplined mirth ill become a sinner. Our guilt brought down the Son of God from heaven to die upon the cross for us. Should we live in pleasure here when the Gospel tells us of the Saviours life-long affliction and disappointment?
5. Prepare for suffering and disappointment, which befit us as sinners and are necessary for us as saints. Accent affliction as a means of improving our hearts. Look disappointment in the face; taking the prophets as examples of suffering and patience.
Give not over your attempts to serve God, though you see nothing come of them. Watch and pray, and obey your conscience, though you cannot perceive your progress in holiness. Do the duties of your calling, though they are distasteful. Persevere in the narrow way.
Mourn that you may rejoice (Mat. 5:4). Take up the cross of Christ that you may wear the crown. Give your hearts to Him, and you will solve the difficulty how Christians can be sorrowful yet alway rejoicing.
6. But you must begin in faith. Come unto Me, and I will give you rest. You cannot at first see where Christ is leading you, or how light will arise out of darkness. Must begin with pain, self-denial, refusing sin, mastering evil impulses, enduring irreligious sneers for Christs sake, forcing your minds to prayer, keeping thought of God before you daily. The Holy Spirit will enable you to do this; then shall your light rise in obscurity, &c. (Isa. 53:10-11).Abridged and arranged from Plain Sermons, by contributors to the Tracts for the Times.
ADDENDA TO CHAPTER 9: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS
Jer. 9:1. Fountain of tears.
Like a pent-up flood, swoln to the height,
He poured his griefs into my breast with tears,
Such as the manliest men in their crossed lives
Are sometimes forced to shed.
JOANNA BAILLIE.
Every one can master a grief but he that has it.SHAKESPEARE.
Jer. 9:2. Solitude: A lodging-place, that I might leave my people. There is no flight for him into quiet religious contemplation; he cannot withdraw from the circle of interests in which his countrymen are dwelling. He may pass hours or months in solitude, but he will not be away from the events which are befalling them; he will be more deeply occupied with them; he will be contemplating them with a closeness and intensity to which the mere actors in them are strangers. The poor young priest of Anathoth can in no way sever himself from the policy of nations and rulers: Judea, Egypt, Chaldea, every tribe and power of the earth must be about him in his closet, must enter into his most inward personal experiences and sufferings.Maurice, Prophets and Kings.
It is this childlike tenderness (Jer. 1:6) which adds force to the severity of his denunciations, to the bitterness of his grief. He was not one of those stern characters which bear without repining the necessary evils of life. He who was to be hard as brass and strong as iron, who had to look with unmoved countenance on the downward descent of his country, yet longed that his head were waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears, that he might weep day and night for the daughter of his people. He whose task it was to run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, like the Grecian sage (Jer. 5:1-2), to see if he could find a single honest manto live, as it were, in the market-place as a butt of scorn, alike from the religious and the irreligious worldhe was, by his own nature and inclination, the prophet of the desert, longing for a lodge in some vast wilderness, that he might leave his people, and avoid the sight of their crimes.Stanley, Jewish Church, ii. 442.
Oh, for a lodge in some vast wilderness,
Some boundless contiguity of shade,
Where rumour of oppression and deceit,
Of unsuccessful or successful war,
Might never reach me more! My ear is pained,
My soul is sick, with every days report
Of wrong and outrage with which earth is filled.COWPER, Slavery.
Far hid from the pitiless plunderers view,
In the pathless depths of the parched Karroo;
And here, while the night-winds around me sigh,
And the stars burn bright in the midnight sky,
As I sit apart by the desert stone,
Like Elijah at Horebs cave alone,
A still small voice comes through the wild
Like a father consoling his fretful child
Which banishes bitterness, wrath, and fear,
SayingMAN IS DISTANT, BUT GOD IS NEAR!PRINGLE.
Jer. 9:4. Slander.
Malicious slander never would have leisure
To search, with prying eyes, for faults abroad,
If all, like me, considered their own hearts,
And wept the sorrows which they find at home.ROWE.
Slander, the foulest whelp of sin! The man
In whom this spirit entered was undone;
His tongue was set on fire of hell; his heart
Was black as death; his legs were faint with haste
To propagate the lie his soul had framed;
His pillow was the peace of families
Destroyed, the sigh of innocence reproached,
Broken friendships, and the strife of brotherhoods.POLLOK.
Against slander there is no defence. Hell cannot boast so foul a fiend, nor men deplore so foul a foe. It stabs with a smile. It is a pestilence walking in darkness, spreading contagion far and wide, which the most wary traveller cannot avoid. It is the heart-searching dagger of the assassin. It is the poisoned arrow whose wound is incurable. It is as fatal as the sting of the most deadly asp; murder is its employment, innocence its prey, and ruin its sport.Grays Topics.
Jer. 9:8. Seductive speech: like a poisoned arrow.
The devil hath not, in all his quivers choice,
An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.
BYRON.
Jer. 9:11. Jerusalem in ruins.
Every stone is a witness of Gods revelation, and every ruin a monument of his wrath.Pierotti.
Alas! we were warned, but we recked not the warning,
Till our warriors grew weak in the day of despair;
And our glory was fled as the light cloud of morning,
That gleams for a moment, and melts into air.DALE.
Her outcast tribes no longer come
To greet her as their hallowed home,
But sadly joy to lay their head
Beneath their foes insulting tread;
To fall by her they could not save,
Their glory once, and now their grave.
CHARLOTTE ELIZABETH.
Jer. 9:17. Mourning women. African incident.The mother of poor Touda, who heard that I wished to see him once more, led me to the house where the body was laid. The narrow space of the room was crowded; about two hundred women were sitting and standing around, singing mourning songs to doleful and monotonous airs. As I stood looking, the mother of Touda approached. She threw herself at the foot of her dead son, and begged him to speak to her once more. And then, when the corpse did not answer, she uttered a shriek, so long, so piercing, such a wail of love and grief, that tears came into my eyes. Poor African mother! she was literally as one sorrowing without hope; for with them there is no hope beyond the grave. All is done, they say, with inexpressible sadness of conviction that sometimes gave me the heartache. As I left the hut, thinking these things, the wailing recommenced. It would be kept up by the women, who are the official mourners on these occasions, till the corpse was buried.Du Chaillu.
Jer. 9:21. Death.
What disarrays like death? It defaces the fascination of the beautiful. It breaks the lamp of the wise. It withers the strength of the mighty. It snatches the store of the rich. Kings are stripped of trapping, trophy, treasure: their glory shall not descend after them.Dr. R. W. Hamilton.
The glories of our blood and state
Are shadows, not substantial things;
There is no armour against fate;
Death lays his icy hand on kings.
Sceptre and crown
Must tumble down,
And in the dust be equal made
With the poor crooked scythe and spade.
Some men with swords may reap the field,
And plant fresh laurels where they kill;
But their strong nerves at last must yield;
They tame but one another still.
Early or late,
They stoop to fate,
And must give up their murmuring breath,
When they, pale captives, creep to death.
The garlands wither on your brow:
Then boast no more your mighty deeds?
Upon Deaths purple altar now
See where the victor-victim bleeds?
Your heads must come
To the cold tomb:
Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet and blossom in the dust.
SHIRLEY.
Death comes on with equal footstep
To the hall and hut:
Think you Death will tarry knocking
Where the door is shut?
Jesus waiteth, waiteth, waiteth;
But thy door is fast:
Grieved, away the Saviour turneth!
Death breaks through at last.
UNKNOWN.
I congratulate you and myself that life is passing fast away. What a superlatively grand and consoling idea is that of death! Without this radiant idea, this delightful morning star, indicating that the luminary of eternity is going to rise, life would, to my view, darken into midnight melancholy. Oh, the expectation of living here and living thus always would be indeed a prospect of overwhelming despair. But thanks be to that fatal decree that dooms us to die! thanks to that Gospel which opens the vision of an endless life! and thanks, above all, to that Saviour Friend who has promised to conduct all the faithful through the sacred trance of death into scenes of Paradise and everlasting delight.John Foster.
Jer. 9:23. Spurious glorying. Wisdom: a bane or a blessing, according as it is used. Water well directed will turn the mighty mill, and thus spare wearisome toils; but if it break through its banks, it is a desolating and destructive thing. Sails are an advantage to a ship which steers aright; but if wrongly directed, the more sail she carries the worse for her, since they hasten her to the ominous rocks.
Knowledge and Wisdom, far from being one,
Have ofttimes no connection. Knowledge dwells
In heads replete with thoughts of other men;
Wisdom, in minds attentive to their own.
COWPER.
Might: What illustration have we of such glorying in the history of Napoleon! At the head of his congregated legions he made the world stand in awe of him; but the scene changes, till we see him gnawing his heart away on a barren rock under the equator.Pilkington.
Our mightiest endeavours show us that, after all, we are only beating ourselves against the bars of a great cage. Can your feet stand upon the flowing river? Can you lay your finger upon the lowest of all the stars that shine in heaven. We are hemmed in by the impassable.Parker.
Riches: Crsus, whose name is a synonym for great wealth, was himself taken captive, stripped of all his treasures, and in old age was supported by the charity of Cyrus.
If thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bearst thy heavy riches but a journey,
And Death unloads thee.SHAKESPEARE.
To purchase heaven has gold the power?
Can gold remove the mortal hour?
In life, can love be bought with gold?
Are friendships pleasures to be sold?
Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind,
Let nobler views engage thy mind.
JOHNSON.
I have read of a man who had a suit, and when his case was to be heard, he applied himself to three friends to see what they would do. One answered he would bring him as far on his journey as he could; the second promised to go with him to his journeys end; the third engaged to go with him before the judge and speak for him, nor leave him till his cause was determined. These three are a mans riches his friends and his graces. His riches may not very long stay with him; his friends can go with him to the grave, but must there leave him; but his graces will go with him before God, never forsake him, but accompany him to the grave and to glory.Brooks.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
D. Unbearable Pain on the Part of the Prophet Jer. 8:18 to Jer. 9:1
TRANSLATION
(18) O my Comfort against sorrow! My heart is faint within me! (19) Behold, the sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her king in her? Why do they provoke Me with their images with their strange vanities? (20) The harvest is past, the summer has ended and we have not been saved. (21) Because of the hurt of the daughter of my people I have been hurt; I mourn, anguish has seized me. (22) Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? For why does not healing come to the daughter of my people? (Jer. 9:1) Oh that my head were waters and my eyes a fountain of tears I would bewail day and night the slain of the daughter of my people.
COMMENTS
As Jeremiah sees the apostasy of his people and their impending destruction his heart is sick. He casts himself upon God his comforter (Jer. 8:18). The word comforter means literally, the one to cause me to smile, to be cheerful or be bright. Jeremiah hears as it were a dialogue between those who will be taken into exile and God. In a distant land the former inhabitants of Judah lift up a cry for help: Is not the Lord in Zion? Is not her King in her? They cannot comprehend how Zion, the Temple mount, can be so humiliated and degraded if God is really still on His throne. To this astonished cry God makes answer: Why do they provoke Me with their images? (Jer. 8:19). Whatever has befallen Zion has come about because of the idolatry of the people there. Ignoring the explanation of God the exiles of the future continue with their complaint by citing a popular proverb: The harvest is past, the summer has ended and we have not been saved (Jer. 8:20). Once the summer harvest was over a farmer looked forward to a period of deliverance from arduous toil. But in the case of the Jewish exiles the hot summer of toil was only followed by the cold winter of despondency. Their national deliverance confidently predicted by the false prophets did not materialize. The exiles were beginning to realize that no speedy deliverance was in the offing.
The unbelief and despair of the people causes even deeper despair in the heart of the prophet. Because of the hurt (lit., shattering) of the daughter of my people I have been hurt. He loves his people as a father might love a daughter. Though Jeremiah sternly rebuked the people of Judah throughout his ministry yet all the while his heart was broken because of them. He did not want to see his people destroyed. Is there no balm (or medicine) in Gilead? the prophet asks. Gilead, located east of the Jordan river, was famous in old Testament times for its balm. It is not certain just what this balm was but the suggestion has been made that it was the juice of the turpentine tree. The material was exported (Eze. 27:17) and was very costly (Gen. 43:11). The balm of Gilead was prized for its medicinal properties. There was no healing ointment which could be applied to the spiritual wound of Judah. There were no physicians who might be able to deal with the difficulty (Jer. 8:22). Nothing can cure the ailment of Judah except a whole-hearted return to the divine Physician (Exo. 15:26). Jeremiah wishes that his head could produce an inexhaustible supply of tears that he might lament the inevitable doom of his people (Jer. 8:1). In spite of their sin, in spite of the way they had rejected Gods message, the inhabitants of Judah were still my people as far as Jeremiah was concerned.
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
IX.
(1) Oh, that my head were waters . . .!Literally, Who will give my head waters . . .? The form of a question was, in Hebrew idiom as in Latin, the natural utterance of desire. In the Hebrew text this verse comes as the last in Jeremiah 8. It is, of course, very closely connected with what precedes; but, on the other hand, it is even more closely connected with what follows. Strictly speaking, there ought to be no break at all, and the discourse should flow on continuously.
A fountain.Here, as in Jer. 2:13; Jer. 17:13, and elsewhere, the Hebrew word makor is a tank or rservoir rather than a spring.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
PREVAILING DECEIT AND WICKEDNESS, Jer 9:1-8.
1. Mine eyes a fountain of tears This verse should go with the preceding chapter, as indeed it does in the Hebrew. We see in its pathetic words, as in a mirror, the heart of him who has been denominated, and not unaptly, the Weeping Prophet. Comp. Lam 2:11; Lam 3:48.
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
Jeremiah’s/YHWH’s Heart Cry At What Is To Happen To His People Because They Have Refused To Know YHWH And Are So Filled With Deceit And Falsehood ( Jer 8:18 to Jer 9:11 ).
There are two ways of seeing this passage depending on whether we see YHWH as speaking throughout, or on whether we see Jeremiah as intermingling his own comments with those of YHWH. It is, for example, possible to see Jer 8:18-19 a (and a number of the other verses) as being the words of Jeremiah, with on the other hand Jer 8:19 b; Jer 9:3 b, 6-9, 11 certainly being the words of YHWH, but it is equally possible that we are to see the whole as being in the words of YHWH apart from when we hear the cry of the people. We must not, however, over-emphasise the difference for we already know that Jeremiah was revealing the heart of YHWH.
Note the references to ‘the daughter of my people.’ While Jeremiah could himself have used this phrase previous references to ‘the daughter of My people’ have been in contexts where they were clearly from the mouth of YHWH (Jer 6:14; Jer 6:26; Jer 8:11; see also Jer 9:7 in context). This would heavily support these verses as coming directly from the mouth of YHWH through the mouth of Jeremiah
Interpretation based on many of the words being Jeremiah’s.
On this interpretation Jeremiah, as YHWH’s spokesman, begins by declaring his constraint at what is happening to YHWH’s people. He then looks outward and takes note of the bewilderment of those in exile, with whom he was in communication (chapter 29), as they asked themselves from their distant outposts whether, in view of what was now happening to Judah, it demonstrated that YHWH was no longer king in Zion. YHWH’s response was firm and to the point. The situation in which His people found themselves was not to be seen as a sign that He was not King in Zion but rather as a sign that He was, which was why He was carrying out His judgment on His people. The real problem lay in the fact that by their behaviour they had provoked Him to anger, which explained why they had experienced no salvation. In other words their situation arose precisely because He WAS king in Zion and could therefore control what happened there.
The whole position is then confirmed by those of Judah still present in the land who complain that in spite of the time having passed they have not been delivered (either from famine or from invasion or from both). This leads on to Jeremiah asking ‘why not?’. His question about the lack of balm in Gilead may be seen as a sarcastic one bringing out the failure of their gods. Did these gods not know that there was a balm in Gilead, famous for its healing balms, why then have they not healed the people’s predicament? Or it may be one of genuine puzzlement as to why YHWH has not acted to heal His people in the same way as He had been their physician by supplying a balm in Gilead.
What follows probably in fact supports the former suggestion, for Jeremiah is now very much in line with YHWH at the thought of the sinfulness of the people. Even while he wept for them he had to point out that the truth was that they were still adulterers and treacherous. In consequence the desire of his faithful heart was to get away from them, away from the defilement of their sinfulness, to a place of refuge, thus expressing the fact that he wanted nothing more to do with them and had had enough of them and their ways. They had proved continually false, and while they claimed to have grown strong, it was certainly not strong for truth, something which was evidenced by the fact that they continued on from evil to evil and from deceit to deceit and continually refused to know YHWH.
Interpretation based on all the words being YHWH’s.
Now it is YHWH Who declares his grief and constraint at what is happening to His people (Jer 8:18), and takes note of the bewilderment of those in exile, as they asked themselves from their distant outposts whether, in view of what was happening to in the land to Judah, it demonstrated that YHWH was no longer king in Zion (Jer 8:19 a). His immediate response was to point out that the situation in which His people Judah found themselves was not a sign that He was not King in Zion but was rather a sign that He was, and that that was why He was carrying out His judgment on His people (Jer 8:19 b). In other words the real problem arose, not from His inadequacy, but from the fact that they had provoked Him to anger by their extremes of sinfulness, which was the reason why they had experienced no salvation (Jer 8:20).
This position is then portrayed as confirmed by Judah themselves complaining that in spite of the time having passed they had not been delivered. Their should have been a summer harvest, and their had not (Jer 8:20). This backs up the truth of what YHWH has been saying. It is noteworthy that YHWH is not portrayed as complacent about this, or as standing aloof. Rather we are to see that His heart was breaking because of the situation of His people (Jer 8:21). On the other hand He recognises that He has no alternative but to chasten them. This then leads Him on to ask why they have not been saved in view of the fact that there is a well known balm in Gilead, provided by Him. Is He not the provider of healing? Why then have they not been healed? And the answer is because they have sinned so grievously that there is no healing. Alternately we may see the question as partly a sarcastic one suggesting amazement at the failure of their gods (only partly because He knows what the real solution to their problem is, and that it has to do with the God of Gilead). Do these gods not know that there is a balm in Gilead, famous for its healing balms, why then have they not healed the people’s predicament as He could have done? It is subtly bringing out that these gods have failed to heal and pointing out that they were clearly therefore unaware of the God-given healing properties available in Gilead to which they could have resorted.
This then leads on to the fact that while YHWH felt deeply for His people and had indeed wept for them, He knew that He had to face up to the truth about them. They were still unchanged, incorrigible adulterers and traitors, so that all that He could desire at this stage was to get away from them to a place of refuge, leaving them to their fate. This was because they were continually false, for while they may claim that they had grown strong it was certainly not strong for truth, something which was evidenced by the fact that they continued on from evil to evil and from deceit to deceit and continually refused to know Him.
The passage may be analysed as follows:
The prophet/YHWH seek consolation over what is coming on the people (Jer 8:18).
A cry comes from YHWH’s far off exiled people (either Israel or the initial exiles of Judah) as to what is happening and bewailing the fact that they themselves have not been delivered as they had expected (their prophets were very optimistic), or alternatively expressing astonishment because those in the land of Judah have not been delivered (Jer 8:19 a). If we see Jeremiah as involved then in the light of what follows the second alternative appears the most likely, for his change of attitude from tears to a desire to leave them to their deserts, requires a process which brings about his change of thought which does not involve the exiles.
To this YHWH replies giving His reasons. It is either because of their sins (if they are querying their own failure to be delivered) or because of the sins of Judah (if they are asking why Judah have not been delivered) (Jer 8:19 b).
The people of Judah (or possibly the exiles of Israel, continuing their questioning) then also cry out, declaring that they have not been delivered (Jer 8:20), emphasising the fact of YHWH’s judgment.
The prophet then either joins in the questioning and decries the fact that his people are still unhealed in spite of the presence of the Healer of Gilead, praying for help by his weeping for them, or alternatively he sarcastically asks the people of Judah why their gods have not been able to heal them (Jer 8:21 to Jer 9:1). Alternatively YHWH asks why it is that they are not healed when their God is the healing God of Gilead. The answer, of course, is because they have sinned so deeply against Him and have refused His illumination.
Having considered YHWH’s defence Jeremiah’s attitude alters abruptly and he desires to go into a lonely refuge in the wilderness to get away from such an adulterous and treacherous people. If the speaker of YHWH it is the point at which He finally leaves His people to their own deserts (Jer 9:2).
He points out that their bent tongue is like a bent bow firing off falsehood and deceit, and feelingly describes their deceitful behaviour towards each other (Jer 9:3-5).
The prophet himself (or YHWH) dwells among a deceitful people who refuse to know YHWH and who will thus consequently be melted down and tried by Him in order that He might test them out (Jer 9:6-7).
This is necessary because their tongue is like a deadly arrow towards their neighbours (Jer 9:8).
The consequence is that YHWH will visit them in judgment and obtain His recompense (Jer 9:9).
This is followed by YHWH weeping over Judah because of what He is having to do to them (Jer 9:10-11).
Jeremiah (Or YHWH) Seeks Consolation.
Jer 8:18
“Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow!
My heart is faint within me.”
Jeremiah (or YHWH) did not find this judgment on His people pleasant or easy to take. It was causing great sorrow in his heart, a sorrow which resulted in faintness and a refusal to be comforted. On this interpretation the thought is that however much he sought comfort his heart was faint within him at what he was having to do.
There is, however, a translation problem here so that other meanings are possible. The meaning of the word(s) mabliygiyth (found only here) is uncertain. It may indicate a desire for recovery of some kind, e.g. a desire for ‘comfort, or strengthening’, or alternatively it may relate to a similar word in Arabic meaning ‘shine, illuminate’ indicating a desire for an illumination which could bring comfort (or otherwise). Another suggested alternative which does not alter the consonantal text (the inspired text) is to repoint and read as mibbeliy giythi (possibly meaning ‘without healing’), translating as ‘sorrow within me is without healing, my heart within me is faint ’.
The Hebrew is:
mabliygiythi————‘al-i—————yagon——‘al-i——–leb-i—————–dawy
Which translates literally as:
illumination-of me—–on/within me—affliction—on me—-heart-of-me—-languishing.
On this basis we have the translation ‘My illumination within me is sorrow/affliction, within me my heart is faint (the Hebrew leaves the ‘is’ to be assumed in both phrases). This would indicate that the only illumination that he has is that of affliction so that his mind and heart are languishing and are faint.
Another alternative suggestion is to translate as, ‘My strength! Within me is sorrow, within me is my heart faint,’ indicating that his strength is failing him because his sorrow is so overwhelming.
Meanwhile The Exiles of Israel (or the Earliest Exiles of Judah) Are Puzzled At What Is Happening.
Jer 8:19
“Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people,
From a land which is very far off,
‘Is not YHWH in Zion?
Is not her King in her?’ ”
Meanwhile even the far off exiles (the daughter of my people) were puzzled at what was happening to Zion. Their cry came from a land very far off (Assyria/Babylon), asking bemusedly ‘Is not YHWH in Zion? Is not her King in her?’ ” As they surveyed the scene they could not comprehend how, if YHWH was King in Zion He could allow what was happening to happen.
Others see the questions as being asked because they could not understand why they themselves had not been delivered and restored as their false prophets had promised, which would tie in with the later complaint ‘we are not saved’ (Jer 8:20).
YHWH’s Defence.
Jer 8:19
“Why have they provoked me to anger,
With their graven images, and with foreign vanities?”
YHWH offers His defence. He says that the question should rather be, ‘Why had they provoked Him to anger with their graven images and with the foreign no-gods (vanities, breaths of wind)’ to which they had turned. This was why as King He was acting against them in judgment, because they were traitors all. All therefore needed to be punished. They had put themselves beyond the pale.
The People’s Despair.
This may be the cry of the exiles bewailing the fact that nothing had happened. Another year has passed without their deliverance by YHWH. (But in that case why separate it from Jer 8:19 a by means of Jer 8:19 b)? Or it may be the cry of the people living in Judah in despair over the continuing failure of the harvest at a time of drought, or of their failure to be saved from invasion, or of both (Invasion necessarily interrupted the harvests). They may be blaming their gods for the failure, or they may be blaming YHWH. We are not told. If we take Jer 8:19-20 together we may see a pattern emerging as follows:
The exiles complaint – why is YHWH allowing this to happen (Jer 8:19 a)?
YHWH’s complaint – it is because of the utterly evil behaviour of His people (Jer 8:19 b).
Judah’s complaint – we have been waiting to be delivered and it has not happened (Jer 8:20).
If this is the case we may see Judah as by it bewailing the failure of their false gods. Or it may be that they are rather expressing their displeasure because YHWH had not saved them, on the grounds that, in spite of what He had said, they had thought that He would. Now suddenly they were being brought face to face with the fact that they were wrong.
Jer 8:20
“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
And we are not saved.”
This may be in the words of Jeremiah speaking on behalf of the people, or the words of the people in the land of Judah as they cried out in their distress. It may even have been a common proverb used when expectations were not fulfilled. But the essential idea is the same. (Alternatively it might be the cry of the exiles).
The question that arises is as to who is seen as having failed to do the saving. Is it their false gods, or is it YHWH?
Either the thought is that it was those no-gods who were supposed to have provided Judah with a good harvest and to have ensured her safety. Were they not nature gods? Was it not their responsibility to produce a harvest? Surely then they should have saved them. On this scenario the false gods are seen as having failed. The harvest was past, the summer was ended, but there had been no deliverance from either famine or the invader, or both. It may have reference to the great drought of Jer 14:1, or to a time when they were shut up in their cities by invaders so that the harvest went to waste because the invader still possessed the land outside the cities. Either way there was no benefit from the harvest for His people, or deliverance from their peril, thus indicating that their no-gods had utterly failed them.
Or the thought may be that they were grumbling because YHWH had not saved them. This may have been their response to the question of the exiles, or their direct grumble against the God from Whom they had expected response in view of the fact that they had maintained the Temple ritual
Others see the thought as being that it was the cry of Israel/Judah from exile (compareJer 8:19 a).
Whichever way it was, it was emphasising the fact that no deliverance had taken place. This helps to explain the prophet’s (or YHWH’s) own distress. To one who loved his people it was one thing to prophesy what was going to happen to them, it was quite another to see it actually happening.
The Prophet (Or YHWH) Suffers With His People.
Jer 8:21
“For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt.
I mourn, dismay has taken hold on me.”
Jeremiah (or YHWH) did not see it as easy to stand aside and watch what was happening. He was deeply hurt because of the hurt of the daughter of his people, and he (He) mourned over it, and was filled with dismay at it.
As we have already seen previous references to ‘the daughter of My people’ have been from the mouth of YHWH (Jer 6:14; Jer 6:26; Jer 8:11; see also Jer 9:7) which would heavily support these verses as coming directly from the mouth of YHWH through the mouth of Jeremiah.
Jer 8:22
“Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then is the health of the daughter of my people,
Not recovered?”
The chapter has contained a number of references to recovery from sickness. The false prophets had healed their hurt all too glibly (Jer 8:11). They had looked for a time of healing but it had not come (Jer 8:15). Instead they would be bitten by deadly snakes (Jer 8:17). Healing had possibly been lacking in Jer 8:18. Now the prophet longs for some means of recovery, and looks for it to the recognised centre for healing, or rather to the healing God Who was the source of the benefits found at Gilead.
The balm of Gilead was probably the resin or gum of the storax tree. It was used medicinally and was well known for its healing virtues (compare Jer 46:11, and see Gen 37:25). Gilead was seemingly also known for its physicians who would apply the balm. So if the question is regarding the failure of the false gods to heal Jeremiah (or YHWH) is seen as expressing sarcastic or yearning surprise at the fact that the people had not recovered. After all the people had rejected YHWH, electing rather for self-help and their no-gods. Why then had these not provided a means for them to heal themselves by utilising such resources as those at Gilead? Why had they not healed themselves.
But the question may be centring on the question as to why YHWH Who had provided the famed balm of Gilead, had now failed to act as Physician for His people. The balm of Gilead showed what He could do. Why then had He not healed them? Why were they not healed? This might then be seen as leading on to the fact that the failure was only due to the intransigence of His people, so that that was why He had not been willing to cure them.
The Prophet Despairs Of His People Because of What Is Coming, And Because They Are So Sinful.
Jer 9:1
“Oh that my head were waters,
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
that I might weep day and night,
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
The prayer is an indication of the numbers who were dying. It indicates that Jeremiah (or YHWH) was distraught as he looked out in prophetic foresight on the masses of the slain among his people, (or already actually saw them before him) and that he longed that his head and eyes might be a gushing spring so that he could continue on weeping for his people day and night. The fact that he weeps for the slain (not for the living – compare Jer 7:16) may be an indication of the judgment that had already come upon them, or it may be visionary, having the future in mind. He is forbidden to pray for the living, but he can weep (not pray) over those who are dead.
Jer 9:2
“Oh that I had in the wilderness ,
A lodging-place of wayfaring men,
That I might leave my people,
And go from them!
For they are all adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.
It is all too much for him. Here we learn that he (He) also longed to get away from those who were still in Judah living because of what they were. He desired a lodging-place for travellers ( a khan or primitive inn) somewhere in the wilderness so that he could go there away from his people. It would be very basic, but it would at least supply him with solitude, and would remove him from the midst of the evil by which he was surrounded. And the reason for his longing was that they were all adulterers (both spiritually and literally), and were a gathering of treacherous people. he could no longer stand their physical presence and the atmosphere that they produced. Note that if it is Jeremiah speaking he has no blame for YHWH. He recognises that the people are receiving what they deserve.
Jer 9:3
And they bend their tongue,
Their bow, for falsehood,
And they are grown strong in the land,
But not for truth,
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know me,
The word of YHWH.”
For their tongues, which should have spoken truth, were like bows which they bent in order to project falsehood. Thus while they claimed that they had grown strong in the land it had certainly not been ‘for truth’, and this was especially so of their leaders who had risen among them. (This may well have been spoken after the cream of their leaders had been carried off into captivity in the initial exile). Indeed by their lives they denied and rejected all that was true and righteous, and proceeded from evil to evil. And this, said YHWH, was because ‘they do not know Me’ (i.e. know Him in His essential Being). For if they had truly known Him (although they no doubt claimed to know Him) they would have been worshipping Him only and would have been observing the requirements of His covenant. As He had openly declared to them, ‘You will worship YHWH your God, and Him only will you serve’.
The judgment that is coming on them is therefore seen as fully deserved, even though it was a heavy burden for Jeremiah (and for YHWH). Note that the hopelessness of their situation is now constantly being made clear, and that it was not only man hurting God, but also man hurting man.
Their Combined Sin Is Such That None Can Trust Another.
Jer 9:4
‘Beware every one of his neighbour,
And do not trust in any brother,
For every brother will utterly supplant,
And every neighbour will go about with slanders.’
The idea of their deceit and falsehood is now taken up. They are so false that no one can trust anyone else. Every man has to beware of his neighbour, no brother can be trusted. For every brother will seek to get one over on his brother, and every neighbour spreads slanders and lies. This is the direction in which our modern society is going, and has already gone in relation, for example, to business ethics. The days when a man’s word was his bond have mainly gone. (Note the chiastic structure – neighbour, brother, brother, neighbour).
‘Every brother will utterly supplant (‘aqab).’ Possibly a reference using Jacob (Ya ‘aqob) the supplanter (‘aqab) of his brother as an example (Gen 27:36).
Jer 9:5
‘And they will deceive every one his neighbour,
And will not speak the truth,
They have taught their tongue to speak lies,
They weary themselves to commit iniquity.’
The situation is such that everyone deceives everyone else. No one’s word can be relied on. They have all trained themselves to speak falsely and unreliably, and they are so full of sin that they wear themselves out in their eagerness to practise it.
Jer 9:6
‘Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit,
Through deceit they refuse to know me,
The word of YHWH.’
Indeed Jeremiah should recognise that his own dwelling is in the midst of deceit, and that he himself is surrounded on all sides by untrustworthiness (which was why he had desired to go to a refuge in the wilderness – Jer 8:2). It is this very ingrained falsehood that results in his people not genuinely knowing YHWH in their hearts, and is the explanation as to why they have refused to know Him. It is not that they are unaware of Him. It is rather that they have specifically and deliberately rejected Him.
Here the ‘Your’ is singular indicating Jeremiah. Note how their sin is growing. In Jer 8:3 they did not know YHWH, now they have set their hearts against knowing Him. In other words they are becoming so impervious to sin and rebellion that they are in danger of blaspheming against the Spirit of Truth manifested through the words of YHWH which were being proclaimed through Jeremiah. And this is ‘the solemn prophetic word of YHWH’. Such is the consequence of allowing deceit and falsehood to take possession of the heart.
YHWH Will Test His People Out.
Jer 9:7
‘Therefore thus says YHWH of hosts,
“Behold, I will melt them, and try them,
For how should I do otherwise,
Because of the daughter of my people?”
As a result of their continuing in their deceitful and untrustworthy ways, YHWH of hosts (controller of all the hosts of men as well as of the heavens) will melt them in the refiner’s fire and put them to the test in order to reveal the truth about their lack of quality and purity (compare Jer 6:27-30). For how could He as a holy God do otherwise as a result of what His people had become?
This extreme of chastisement was necessary because all else had failed. There was no future in going on with things as they were. Israel had had six hundred years in which to sought themselves out and had failed to do so (just as God had given the Canaanites/Amorites a further four hundred years in Gen 15:16). Going on like that was pointless. Now it was a time for melting down so as to obtain the good from among the bad.
But All It Reveals Is Folly And Disobedience Deserving of Judgment.
Jer 9:8
‘Their tongue is a deadly arrow,
It speaks deceit,
One speaks peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth,
But in his heart he lays wait for him.’
Their continuing deceitfulness is then emphasised and expounded on. Their tongue is like a deadly arrow, speeding from the bow of their bent tongues (Jer 8:3), and speaking lies and deceit. They put on a pretence of friendship and neighbourliness towards their fellow-citizens, while in their hearts they are waiting to ambush them. The whole nation has become a mass of deceit and untrustworthiness.
Jer 9:9
“Shall I not visit them for these things?” The word of YHWH.
“Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?”
In view of this how could YHWH, the holy One (Isa 57:15), not visit them with judgment and chastening because of what they had become? How could He fail to call their sin into account, and bring on them the vengeance warned about in the covenant? See in this regard Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28. The answer, of course, is that He could not fail to do either, because of what He is. And that that is ‘the sure and certain word of YHWH’ (neum YHWH).
A Vision Of What In Consequence Will Happen To Judah.
Jer 9:10
‘For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing,
And for the pastures of the steppeland a lamentation,
Because they are burned up, so that no one passes through,
Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle,
From the birds of the heavens to the beasts they are fled,
They are gone.’
The coming judgment and visitation is now graphically and prophetically described in terms of God’s lament for the mountains, in which they had lived and worked and worshipped, and the pasturelands on which they had grazed their animals. For He sees prophetically how they have all been burned up, first by the invaders, and then by the burning sun, and as a result have become desolate so that no one passes through. Consequently there would be no sound of the lowing or bleating of cows, sheep and goats; no birdsong; no growling or roaring of wild animals. All would be silent. For the land would be deserted and empty, and all such would have departed. Compare Jer 4:23-26.
Jer 9:11
“And I will make Jerusalem heaps,
A dwelling-place of jackals,
And I will make the cities of Judah,
A desolation, without inhabitant.”
For His intention was to turn Jerusalem into heaps of ruins, a place where jackals (literally ‘howlers’) would make their dens (compare Jer 10:22, this is one of Jeremiah’s regular descriptions of desolation, see Jer 49:33; Jer 51:37), and to make the cities of Judah totally bare of inhabitants. In other words His judgment would come on the whole land without exception.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jer 9:23-24 Comments Do Not Glory in Man’s Abilities, But in God’s Lovingkindness – A wise man who glories in his wisdom refers to the strength of a man’s mind. The mighty man who glories in his might refers to the strength of a man’s body. The rich man who glories in his riches refers to the strength of a man’s finances. However, the most important aspect of the person is his heart, by which a man walks in love and righteousness. Thus, Jer 9:23-24 refers to the three-fold aspect of man: spirit, soul and body, plus finances.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
The Deceit of the People
v. 1. Oh, that my head were waters, v. 2. Oh, that I had in the wilderness, v. 3. And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, v. 4. Take ye heed every, one of his neighbor, v. 5. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, v. 6. Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit, v. 7. Therefore, thus saith the Lord of hosts, v. 8. Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, v. 9. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the Lord,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
EXPOSITION
Jer 9:1
The Hebrew more correctly attaches this verse to Jer 8:1-22. Oh that my head were waters, etc.! A quaint conceit, it may be said. But “if we have been going on pace for pace with the passion before, this sudden conversion of a strong-felt metaphor into something to be actually realized in nature, is strictly and strikingly natural.” So Bishop Dearie, quoting, by way of illustration, Shakespeare’s ‘Richard II.,’ “meditating on his own utter annihilation as to royalty:”
“Oh that I were a mockery king of snow,
To melt before the sun of Bolingbroke!”
The tone of complaint continues in the following verse, though the subject is different.
Jer 9:2-22
Complaint of the treachery and folly of the people; lamentation over their consequences.
Jer 9:2
A lodging place of wayfaring men; a “khan” or “caravanserai,” to use the terms now so familiar from Eastern travel, where “wayfaring men” could at least find shelter, and the means of preparing their provisions. Comp; besides the parallel passage in Psa 55:6, Psa 55:7, our own Cowper’s fine reminiscence of Jeremiah: “Oh for a lodge in some vast wilderness!” etc. Adulterers treacherous men (see Jer 2:20; Jer 3:8, Jer 3:9; Jer 3:20; Jer 5:11).
Jer 9:3
And they bend their tongues, etc.; rather, and they bend their tongue as their bow of falsehood, and they use not their valor in (literally, according to) good faith. There is a sad, stern irony in these words, which remind us of Isaiah’s (Isa 5:22) “valiant menfor drinking wine” and of our own prophet’s repetition of himself in Jer 22:10, “Their valor isuntruth.” A less pointed form of the same figurative statement is that of the psalmist in Psa 64:3. Upon the earth; rather, in the land. The Authorized Version pays very little regard to the context in its rendering of the ambiguous word erec.
Jer 9:4
Take ye heed every one of his neighbor. Such was the result of clinging to an unprogressive religionone which refused to be spiritualized by the prophets. Certainly, if the established religion was so inefficacious, it was self-condemned. Hero we find the prophet depicting a state of society in which the elementary bonds are already dissolved, and suspicion becomes the natural attitude even of a good man. We find a very similar picture in the last chapter of Micaha chapter, it is true, which stands apart from the rest of the book, as it implies a greater development of wickedness than the rest of Micah and the contemporary prophecies of Isaiah would lead us to expect. Are these prophetic descriptions just and accurate? We may allow something, no doubt, for the warmth of feeling natural to every human preacher, even under the influence of inspiration; but we must not allow ourselves to explain away the obvious meaning of the prophets. The latter and their disciples were “the salt” of their country; and in proportion as their influence declined, the natural effects of a non-moral, purely ritualistic religion showed themselves on a larger scale. Every brother; i.e. every fellow-tribesman or fellow-citizen. Will utterly supplant. There is nothing in the context to suggest an allusion to Gen 27:36 (Jacob). The verb has its common sense of deceiving. The tense should be the present, not the future, both here and in the next verse. Will walk; rather, goeth about (see Jer 6:28).
Jer 9:5
They have taught their tongue, etc.; again an intimation of the unnaturalness (in the higher sense) of vice (comp. on Jer 2:33).
Jer 9:6
Thine habitation, etc. According to St. Jerome, this is addressed to the prophet; but it is better to follow the Targum, which makes the clause refer to the Jewish people. The connection is (as Dr. Payne Smith points out),” Trust no one; for thou dwellest surrounded by deceit on every side.”
Jer 9:7
I will melt them. It is the same word as that used in Mal 3:3 of the “refiner and purifier of silver.” Purification, not destruction, is the object of the judgment which is threatened! Strange that mercy should find place, after the offence of the criminal has been found so grievous l But, lest we should expect too favorable an issue, the prophet adds, in the name of Jehovah, For how shall I do? or rather, How should I act? How otherwise should I act? The continuation is a little doubtful. The Hebrew has,” by reason of the daughter of my people;” but this can hardly be right. We naturally expect something to justify the preceding statement. The reading of the Septuagint answers to our anticipations by rendering , and this is confirmed by the parallel passage Jer 7:12 (comp. Jer 11:17; Jer 32:32).
Jer 9:8
(Comp. Psa 55:21.) As an arrow shot out; rather, as a sharpened arrow; but this is based on the marginal reading, and is itself a slightly forced rendering. The Hebrew text (i.e. the consonants), and also the Septuagint and Vulgate, have “as a murderous arrow.”
Jer 9:10
This and the next six verses contain a description of the sad fate of the sinful land and people. At first the prophet speaks as if he saw it all spread out before him. Then, in the character of a surprised spectator, he inquires how this came to pass, and receives the Divine answer, that it is the doom of self-willed rebellion. The habitations should rather be pastures. The country, once covered with grazing flocks and herds, is now so utterly waste that even the birds cannot find subsistence.
Jer 9:11
I will make, etc. Notice how the utterances of the prophets stand side by side with those of Jehovah. A true prophet has no personal views; so that whether his revelations are expressed in the one form or the other makes no difference. Dragons; rather, jackals.
Jer 9:12
For what the land perisheth. A closer rendering would be more forcible: Wherefore hath the land perished, is it burned up like the wilderness with none that passeth through
Jer 9:13
There is no answer, for the wise men are ashamed (Jer 8:9); so Jehovah himself takes up his speech. My law which I set before them; not in reference to the publication of the Law on Sinai, but, as Keil rightly points out, to the oral exhibition of the Torah by the prophets. Neither walked therein; viz. in the Law. (On the precise contents of the term here rendered “Law,” see note on Jer 8:8.)
Jer 9:14
Imagination; rather, stubbornness (see on Jer 3:17). Baalim. The Hebrew has “the Baalim;” practically equivalent to “the idol-gods” (see on Jer 2:8). Which their fathers taught them. “Which” refers to both clauses, i.e. to the obstinacy and the Baal-worship.
Jer 9:15
I will feed them with wormwood. A figure for the bitter privations of captivity (comp. Lam 3:15, “He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood”). Wormwood and galli.e; the poppy (Tristram)are combined again in Deu 29:17.
Jer 9:16
I will scatter them also, etc. (comp. Deu 28:64; Le 26:33). I will send a [the] sword after them. Even in the land of their captivity they shall have no rest. A special prophecy to the same effect was addressed to the Jewish fugitives in Egypt (Jer 44:27). In both cases it is the unbelievers who are referred to; the nation as such was, through its Divine calling, indestructible.
Jer 9:17-22
A new scene is introduced. To give an idea of the greatness of the impending blow, all the skilled mourners are sent for to raise the cry of lamentation. But no, this is not enough. So large will be the number of the dead that all the women must take their part in the doleful office. The description of the mourning women is as true to modem as to ancient life in the East. “And, indeed,” says Dr. Shaw, a thoughtful traveler and an ornament of Oxford in the dark eighteenth century, “they perform their parts with such proper sounds, gestures, and commotions, that they rarely fail to work up the assembly into some extraordinary pitch of thoughtfulness and sorrow”.
Jer 9:18
That our eyes may run down, etc.; a justification of this artificial system-The piercing notes of the hired mourners are to relieve the sorrow of the afflicted by forcing for it a vent.
Jer 9:19
Forsaken; rather, left. Our dwellings have cast us out; rather, they hare cast down our dwellings.
Jer 9:20
Yet hear; rather, for hear.
Jer 9:21
Death is come up, etc. “Death,” equivalent to “pestilence” (as Jer 15:2), the most dreaded foe of a besieged population. (For the figure, comp. Joe 2:9.) The children from without. The ideal of Zechariah is that “the streets of the city should be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof” (Zec 8:5). But the pitiless reaper, Death, shall cut off even “the playful child from the street” (so we might render more literally). Streets, in the parallel clause, means the “broad places” where men congregate to toll the news.
Jer 9:22
Speak, Thus saith the Lord. These words are in three important respects contrary to the style of Jeremiah:
(1) such a prefix as “speak” is unique;
(2). such a phrase as is also unique m Jeremiah;
(3) when our prophet does use the formula it is not at the beginning of a verse.
They are omitted by the Septuagint translator, who presumably did not find them in his copy of the Hebrew, and the text gains greatly by their removal. The following words are mistranslated in the Authorized Version, and should run, not even, but and, the carcasses of men shall fall; etc. It is most improbable, however, that a fresh Divine revelation should begin with “and.” With other points, the word rendered “speak” would mean “pestilence.” Possibly the word fell out of verse 21, where it would find an excellent place in the second clause (as an explanatory parallel to “death,” as in Psa 78:50), which would thus obtain greater roundness and symmetry. As the handful; i.e. as thickly as one heap of corn succeeds another under the deft hand of the leaper.
Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24
These two verses were hardly composed for their present position, though a connection may, of course, be thought out for them. Perhaps a comparison of Hab 3:17, Hab 3:18, may help us. There the prophet looks forward to a complete desolation resulting from the Chaldean invasion, and yet declares that he can even exult in his God. So here. All subjects of boasting have been proved untrustworthy; but one remainsnot wisdom, not valor, not riches, but the knowledge of the revealed God.
Jer 9:24
The knowledge of God relates to three leading attributes, the combination of which is very instructive. First, loving-kindness. This is not to be understood in a vague and general sense of the love of God to all mankind; the term has a special connotation with regard to the Israelitish people. God shows loving-kindness to those with whom he is in covenant; hence the combination “loving-kindness and faithfulness” (Psa 85:10, corrected version), and as here (comp. Psa 5:7, Psa 5:8; Psa 36:5, Psa 36:6), “mercy and righteousness.” Israel is weak and erring, and needs mercies of all sorts, which Jehovah, in his “loving-kindness,” vouchsafes. Next, judgment, or justice. Jehovah is a King, helps the poor and weak to their right, and punishes the wrong-doer (comp. Jer 21:12). Then, righteousnessa similar but wider term. This is the quality which leads its subject to adhere to a fixed rule of conduct. God’s rule is his covenant; hence “righteousness” shows itself in all such acts as tend to the full realizing of the covenant with Israel, including the “plan of salvation.” It is by no means to be confined to exacting penalties and conferring rewards.
Jer 9:25, Jer 9:26
A further enforcement of the doctrine that no outward privileges, if dissociated from inward moral vitality, will avail.
Jer 9:25
All them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; rather, all the circumcised in uncircumcision, or, as Ewald turns it, “all the uncircumcised-circumcised.” But what does this enigmatical expression signify? Hitzig, Graf, and apparently Dr. Payne Smith, think that it has a twofold meaning: that, as applied to the Jews, it means circumcised in the flesh, but not in heart, and, as applied to the heathen, simply uncircumcised (the one-half of the phrase neutralizing the other, like “a knife without the blade,” “angels with horns and hoofs,” etc.). The latter meaning, however, is surely very improbable, and it would only become necessary if it were proved that circumcision was practiced by none of the nations mentioned but the Jews. This is not the case. There is no doubt that the Egyptians were circumcised in very early times (see the drawing of a bas-relief in the Temple of Chunsu at Karnak, given by Dr. Ebers in his ‘Egypten und die Bucher Meets’). The assertion that only the priests underwent the operation has no older evidence than that of Origen (edit. Lommatzsch, 4.138), “in whose time it is quite possible that the Egyptians, like the later Jews, sought to evade a peculiarity which exposed them to ridicule and contempt.” As to the Ammonites and Moabites, we have, unfortunately, no information. With regard to the Edomites, it is true that, according to Josephus (‘Antiq.,’ 13.9, 1), they were compelled to accept circumcision by John Hyrcanus. But it is still quite possible that, at an earlier period, the rite was practiced, just as it was among the ancient Arabs, the evidence for which is beyond question (see the writer’s article, “Circumcision,” in Encyclopaedia Britannica, 9th edit.). (On the statement that “all these [the] nations are uncircumcised,” see below.)
Jer 9:26
All that are in the utmost corners; rather, all that are corner-clipped; i.e. that have the hair cut off about the ears and temples. Herodotus tells us, speaking of the Arabs, “Their practice is to cut the hair in a ring, away from the temples” (3.8); and among the representatives of various nations, colored figures of whom are given in the tomb of Rameses III; we find some with a square place shaved just above the temples. The hair below this shaven place was allowed to grow long, and then plaited into a leek. It is to such customs that Jeremiah alludes here and in Jer 25:23; Jer 49:32. A prohibition is directed against them in the Levitical Law (Le 19:27; Jer 21:5). For all these nations are uncircumcised; rather, all the nations, etc. Another obscure expression. Does it mean (taken together with the following clause), “The Gentile peoples are uncircumcised in the flesh, and the people of Israel is equally so in heart?” But this does not agree with facts (see above, on Jer 49:25). It is safer, therefore, to assume that “uncircumcised” is equivalent to “circumcised in uncircumcision” (Jer 49:25). The next clause will then simply give the most conspicuous instance of this unspiritual obedience to a mere form.
HOMILETICS
Jer 9:1
Grief for others.
I. THE RIGHT SPIRIT IN WHICH TO REGARD THE MISERIES OF OTHER MEN IS ONE OF GRIEF. A less worthy spirit is too common.
1. Self-congratulation. The evil condition of others is simply used as a dark background on which to throw out in relief our own superiority.
2. Indifferencethe spirit of Cain, which cries, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”
3. Vindictiveness. Jeremiah denounced the sins of Israel, and threatened punishment. Yet he regarded these sins with no Pharisaical sternness, and he could not contemplate the punishment of them with indignant satisfaction. Even if men are deserving punishment, that punishment is still pitiable. Sin inclines a good man to sorrow as much as to anger.
II. GRIEF FOR THE MISERIES OF OTHERS WILL BE INDUCED BY A TRUE APPRECIATION OF THOSE MISERIES IN A SPIRIT OF SYMPATHY.
1. A spirit of sympathy. Jeremiah felt the distresses of his nation as private sorrows. He was a true patriot. We must feel one with men before we can rightly regard their troubles.
2. A true appreciation of the miseries of men. Sympathy implies knowledge. We do not feel aright because we do not take the trouble to inquire into the condition of others. Much apparent hardheartedness arises simply from ignorancebut culpable ignorance. True sympathy will feel distress for the real evil of others, not only for their transient moods. It may need to weep over those who foolishly rejoice, and rejoice for those who weep wholesome tears of penitence.
III. GRIEF FOR THE MISERIES OF OTHERS MAY BE OUR BEST MEANS FOR HELPING THEM. Barren pity is a mockery when active aid is called for.
1. But genuine sympathy is the strongest motive to help.
2. We can intercede in prayer most effectually when we make the sorrows of others our own. Christ’s sorrow for men was an important element in his intercession.
3. Sorrow for others may move them to view their condition in a true light. Tears may avail where warnings are lost. We have no greater motive to repentance than can be furnished by a right feeling of what Christ has suffered through our sin.
IV. GRIEF FOR THE MISERIES OF OTHERS IS NOT ALONE SUFFICIENT FOR THEIR DELIVERANCE. Jeremiah wept over his nation, yet the threatened desolation was not averted. Christ wept over Jerusalem, but Jerusalem was destroyed. Though God is “grieved” at our sin, we may fall into ruin. His grief is a strong inducement to repentance, but every man must repent and seek deliverance for himself.
Jer 9:4-8
Falsehood.
I. SIN CULMINATES IN UNIVERSAL FALSEHOOD. The intellectual aspect of sin is untruth. Every sin is a lie. The triumph of sin is the overthrow of all truth and trust.
II. FALSE RELATIONS WITH GOD LEAN TO FALSE RELATIONS WITH MEN. Religion and morality mutually influence each other. The worship of a god known to be false develops a life of falseness. The hypocritical service of God is likely to be accompanied by dishonest dealings with men.
III. HABITS OF FALSEHOOD ARE FATAL TO HUMAN WELFARE. Society reposes on trust. Commerce is impossible without good faith. Universal distrust must involve social disintegration. The state, the family, all mutual organization, must then fall to pieces. Falsehood only succeeds by abusing trust; but by so doing it tends to destroy trust; and when it has accomplished this end it will be ineffectual. Universal lying would be useless to everybody.
IV. FALSEHOOD IS REGARDED BY GOD AS A PECULIARLY WICKED SIN. For this especially the people must be punished (Jer 9:9). Deceit amongst men is a sin against God, who is the Truth eternal It is a spiritual sin, a sin most near to the diabolical (Joh 8:34). It is a sin which is peculiarly injurious to the spiritual nature of the sinner, tending to destroy conscience (Mat 6:23). It involves both injustice and cruelty towards men.
Jer 9:9
A visitation of God.
I. CHASTISEMENT IS A VISITATION OF GOD. The phrase “a visitation of God’ has been too much confined to calamitous events. God visits us every hour in gentleness and mercy. Still, it is important to recognize that he also comes in chastisement. He comes, does not simply order, but himself executes chastisement.
1. We should recognize the Divine visitation. Outwardly the trouble may have a human origin. The calamities of the Jews arose out of a Chaldean invasion, but the prophets saw above and behind that invasion a Divine purpose. God was in those armies from Babylon. God is in our troubles.
2. This fact should make us dread to incur chastisement. We cannot resist it, for if God is in it, all his might and majesty are there.
3. This fact should make us submit to the chastisement when it comes as just and good. Its origin is not Satanic, but Divine. If God is in it he must ever be true to his character; his fiercest anger can never break the bounds of what is just and fair; he must always be ready to show mercy when this is possible (Hab 3:2).
II. CHASTISEMENT IS DETERMINED BY THE PERSONAL RELATIONS BETWEEN GOD AND MEN. It is God’s soul being avenged. God’s vengeance is quite unlike ours; it is never cruel or intemperate; it is always governed by justice and consistent with unchanging love. It is, however, more than judicial punishment. It is an action arising out of personal feeling and determined by our personal offences against God. Sin is more than transgression of Law,it is ungrateful rebellion against God; and punishment is more than the cold vindication of Law, it is the result of the provoked anger of God. Such anger is right, for it is not kindness but weakness that allows a father to receive insult from a child unmoved. The greater the love, the greater will be the righteous anger when this is wronged.
III. CHASTISEMENT IS NECESSITATED BY THE CONDUCT OF MEN. It is “for such things” and “on such a nation.” God does not love vengeance. He does not send punishment as an arbitrary exercise of sovereignty. Therefore our chastisement is virtually in our own hands. Even after meriting it, we alone are to blame if the full force of the blow falls upon us. For God has provided a way of escape, and offers forgiveness to all who repent and submit. Therefore it is foolish for men to complain of their hard lot in falling under the storm of a visitation of God in wrath.
IV. THE NECESSITY FOR CHASTISEMENT MAY BE RECOGNIZED BY OUR COMMON INTELLIGENCE. The text is an appeal to reason, a question which unbiased minds could answer only in one way. If chastisement is not seen to be reasonable, it must be either
(1) because the depth of guilt is not felt, or
(2) distorted views of chastisement have been entertained. This will be such as befits the offence.
V. THE PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF CHASTISEMENT INVOLVE PERSONAL ELEMENTS IN REDEMPTION. Hence the necessity for a “propitiation.” Thus Christ redeems us by becoming a Propitiation for our sins (1Jn 2:2).
Jer 9:12-16
The causes of national disaster.
I. IT IS PROFITABLE TO INQUIRE INTO THE CAUSES OF NATIONAL DISASTER.
1. Intellectually, this is a subject of profound interest, dealing with fundamental principles and the vast issues to which they lead when working on the largest scale.
2. Morally, it is of great practical importance for the warning it supplies to all nations. The sight of terrible ruin rushing down upon a people is appalling, but the awe with which it strikes us will not have much whole- some effect till we have an intelligent appreciation of the sources from which it comes, and are thus enabled to watch them and guard against them.
II. SPIRITUAL WISDOM IS REQUISITE FOR THE DISCERNMENT OF THE CAUSES OF NATIONAL DISASTER. They do not lie on the surface. No study is more difficult than that of the philosophy of history. Unless the mind is awake to spiritual facts, the inquiry will not go beyond secondary causes, or attempting more will commit injustice. The prophets needed inspiration for this as much as for the prediction of future events. No mere literary historian is fit for the work. Only a prophet can he fully equal to it, and other men can only pursue it with safety when they walk in his footsteps. Hence the immense value of the historical elements of the Old Testament to the statesman.
III. THE CHIEF CAUSES OF NATIONAL DISASTER ARE MORAL. Material causes are visible on the surface, such as famine, plague, invasion, revolution. Political causes lying deeper may be easily discerned, such as diplomatic complications, class divisions, violent changes in popular sentiment. But beneath all such influences there are great moral causes.
1. These act through providence. God takes note of the conduct of nations, judges, ministers.
2. They also act directly. Luxury is enervating; injustice destroys the confidence of a people in its government, etc.
IV. ONCE REVEALED, THE MORAL CAUSES OF NATIONAL DISASTER ARE SIMPLE AND INTELLIGIBLE. The prophets make these clear to us in the case of their own nation.
1. Negatively, the causes were traced to disobedience to the will of God, culpable because this was well understood” set before them.”
2. Positively, they were found in willful stubbornness and demoralizing idolatry. God was the shield of his people. When he was forsaken they were defenseless. Nations are only secure while they are governed by the will of God, by justice and humanity. Godlessness, bearing fruit in falsehood, cruelty, and vicious lawlessness of passion, is a sure source of national ruin. The state of the public conscience is more important to a nation than that of its army.
Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24
False boasting and true confidence.
I. FALSE BOASTING.
1. We are inclined to overvalue our own possessions. The wise man thinks wisdom the one source of security, the strong man strength, the rich man riches. That bulks most largely which lies most near to us.
2. The very good that is in a thing may deceive us by tempting us to overvalue it. Wisdom, strength, and riches are all good in their way. Trust in them is very different from trust in fraud and violence. Not regarding them as enemies, we are in danger of confiding in them as saviors instead of simply employing them as servants.
3. The number of earthly resources leads us to assume that security must be found in some of them at least; for when one fails we can fall back on another. But if the best do not protect in the extremity of danger, will inferior aids suffice? Wisdom is greater than strength, and strength than riches. If wisdom fails, what can the rest do for us?
4. The variety of advantages contained in earthly resources deceives us as to their value. Wisdom promises to outwit the enemy or devise some means of evading ruin. Yet the wisdom of the wisest Jews was defeated by those who came from the land of “the wise;” and how can it avail against the supreme wisdom? Strength as physical prowess and national power may be imposing and yet not almighty. Samson was weak under a woman’s wiles. Goliath fell before the sling of the stripling David. Riches may buy much. They could not prevent the Chaldean invasion. They cannot buy off sickness, disappointment, death, the punishment of sin. Nebuchadnezzar found the possession of the world no security against the most humiliating affliction (Dan 4:28-33). The rich fool was mocked by his own prudence (Luk 12:16-21).
II. TRUE CONFIDENCE.
1. This is to be sought in the knowledge of God. Wisdom, the best of earthly resources, is not sufficient for protection, but it is the type of a higher wisdom, wherein is the secret of safety. This is a wisdom which concerns itself, not with petty devices, subtle schemes, cunning, and cleverness, but with the highest knowledge, bearing fruit in “the fear of God” (Psa 111:10). We must know God to trust him.
2. The knowledge of God will reveal to us the special grounds for confidence in him, viz.
(1) loving-kindness, disposing him to help the needy;
(2) justice, making it apparent that he will concern himself in human affairs as the King ruling all into order; and
(3) righteousness, showing that in the broadest way he will maintain the right. Hence it will be apparent that God can and will help us only in accordance with these principles of his character; and we must know them, not only to learn thereby to confide in him, but also to bring ourselves into that spirit which will justify us in expecting his mercy, e. reconciliation to his love, submission to his government, and obedience to his righteous will.
Jer 9:25, Jer 9:26
Impartial justice.
I. SPECIAL PRIVILEGES DO NOT INTENSE WITH THE IMPARTIAL EXERCISE OF DIVINE JUSTICE. Judah is specially privileged, and prizes circumcision as a seal of the peculiar favor of Heaven (Gen 17:9-14). Yet Judah must take its place in the indiscriminate catalogue of corrupt nations. If privileges are noted in God’s exercise of justice, this can only be as an aggravation of guilt. The citizens of favored nations, the heirs of rank and wealth, persons whose lives have been peculiarly successful and unvisited with the usual amount of trouble, all stand in this position. Their present happy condition is no guarantee for favor in the day of Divine judgment, but, on the contrary, a reason for regarding the ingratitude of sin as, in their case, the more culpable.
II. THE OBSERVANCE OF EXTERNAL ORDINANCES HAS NO INFLUENCE ON THE IMPARTIAL EXERCISE OF DIVINE JUSTICE. Their utility is solely as regards their effect on men. They are profitable only in so far as they assist the corresponding spiritual acts, which are all that God takes note of (Col 2:11). The circumcised in body who are not circumcised in heart will suffer just as if they had never been circumcised at all. The ordinance without the spirituality is an offence rather than a pleasing thing. It shows knowledge; it is a mockery to God. This must be so,
(1) because God is spirit, and can only be served spiritually; and
(2) because the highest justice is concerned with thoughts, motives, deeds of the soul, rather than with the ambiguous actions of the outer life.
III. NO EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE TO THE IMPARTIAL EXERCISE OF DIVINE JUSTICE. All kinds of nations are classed together. Cultivated Egyptians and wild Arabs, scrupulous Jews and idolatrous Ammonites, all come before the same judgment-bar, all have the same fair trial-and righteous sentence.
1. The heathen are not excluded from God‘s judgment; for
(1) he is the God of all the earth, and of those who ignore him as well as of those who recognize him;
(2) the heathen have a light of nature and a conscience by which to guide their conduct;
(3) God’s judgment is reasonable, and can adapt requirement to opportunity, so that the heathen will have as just treatment as those who are more privileged.
2. The Jews and professedly religious are not excluded. Many people make an utterly unwarrantable assumption that their respectability, position in the Church, etc; are such that the stern ordeal of the judgment is not for them. In his vision of judgment Christ made no such exceptions (Mat 25:31-46).
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR
Jer 9:1
Vicarious grief.
It is a common occurrence in the history of God’s Church that when general indifference to religious truth, to impending judgments, or depraved spiritual condition, etc; is exhibited by the multitude, one or at most a few are sensible of the nature and extent of the evil. Knowledge in such a case is nearly always sorrow. This is intensified when remonstrances are unheeded, and efforts of reform are defeated. It is the righteous man, the reformer, who is most affected by the situation, and who feels most keenly the disgrace and danger.
I. IN THE HIGHEST THINGS IT IS THE FEW THAT MUST FEEL FOE THE MANY. This has been the law from the beginning. It is a necessity of nature. It is a Divine appointment. Pure feeling, even when painful, appears as a stewardship in one or two hearts, perhaps in one alone. Joseph is moved to tears at the heartlessness of his brethren. Jonathan is ashamed for his father Saul. Elijah laments in loneliness and despair the apostasy of Israel. Jesus weeps over Jerusalem; painfully wonders at the slowness of heart to believe exhibited by his own disciples; is “sore amazed “at the cup of iniquity he has to drink. Jeremiah is here evidently in the same succession of vicarious suffering. We see the same principle working in our own circle of acquaintance. Men, women, sorrowing and suffering for others, who are themselves unconscious or are partially so.
II. WHAT ARE THE COUNTERVAILING ADVANTAGES WHICH LIGHT UP THIS MYSTERY? It cannot be wholly to the detriment of those in whom it is illustrated. The justice of God is involved in the question.
1. The keenest joys spring from or coincide with the deepest, purest sorrows.
2. By-and-by the sorrow will transfer itself to its objects, in the grace of repentance.
3. In at least one illustrious instance, it exerts an atoning, mediatorial influence for sinners with God.M.
Jer 9:2, Jer 9:3
The man of God’s longing for seclusion.
I. IT IS THE NATURAL RECOIL OF A PURE HEART FROM WICKEDNESS. When the knowledge and love of God are in the heart, sin appears more loathsome. The love of goodness will show itself in a hatred of evil, and a desire to be separated from its workers. In some this love of God and goodness overpowers even the natural attachments and ties of life. And it may be carried to such an excess as to become a spiritual disease, in its way as sinful as the causes that give rise to it. Monasticism has its root in a good and proper feeling carried to excess, and without the restraining and modifying considerations that ought to accompany it. In the instance before us (and like instances)
II. IT SPRINGS FROM NO SELFISH MOTIVE. Jeremiah did not seek for the “luxury” of grief; sufficient the wanderer’s tent, or the comfortless caravanserai of the desert. Nor has he any desire to attitudinize. It is a loneliness that shall not be conspicuous; a losing of himself amongst strangers who care not for him and notice him not. Nor did he seek to evade the duties of life. If he separated himself, it was not to escape from the impending dangers he had announced; nor to intermit his spiritual activities. “He wished there to weep for them” (Zinzendorf); to study the problem in fresh and more hopeful aspects; to recover his mental and spiritual calm; to recruit his spiritual energies for a new and more successful effort. So in our own day, the underlying motive must ever determine the lawfulness, the character, and the continuance of our spiritual retirements.
III. GOD DID NOT REBUKE IT, BUT HE DID NOT SEE FIT TO GRATIFY IT. Here the longing, if it ever grew into a prayer, was not answered, at least at once, or in the way conceived of. Whilst the day of grace lasted, and God’s people were open to repent and to be influenced by his words, he is detained amongst them. When all possibilities were exhausted, then the dungeon of the king’s prison or the shame of the Egyptian exile might serve the purpose. But even then the essential craving was satisfied. There is a longing that is its own answer. To some it is given to experience solitude and spiritual detachment in the midst of the busy throng of transgressors for whom they yet ceaselessly work. This centrifugal tendency may be productive of greater concentration, real compassion, and capacity for usefulness, when it is controlled and overcome by a sense of overmastering responsibility, and a “heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel, that they may be saved.”M.
Jer 9:2-6
The self-opposition and futility of the sinner’s life.
A strong argument against the practice of a thing may often be found in the supposition that it should become universal. This is valid in the case of the practices and desires of wicked men. The idea of Hobbes concerning the original state of human society is ingenious and conceivable from this very reason, were it not contradicted by the world’s history.
I. ONE SIN ENTAILS ANOTHER, AND CRIME LEADS TO CRIME. (Jer 9:3.)
II. UNIVERSAL WICKEDNESS PRODUCES UNIVERSAL DISTRUST AND MISERY. (Jer 9:5.)
III. EVIL–DOING IS A WEARY AND FRUITLESS TOIL.
IV. ITS FUTILITY CULMINATES WHEN IT ROBS A MAN OF THE KNOWLEDGE AND FELLOWSHIP OF CLOD, AND EVEN OF THE DESIRE FOR THEM. (Jer 9:6.)M.
Jer 9:12-16
The affliction of God’s professed people an enigma to be explained.
I. THE MYSTERY. This consists partly in the particular subjects of it, and partly in the degree to which it has gone. It is spoken of here prophetically as a future thing that has already taken place; and the problem is stated accordingly as a realization, and not a thing only conceived of. From time to time the history of Israel and Judah presents such scenes. It is by no means one of uninterrupted progress. There are backboard movements, standings still, interruptions, sharp and humiliating national disasters, and long epochs of civil warp political nonentity, or foreign captivity.
I. Yet have there not been many gracious promises to the contrary!
2. On the whole, the past reverses of Israel have been retrieved, and a measure of continuous progress attained.
3. The special affliction referred to is unprecedented, and its result would almost appear to be final. The history of the Christian Church and of individual believers presents features analogous to this. The slow progress of the world’s evangelization. The comparative absence of spiritual blessing in the midst of God’s children. Their divisions, scientific skepticism, or unscientific superstition, like parasites, strangling the tree of the Church and draining away its life. Or the mystery appears in the individual Christian. His creed is orthodox, his behavior outwardly presenting little that is blameworthy; and yet worldly business is a constant series of reverses and dishonorable compromises; his influence is lost; afflictions come upon him, and he cannot bear up under them; the peace of Christ is not his; etc.
II. THE POINT OF VIEW FROM WHICH IT IS TO BE REGARDED. This very important to be determined. The apostate people of God fail to realize the extent to which they have fallen, and confound the formal rites of religion with its spirit and reality. They at first attribute it to natural causes, or treat it as a temporary thing that will right itself, etc. The heathen, looking on ab extra, imagine that the Jehovah of Israel is no longer able to deliver, or that he has ceased to care for her. Here it is declared to be a judgment upon apostasyutter departure from truth and righteousness, and the sterner because of that fact. And when we look at all the circumstances of the case, this interpretation seems more probableto carry, as it were, its evidence with it. The key, therefore, is for the most part an inward one; at first, at any rate, wholly so. This it is which constitutes the main element of difficulty in the troubles of God’s people. Hence the room there must be for mistakes, and the ease with which a wholly erroneous view may be taken with superficial probability. And this suggests how large a part of the Church‘s function is fulfilled in merely being a problem and a mystery to the carnal mind. When judgment begins at the house of God, it is time for all attentively to look on and inquire why it is so. Greater perils lie on the side of unfaithfulness than of mere unbelief. And in the last resort conscience must be appealed to in explanation of mysteries of reverse and trouble. Thereby God is knocking at the door of the heart both of the world and the Church. It is of the utmost importance that we settle the question between us and him.
III. AN INTERPRETER WANTED. (Jer 9:12.) When men are at a loss, or there is radical difference of opinion, it is evident that some authority is required to decide the question. The world and its canons are by the nature of the problem ruled out of court. And the apostate is too blinded with his own sin and too callous through repeated acts and prolonged habits of wrong-doing to be trusted in the matter. At this juncture the advantage of revelation and of the prophetic office appears. So far as God is concerned, the seer speaks with the authority of direct inspiration; so far as the culprit is concerned, he occupies a representative position, and as one of those implicated, yet himself innocent, acts as general conscience. This is God’s wayto raise a testimony and extract a confession from the heart of the transgressor himself, or from the midst of those upon whom his judgments fall. And the same end is accomplished now through the Spirit and the Word. The saint becomes the mouthpiece of the Savior, and the world is convinced of “sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.”M.
Jer 9:21
The death of the wicked contrary to nature.
Various respects in which this is so: it is sudden; it defies all the resources of comfort and protection; it is untimely, and cuts off the young in their bloomthe children for the fathers’ sin, the hope of the nation and the family. “Death will not, as an enemy lurking without, attack those only who venture out to him, but will assault the people, penetrating into all their houses, to fetch his sacrifices” (Naegelsbach, in Lunge). Why so?
I. IT IS BECAUSE THE LAWS OF GOD AND OF NATURE HAVE BEEN SHAMEFULLY VIOLATED.
II. THE TRIAL AND PUNISHMENT OF THE CONFIRMED SINNER ARE SWIFTLY REMOVED TO ANOTHER JUDGMENT–SEAT.
III. IT IS INTENDED AS A DEMONSTRATION AGAINST EVIL AND A TERROR TO EVILDOERS.M.
Jer 9:22-24
The knowledge of God the only real glory of man.
Comparison of the earthly acquisitions and properties of the natural man with those which are spiritual and Divine frequent in Scripture. In history and in life they are seen in competition. It is not that the one class of gifts is to be wholly despised and the other alone sought. A correct perspective must be established. It is the “glory” of a man that requires in the first place to be determined. After that is settled, all other things will take their due place and precedency.
I. THE “GLORY” OF MAN MUST DEPEND UPON THE END FOR WHICH HE HAS BEEN BROUGHT INTO EXISTENCE. This is written in his nature, confirmed by providence, and made clear by revelation. In the words of the Westminster Catechism,” The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him for ever.” Everything else must be subordinated to this; but if pursued in its place, will show itself to be a perversion of his nature, and will end in calamity and misery. How very few care to satisfy themselves upon this momentous question! Hence the necessity for the teachings and warnings of experience.
1. The “glory ‘ of man will be declared by the manner in which the circumstances of his earthly lot affect it in the working out of that end. Each of the qualities and properties upon which men usually pride themselves has been tried in this way and found deficient. The wisdom of the world has a thousand times been shown to be foolishness before God. There are a myriad problems for which it has no key. “Might” has been reduced to nothingness by the least of the duties and experiences of the spiritual life. Disease and death can bring down the mighty from their seats, and stay the greatest worker at his task. Many a time has the cherished object after which one has labored with apparent success been snatched away just when about to be attained. And “wealth” is similarly discredited. The moth and the rust can corrupt the treasures of earth, and the thief breaks through and steals them from their most guarded security. The accident of fortune may give or take away the greatest fortune. And when death comes, all these earthly possessions have to be left behind. They cannot avail for what lies beyond. How seldom are these gifts used for the highest end! And how unavailing of themselves would they be to secure it!
2. The “glory“ of man must depend upon the success with which it contributes to secure that end.
II. THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD IS INDICATED UNMISTAKABLY BY THESE TESTS AS THE ONLY TRUE “GLORY” OF MAN. God is identified with the ultimate aim of our being. He made us, and it is for him we live. Consequently, the better we know him, the better shall we be able to serve him.
1. Imitation of God will spring from the knowledge of him. The more we know of him the more we must love him, and admiration will lead to resemblance in spirit and in life. “We love him, because he first loved us.”
2. Knowledge depends on and leads to obedience. (Joh 7:17.) The knowledge of God sheds light upon the universe and life, and directs the soul and body into the channels of health, happiness, and usefulness.
3. It is connected with and culminates in Divine fellowship. In this way the character and presence of God are brought into closest contact with the spirit of man, his character is molded into the image of the Divine original, and the joys of communion deepen and enlarge into the blessedness of heaven. “This is life eternal, [even now] to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.”M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY
Jer 9:1
The testimony of tears.
Tears are an unusual, a strange sad sight in a strong man. But here Jeremiah appears utterly broken down. He abandons himself to a very agony of sorrow. His tears remind us of those of our Lord and of St. Paul. But they are also a relief to the overburdened heart. Like the cry of the sufferer in sore pain. We are glad when we behold one enduring some crushing sorrow enabled to pour forth his grief in tears. The heart-broken prophet has evidently felt them to be such a relief. His thoughts of his country’s sorrows, when they lie too deep for tears, are greater than he can bear. He would, therefore, that he might be able continually to weep. But tears are admonitory. They bear a very powerful testimony, which we shall do well to give heed to. For they bear witness
I. To HIS PROFOUND CONVICTIONS.
1. In regard to the truth of the message he has delivered. When we behold God’s servants, such as Jeremiah and St. Paul and others, laboring with all energy of soul, with infinite self-sacrifice, exposed to every form of ill, and “with many tears,” we are constrained to inquire the motive of such a life. But only one of three suppositions is possible.
(1) Either he who labors is a deceiver. He is consciously acting a part. But this supposition in regard to prophets and apostles of God’s Word has long been given up. “The world has renounced almost to a man this hypothesis. It refuses to believe in the possibility of a hypocrite whose writings inculcate and whose conduct exemplifies the highest order of moral excellence; it refuses to believe in a benevolent, modest, self-denying, high-minded, humble, magnanimous liar, in whom falsehood speaks with the very tongue, looks through the very eyes, and personates the very gestures and tones of truth; it refuses to believe that a man with no earthly motive for it, and every earthly motive against it, should spend the best part of a lifetime in cheating men into truth and virtue which he had himself utterly renounced” (H. Rogers). But if this hypothesis be rejected, then there is another.
(2) He has deceived himself. He is the victim of enthusiasm, the unconscious agent of a bewildered and disordered brain. But this hypothesis also will not bear investigation. For such enthusiasms are generally short-lived, they are soon detected, and the common sense of mankind refuses to participate in them. No instance can be found of a mere enthusiast persuading whole nations and convincing the purest, the most sober, and the most thoughtful of whole communities, and in such manner that the falsehood thus originated shall live on and acquire power over men’s minds increasingly. And there are other tests whereby enthusiasm may be discriminated from the deliberate convictions of the sober mind, and every one of such tests, when applied to the history of faithful witnesses for God’s truth, fail to show that these witnesses were, though not dishonest, yet merely mistaken enthusiasts. There remains, therefore,
(3) only the other alternative, that the message which they delivered with so much earnestness was true. And the tears of the prophet and apostle do alike bear this testimony, and its force men have everywhere felt. And would we convince an unbelieving world of the truths we profess to hold, we must manifest more of a like conviction. If some wan, worn, emaciated preacher, bearing on him evidently the marks of the Lord Jesus, whose whole life had been, like that of Jeremiah or St. Paul, one long sacrifice for the truth,if such a one could appear amongst us, then would the world believe, as it now altogether refuses to whilst those who profess belief show such few tokens of the reality of their belief.
2. In regard to the dread peril of those who disobey God. We know with what impassioned earnestness Jeremiah had pleaded with his infatuated countrymen; how he had exhorted, implored, and wept in his endeavor to win them from their wicked ways. And now, when it seemed all in vain, we behold him sunk in sorrow, dissolved in tears. Wherefore this? Were the theory of the universalist true, that there is no “fearful looking for of judgment,” that all will be made blessed in the coming hereafter, irrespective of what they have been or what their conduct in this life,then such tears as we are contemplating now would be unmeaning. Had the prophet held such views, had our Lord, had St. Paul, their deep distress would have been inexplicable, because altogether uncalled for. Or even if the theory of those who hold that “death ends all” been that of God’s servants, still such distress would be far more than could be accounted for. Or even if it were that only the blessedness of the righteous were missed, and all others would simply perish, then too the future of the ungodly would call for no such sorrow. Or that by such devices as those of the Romish ChurchMasses, indulgences, and the likethe guilty soul, though indeed its doom were terrible, yet it might by these devices be rescued from such doom,then too there could have been no tears such as these. But contemplating the overwhelming sorrow of men like Jeremiah when beholding the judgment of the ungodly, we are shut up to the conviction, which evidently possessed him so profoundly, that it is a fearful thing for an unforgiven man to fall into the hands of the living God.
3. In regard to the exhaustion of all present resources of help. Could Jeremiah have done anything to turn aside that judgment which he so vividly and with such distress anticipated, he would not have given himself up to tears. They are the evidence that all resources are exhausted, that nothing more can be done, that as he says (Jer 6:29), “The bellows are burned.” The language of such tears is the voice of God saying, concerning the hardened and impenitent, “He is joined to his idols: let him alone.” God save us all from having to shed, and still more from causing, such tears as these. But they bear witness also
II. To PROFOUND COMPASSION. He who has known the compassion of God for his own soul will, in proportion to the depth of that knowledge, feel compassion for the souls of others. Indifference and unconcern are no longer possible to him who knows the love of God when he sees men perishing in sin. “The love of Christ constraineth” him. And the same compassion, thus begotten, leads him to mourn when the offer of God’s mercy is refused. Such tears, being interpreted, tell of his passionate but useless desire that the sinner’s doom had been averted. Cf. David’s exceeding hitter cry, “O Absalom, my son, my son!” etc. And they are made to flow the more freely by the remembrance that that lost condition might have been so altogether different. There was no necessity for it. That which could not have been avoided, which we feel to have been inevitable, we bear with more calmness. But when there is the consciousness, such as David had concerning Absalom, that he might have come to an end so different, to an end as honorable and blessed as this was disgraceful and miserable, that reflection made his tears flow faster than before. And when it is not mere folly but grievous sin which has brought God’s judgment upon men, then the compassionate heart grieves yet more; a further drop of bitterness is infused into the cup, and such tears as we are contemplating have this sorrow in them as well as the others we have spoken of. And that now there is no hope, no remedy,this is the last and worst reflection which wrings the compassionate heart with uttermost grief. Jeremiah beholds the house of Judah “left unto them desolate;” the daughter of his people not merely “hurt,” but slain. How is it that, with like reasons for such compassion as that of Jeremiah, we know so little of it? “Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy Law”spoke God’s servant in the hundred and nineteenth psalm, But who can say that now? Compassionate Savior, give us of thy mind.
III. TO THE BEHOLDERS OF SUCH GRIEF.
1. Are you workers for God? Then remember that disappointment and present failure have been the lot of many of the noblest of the servants of God. There is a goodly fellowship of such.
2. Are you believers in God? Then remember his sure promise as to what shall follow this “sowing in tears,” this “going forth weeping, bearing precious seed.” We are not to think that we have seen the last result of our toil because that which we do see is so distressing.
3. Are you rejecters of God? Then remember that God puts such tears “in his bottle,” and they are treasured by him; and their testimony, whilst it will be for the salvation of those who have shed them, will be far more terrible judgment against those who have caused them. “Weep not for me,” said our Lord on his way to the cross, “but weep for yourselves, and for your children If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” Yes, these tears tell of the sorrows of God’s people, but they predict a worse sorrow still for his hardened foes. Look, then, O thou who hardenest thyself against God, and ask thyself, “If this be the sorrow I have caused, what shall that be which I shall have to bear?” Remember that it is not only here that there are tears, but in the future abode of the impenitent it is distinctly declared, “There shall be weeping.” Then cease to cause such tears here, that you may never have to shed tears far more bitter thereto.
Jer 9:1
The moral degradation of women.
The expression, “the slain of the daughter of my people,” suggests this subject. Therefore we may thus apply the prophet’s Words. Note
I. THE MORAL DEGRADATION OF THE DAUGHTERS OF A PEOPLE IS A JUST CAUSE FOR THE DEEPEST SORROW. For think of what and how much is slain in these slain ones. The ruin of health, and the early and often dreadful death, are the least that is slain. Happiness is slainthat of the victim, and of those to whom she was once precious. The joyous hopes once cherished. The influence which might have been so pure and purifying, now corrupt and corrupting. The character once honored, now dragged in the mire. The son, in all its moral worth and spiritual energies and desires, that too is slain. Therefore, when contemplating Such cruelly slain ones, the prophet’s piteous cry of anguish is no more than such utter woe constrains.
II. BUT SUCH SORROW SHOULD TURN INTO SCORN AND WRATH FOR THE SLAYERS OF THESE SLAIN. Beware of the hideous complacency with which the world regards such “murderers. Pray to be kept from the paths of such” bloody men.
III. BUT SUCH SORROW SHOULD NOT FORGET THAT THERE IS A DIVINE SPIRIT THAT CAN “BREATHE UPON THESE SLAIN, THAT THEY MAY LIVE.” The Spirit of Christ did so breathe upon one such, and she lived. He said to her, “Thy sins are forgiven .Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace” (Luk 7:36-50).C.
Jer 9:2
Sighings after the wilderness.
The text reminds us of Psa 55:5, “Oh that I bad wings,” etc.! of Elijah’s longing that he might die; of the similar dejection of Moses. Even our Lord said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” But such desire as that of the text is in itself
I. UNNATURAL. We are formed to mingle with our fellow-men, to live with them, not away from them.
1. It is in intercourse with them life becomes interesting to us. We are taken out of ourselves, fresh sources of pleasure and advantage are continually opened up to us.
2. Sympathy also is in fellowship. Our joys are more than doubled and our sorrows more than halved by the power of that sympathy which solitude can never know.
3. Opportunities of doing good are not to be had “in the wilderness,” and when we “leave” our people.
4. Nor are the benefits they can confer on us to be found there. Heart and mind and soul are blessed by companionship and injured by solitude and isolation. Hence such wish as that of the text is, apart from the motive given, unnatural.
II. AND IT MAY BE WRONG.
1. It is so when it is the child of impatience. Doubtless there is much often to try our patience, and to make us wish that we could have done with it all. But we should not think much of the laborer who, because the toil was arduous, threw up his work ere the day was done; or of the soldier who left in the midst of the campaign.
2. Yet more culpable is it when it springs from indolence. There are many who dislike real work in any form. Exertion and effort are shrunk from everywhere. And in their religious life it is the same. And from such poor motive such wish as that of the text sometimes springs.
3. Still worse is it when it comes of unbelief. When all faith is gone, and the dark, dread falsehood begins to get hold of a man, that rest is only to be gained by breaking out of this life altogether.
III. BUT IT MAY PROCEED FROM CAUSES WHICH
. Sympathy he could neither give nor find. Ever so desirous of doing them good, they spurned and despised all his efforts. And as to gaining good from them, it was but a continual contact with pollution. What wonder, then; that Jeremiah longed to be away from such a scene? “The hermits of the East, the anchorites of the desert, are more closely linked with ourselves in feeling than some at first may think. Our impulses are often identical with theirs; and if our actions vary it is because our standard of right, not our nature, is changed. In the life of each man there are hours when he sighs for the desert; hours when, bowed down by the sense of sin in himself and the sight of it in others, wearied out by striving to teach a stiffnecked generation, disheartened at seeing the ‘good cause’ advance so slowly, he cart scarcely refrain from following, in his small way, the example of that emperor who exchanged the palace for the cloister, and the crown for the cowl.” These are moments such as came to Jeremiah now. “The Emperor Charles uttered in deeds what we have all breathed in sighs. We do and we must long to flee away and be at rest; but then it must remain a longing, and nothing more” (G. Dawson).
IV. AND GOD HAS MADE PROVISION FOR ITS SATISFACTION. Not by giving us permission to retire to desert solitudes, except, as with Elijah and Paul, it may be for a while to prepare for future and higher service. But in the manner that the psalmist suggests where he says, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then,” etc. Yes, wings like a dove will bear us into the present rest of God. The dove is the emblem of meekness. Like the lamb amongst the beasts, so the dove amongst the birds is the symbol of lowly meekness and gentleness. But lowly meekness is the way to rest, the rest God gives, the peace of God. Listen to our Savior: “Come unto me, all ye that labor Take my yoke for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Mat 11:1-30.). The dove is the emblem of purity. It was not only amongst those birds that were counted clean, but was especially selected for presentation to God in sacrifice, as that which was pure alone could be. The doves were allowed to fly about the temple and to rest on its roofs and pillars (see H. Hunt’s picture of the ‘Finding in the Temple’). But purity opens the door of heaven, and enraptures the beholder with the beatific vision there. “Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God.” Wings are these, therefore, well likened to those of a dove, “covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold.” Yes,” keep thyself unspotted from the world,” and God shall so manifest himself to thee that thy soul shall be at rest, let the wicked rage around thee as they may. And the dove was the selected symbol of the Holy Spirit. “I saw the Holy Spirit descending like a dove,” said John the Baptist. But his wings will bear thee where thou mayest see the fatherly love of God, his wisdom guiding all, and his gracious purpose being more and more accomplished. “He will take of the things of Christ and show them unto thee.” And in them thou shalt have peace. The psalmist’s passionate longing may then be fulfilled for us, We may have “wings like a dove.” These, of meekness, purity, and the blessed Spirit of God. And so, without quitting the station assigned us or departing to any wilderness, we may have even now the rest of God.C.
Jer 9:7
The doings and doom of deceit.
The verses from Jer 9:2 to the text set forth its doings, and the text and remainder of the chapter foretell its doom. Note
I. DECEIT. It is a terrible indictment that the prophet brings. He affirms that deceit is:
1. Universal. Jer 9:2, “They be all,” etc. Jer 9:6, “Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit;” i.e. it is everywhere, all around you. That:
2. It has broken up the most sacred relationships: “They be all adulterers” (Jer 9:2).
3. It has turned their solemn assemblies into a conclave of liars (Jer 9:2).
4. It is practiced deliberately. Jer 9:3 : as a man deliberately bends and takes aim with his bow.
5. It has mounted the judge’s seat (Jer 9:3; cf. true translation of phrase, “They are not valiant for the truth”).
6. It has smoothed the way for all evil. “They proceed from evil to evil” (Jer 9:3).
7. It has destroyed all confidence
(1) between neighbors,
(2) between brethren (Jer 9:4).
8. It is diligently studied. Jer 9:5, “They have taught,” etc. “They take the utmost pains to go crookedly.”
9. It is cruel and deadly in its aims (Jer 9:8). In view of a condition of things so horrible, how unanswerable is the demand of Jer 9:9, “Shall I not visit them for these things?” etc.! It will be found in all the judgments of God upon nations that those judgments have never come until there was no other way of dealing with such nations, if the moral life of the world was to be maintained.
II. ITS DOINGS.
1. It had made dwelling amongst them intolerable to the righteous. (Cf. Jer 9:2.) Jeremiah longs to get away from them. The most desolate solitude would be preferable to living amid such a people as this. It is an ominous sign for a community when the godly, however compassionate, however long-suffering, can no longer endure to dwell in their midst.
2. It had made the thought of God intolerable to themselves. Verses 3, 6, “They know not me, saith the Lord.” Just as a man may meet one whom he desires to have nothing to do with, but when he meets him will pass him as if he did not know him; so deceit had made these people, as it makes all such, desirous of having nothing to do with God. Therefore they will not recognize or acknowledge him in any way.
3. And at last it had made them intolerable to God. Verse 7: God asks, “What else can I do for the daughter of my people?” (cf. Exposition). There was nothing now but for the judgment of God to go forth against them. Therefore note
III. ITS DOOM. Verse 7, “Therefore thus saith” etc. And down to Verse 22 these awful judgments of God are set forth. Inquire, therefore, what there is about deceit which renders it so hateful in the sight of God.
1. There can be no doubt that it is so. “Lying tips are an abomination unto the Lord” (cf. Psa 15:1-5.; Act 5:1-42.). “All liars shall have their part in the lake that burneth,” etc.
2. And some of the reasons are:
(1) Deceit cometh from Satan, who was “a liar from the beginning,” and “the father of lies.” It was by his lies that our first parents were deceived and sin was brought into the world.
(2) It is the source of infinite misery and distress. It is” the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil” which still work well-nigh all our sorrow and our shame.
(3) It tends to the destruction of human society. All our well-being and comfort depend upon good faith being maintained between man and man. “But now, where fraud and falsehood, like a plague or cancer, comes over to invade society, the band which held together the parts compounding it presently breaks, and men are thereby put to a loss where to league and to fasten their dependencies, and so are forced to scatter and shift every one for himself. Upon which account every notoriously false person ought to be looked upon and detested as a public enemy, and to be pursued as a wolf or a mad dog, and a disturber of the common peace and welfare of mankind; there being no particular person whatsoever but has his private interest concerned and endangered in the mischief that such a wretch does to the public” (South). A sin, therefore, so destructive of the well-being of his children cannot but be abominable in the eyes of the Father of us all.
3. It shuts God out of the heart altogether. God has made us for himself, but deceit bars fast the door of man’s heart against him. God can only be worshipped in spirit and in truth; but deceit renders this primary condition of such worship unattainable.
4. But God in his anger remembers mercy.
Verse 7, “Behold, I will melt them, and try them,” that is to say, he will, as the smelter casts the metal into the fire not to destroy but to refine it, to purge away its dross, and then, that being done, tests and tries it to see that the process has been effectual; so God will send his judgments upon his people, not to destroy, but to purify them, and he will afterwards test them again, give them another opportunity of serving him. He might have destroyed, but this he will not do. He “will melt them, and try them.” But less than this he cannot do. “What else,” etc.? he asks. It is a dread process; Judah and Jerusalem found it so, and all who compel God to cast them into such a crucible find it to be a dread process. Our blessed Savior wept over Jerusalem, although he told them that when next they saw him they should say, “Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord.” It was the thought of that furnace for fire through which they must be passed ere they would come to this better mind that drew forth those tears. Let none, therefore, deem the judgment of God a subject for trifling with, because, as here, God says its purpose is to “melt and try,” rather than to destroy.
CONCLUSION. Let this consideration of the doings and doom of deceit lead us to listen to the Lord’s appeal, “Oh, do not this thing that I hate!”C.
Jer 9:10-22
The terrible threatenings of love.
There are few more awful passages of Scripture than this. The doom denounced on the guilty people is indeed dreadful. Nevertheless that doom had not yet descended. There was a merciful pause, during which space was given for repentance. Meanwhile the prophet was bidden to utter these threatenings. Notice
I. How TERRIBLE THEY ARE.
1. In themselves. The fertile hills and pastures of their country shall be laid waste, so that no living creature can find food (Jer 9:10). Jerusalem is to be utterly destroyed and desolate (Jer 9:11). The deep anguish of the people-their very meat to be as “wormwood,” and their drink as” water of gall ‘ (Jer 9:15). They shall be carried captive and scattered among the heathen, and even then shall not escape the sword (Jer 9:16). They shall be overwhelmed with sorrow, their eyes shall gush out with tears (Jer 9:17-19). Death shall reign everywhere (Jer 9:21); and shall be accompanied with deepest degradation (Jer 9:22). It is not possible to conceive of more hopeless misery than is portrayed in these vivid descriptions of the wrath that was to come.
2. Because of their righteousness. Unrighteous suffering can be borne, and those who bear it are bidden by the Lord to count themselves as “blessed” because of it (Mat 5:11, Mat 5:12). And sorrows that come to us in the course of God‘s providence, and the reason of which we do not know, these we can bear sustained by the faith of the Father’s love. But when sore suffering is sent to us as the direct punishment of sin, and the righteous because so deserved anger of Cod is evident, then those consolations which are open to us under other sufferings are closed to us under these. The bitter reflection, “It was all our own fault; it might, it ought to have been avoided,” makes the pain we endure, and the calamities that overtake us, more terrible than otherwise they could possibly be. We take refuge from man’s anger and from ordinary sorrows in God’s love, but sin that has brought down God’s righteous judgment has also closed against us that most blessed shelter and every shelter, and we are left without defense. And another element in their terribleness is:
3. The certainty of their fulfillment, “God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” The threatenings of God are not, as are many of the threatenings of men, mere empty vaporings, great swelling words, never designed to be fulfilled. Let the records of all human history, of all human lives, Whether told of within or without the pages of the Bible, attest the absolute certainty of fulfillment which evermore characterizes the threatenings of God. When and where has be ever threatened and failed to fulfill his threat? Let the Fall, the Flood, the destruction of Sodom, the plagues on Egypt, the deaths of the generation of unbelievers in the wilderness, and ten thousand instances more, all prove the steadfastness of God to his word. And it is this fact of the absolute certainty of his threatenings being fulfilled that adds to them a yet further terribleness. There is no chance of escape, no hope of God’s relenting; as certain as the fixed laws of nature are these awful denunciations of God to him who persists in brining them upon himself.
II. BUT THEY ARE THE THREATENINGS OF LOVE.
1. He who utters them is the God who in his very nature and essence is love. How manifold are the proofs of this in creation, in providence, in grace! He, therefore, has no pleasure in the death of the wicked; judgment is his “strange work.”
2. Those against whom they are uttered are the objects of his love. His love for them is deeper than his anger against them. Hence it is that the contrite sinner never fails to gain the pardon he seeks. “Fathers of our flesh” may “chasten after their own pleasure, but he for our profit” (cf. Jer 9:7).
3. His purpose in these threatenings is a loving purpose. He would compel by the scourge of fear his rebellious children to abandon their evil ways.
4. And if at length he is compelled to execute his threatenings, it is out of love that he does so. For the love of God is towards his children, not to any one particular child, and the welfare of the family is the chief consideration. Salus populi suprema lex. If consistently with that the transgressor can be restored, he will be, but not else. Hence, as an earthly father would not permit one of his children, ill with terrible and contagious disease, to mingle with the other children; or, as in the far more sad case of utter moral wickedness, intercourse with the rest would be forbidden; so, for the sake of the rest of his children, God will separate them from the wicked and the wicked from them. But it is love which constrains to this, and hence it is that the seeming contradiction is true, that he who is the God of love is also “a consuming fire.” The very fatherhood of God is the most fearful fact of all others against the persistently rebellious and ungodly soul. Hence
III. Such THREATENINGS ARE EVER THE MOST TERRIBLE OF ALL, Cf. the threatenings of our Savior. The most awful utterances to be found in the whole Bible proceeded from his lips-the lips whose words were wont to be so “gracious” that the people “wondered” at them. It is his sayings which have lit up the lurid glare of the fires unquenchable of hell, and it is he who has made our souls shudder at the sight of” the worm that dieth not,” and of the “outer darkness” where there is “weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth.” See, too, the Revelation of St. John. That apostle, whose great theme is the love of God, whose soul was more attuned to the music of love than that of any other, wrote that awful book, which is full throughout of “mourning, lamentation, and woe;” and which almost reeks with the Mood and fire and smoke of torments of which it tells. These facts can only be accounted forand there are more like themon the ground that the threatenings of love are ever the most terrible of all. And they are so, for such reasons as these:
1. Love so hates what tends to the harm of those it loves. Hence it brands with its deepest curse that sin which harms God’s children most of all. One chief argument with many minds for the retention of capital punishments is that only so can a government or nation mark its sense of the supreme wickedness of the crime it so punishes. Punish it as other crimes are punished, and it will come to be regarded as no worse than they. And in like manner God would inspire us with a holy abhorrence of sin by the awful condemnation that he has pronounced against it.
2. Love so yearns to rescue those it loves. The rope may cut and wound the hands of the drowning sailor to whom we have thrown it, but we do not mind that if thereby he be drawn safe to shore. The knife of the surgeon may cut deep and cause fearful pain, but if it saves the imperiled life we are thankful notwithstanding. So God sends forth these stern, rough, and terrible threatenings, that souls under the spell of sin may be awakened, alarmed, made to tremble, and to “seek the Lord while he may be found.” No gentler means will avail; therefore these, so love resolves, shall not be left untried. It will shrink from nothing to accomplish its compassionate purpose of rescuing from the murderous sin the soul it loves.
3. And there is no wickedness so deep as that of outraging love. Men will never see sin in all its hatefulness until they see it as outrage done to love. Whilst they are taught only that it is disobedience to sovereign rule rather than despite and shameful wrong done to a Father’s heart, they will not look upon it as they should, nor repent of it as they must. Even in human esteem, outrage done to a loving heart adds intensity to the condemnation with which we view and sentence disobedience done to law. We all recognize that such wickedness is the worst of all. We cannot wonder, then, that the threatenings against wrong persistently done to the love of God are terrible as they are, and the most terrible of all.
CONCLUSION.
1. Beware of bringing upon yourselves such threatenings as these. Those which are fulminated forth by hatred, or by pride, or by sovereignty, or by law, these, though they may be terrible, are not to be compared with those that we have been considering. “The wrath of the Lamb” is the most awful of all.
2. Beware of despising them. So far from believing what has now been shown, men argue in directly opposite way, and, because the threatenings are those of love, they conclude that they may safely be disregarded, they will never be carried out. But what has now been shown proves that this is the very last thing we can venture to do.
3. Beware of concealing them. It is to be feared that, in these soft, easy days on which we have fallen, the Lord’s watchmen do very often fail to “blow the trumpet and give warning.” From blood-guiltiness such as that let us pray to be delivered. For are there not many now whom nothing but the startling peal of the trumpet of God’s threatened judgments will ever arouse or alarm? Assuredly there are. Therefore, in view of the doom of the ungodly, as well as by the love of Christ, let us “beseech men to be reconciled to God.”C.
Jer 9:12-15
The inquest on the slain of Judah and Jerusalem.
I. GOD DEMANDS IT.
1. For his righteousness is impugned. Men had not failed, could not fail, to notice the terrible judgments which God had sent upon Judah and Jerusalem, and, as is implied by his own declaration of their causes (Jer 9:12), they had either not seen or had denied the righteousness of what had been done. This questioning of the Divine righteousness and equity is a procedure all too common still.
2. And thus the Divine hold on the loyalty of men’s hearts is threatened. For unless men regard God as righteous, just, and good, no power in the universe can make them yield him the homage of their hearts. How much of the alienation of heart in the present day may be attributed to the representations of God which a false theology has set forth! Men will not, for they cannot, love such a being as too many preachers represent God to be. They may be threatened with everlasting perdition, but it will make no difference. For God himself has given us a nature which renders impossible our yielding our hearts’ homage to any one-be he whom he maythat our hearts do not regard as worthy of that homage.
3. But God’s supreme solicitude is for this homage of our hearts. Hence what threatens it must be intolerable to him. Therefore he seeks for vindication before the hearts of men, and demands this inquiry.
II. AN UNIMPEACHABLE JURY IS IMPANELLED. It is not just any one who can be trusted to make this inquiry. The frivolous, the unthoughtful, would fail to grasp the problem involved, and the ungodly who suffered these judgments would be sure to assign them to any and every cause rather than the true one. Therefore those who are summoned to this inquest are
(1) the wisethose who will intelligently consider all the facts of the case; and
(2) those “to whom the Lord hath spoken”those, that is, who have been divinely enlightened, who are in sympathy with truth and righteousness. God summons such, and fearlessly demands, now as of old, the most thorough investigation into the righteousness of all his ways.
III. THEY ARE BIDDEN WELL AND TRULY TRY THE CASE BEFORE THEM. He would have them so consider it that they may “understand” it in all its bearings, reasons, and ends. He tells them what he has done and what he yet will do, and what are his reasons for his conduct. He does not conceal that his judgments are tremendous, notorious, certain to excite inquiry, to be challenged, and by many to be condemned. But he appeals to the “wise,” and to those “to whom the Lord hath spoken,” to consider and understand what he has done. God calls not for mere credulity from any of us; he asks for no mere blind faith; but it is to a “reasonable service” he summons us, and this reasonableness he would have us consider and “understand.” “I speak as to wise men; judge ye what I say:” such is his appeal.
IV. AND WHEN THEY HAVE “UNDERSTOOD” THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD THEY ARE TO “DECLARE” IT. There is no greater service that can be rendered than “to vindicate the ways of God to man;” to “commend the truth to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” The believer is established, the waverer brought to decision, the sinnerlike as Felix, when Paul “reasoned of righteousness and judgment “is made to tremble, the scorner and the atheist are silenced.
V. THE EFFECTS OF THAT VERDICT WILL BE VARIED.
1. It will strike terror to the hearts of the enemies of God; for it will rob them of the comfort they had in regarding God’s judgments as unjust. Even this “drop of cold water” they may not have.
2. It will give great peace of mind to all beholders of God’s strong rule; for it will show that his rule is not strong and supreme alone, but absolutely righteous.
3. It will make God’s people “sing unto the Lord a new song,” because “he cometh to judge the earth” (Psa 96:1-13.). It will assure them of the triumph of righteousness, and the utter impotency and impermanency of wrong. But let each one ask himself, “How will that verdict affect me”C.
Jer 9:14
Hereditary sin real sin.
God here declares that he will punish those who have walked “after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.” Therefore the fact of their having been trained in this sin by their fathers is not held to acquit them of guilt in what they do. Their sin, though hereditary, is real.
I. THIS SEEMS UNJUST. It has often been objected to that because the fathers ate sour grapes the children’s teeth should be set on edge (Eze 18:2). Why should I be punished for another’s man’s sin?
II. BUT IT IS THE DIVINE LAW. The sins of the fathers are visited on the children. “By the offence of one all men were made sinners” (Rom 5:1-21.). And in daily life how perpetually we see this law in ruthless operation!children punished in health, fortune, character, reputation, in mind, body, and soul, all through their fathers’ sin. They walk in the ways of Baalim because their fathers taught them. And yet, unjust though their punishment may appear.
III. CONSCIENCE ENDORSES IT. Who knows how much of that strong passionate nature which led David into such dreadful sin may have been inherited? Indeed, he says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,” etc. (Psa 51:1-19.). But this does not hinder him from taking all the blame of his sin upon himself. All the way through we hear his confession”my sin,” “my transgression,” “mine iniquity.” And never does the con science awakened to a sense of sin think of palliating such sin by the plea of its being the result of inheritance. Thus conscience witnesses to the righteousness of the Divine Law.
IV. AND SO DOES HUMAN LAW. What judge ever pardoned a criminal because he had a bad father? We execrate “bloody Queen Mary” notwithstanding she had a bloodthirsty father.
V. THE EXPLANATION IS:
1. That hereditary sin does not destroy conscience. That speaks in all; it is “the light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” the inward monitor which ever condemns crime and approves righteousness (cf. Rom 2:14, Rom 2:15).
2. Nor does it destroy understanding. Teachers of righteousness are on every hand, from whom all may learn.
3. Nor does it destroy the power of will. It may weaken, but it does not destroy. Therefore, in spite of hereditary sin, every man knows, and can choose if he will, that which is right; and therefore he is held accountable before every tribunalthat of God, of conscience, and of man.
4. But there is yet another reason given by St. Paul: “God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy upon all“ (Rom 11:32; Gal 3:22). A cruel Roman emperor wished that all Rome had but one neck, that he might kill it with one blow. God hath in his infinite grace gathered up all our humanity into one, even in Christ, so that, as sin had destroyed all by one stroke (Rom 5:1-21.), the grace of God in Christ might save all by the one righteousness of the One; so that “where sin did abound, grace,” etc. That gathering up of humanity into one in Adam, which seems at first sight to have worked such injustice, is altogether met, and far more than met, by the again gathering up of all in One, even in Christ, which works such grace. But that ultimate redemption which is in Christ does not hinder, but that meanwhile, and for a Weary while, hereditary sin may work woeful sorrow and harm. Therefore
VI. THIS FACT APPEALS:
1. To all parents. Seek to cut off the entail. We may have received such sad inheritance, but let us, as we may, reject it for ourselves, and in so doing refuse to hand it on to others. Again and again has God given grace to some one member of a godless houseas to Josiah, son of that Amen of whom it is said, “But Amen sinned more and more”who has for himself and those who come after him broken the bad succession and begun a new and blessed departure. When we have done our best, our children will have a sufficiently heavy burden to bear; let us not make that burden heavier, life more terrible, and holiness and heaven far less attainable for them, by handing down to them a legacy of evil example and of unhallowed habits and propensities inherited from ourselves. Do not let us sin so against our children. Yet many do.
2. To all children. Your fathers sin will not excuse yours. God has turned judgment away from many an evil son because he had a godly father, but never because he had an ungodly one. Therefore if yours be the sad and too frequent lot of those who inherit evil from their parents, reject that inheritance, and seek and gain from your heavenly Father, though you may not be helped herein by your earthly one, the better, the most blessed inheritance of the children of God.C.
Jer 9:21, Jer 9:22
Death’s doings.
Behold.
I. DEATH‘S CARNIVAL. In many an ancient continental city you may see portrayed in still vivid colors, on the roofs of their covered bridges, across on that of the old bridge at Lucerne,on the walls of their churches, and elsewhere, the grim’ Dance of Death.’ These verses remind of those paintings, and tell in yet more fearful form of Death’s dread carnival. With what diabolic zest he is represented at his work here! He is shown to us, not as coming in in ordinary manner to the sick-chamber, where his coming has long been expected and may even be welcomed; but as breaking in roughly, unexpectedly, cruelly, like a thief coming in at the windows. Nor as drawing near to the poor, the defenseless, the miserable; but entering into our palaces, the abode of the great, the rich, the strong. Nor as calling home those whose day’s work is done, who have lived their life, and to whom eventide has long ago arrived; but as cutting ruthlessly down the dear young children in the very blossom of their days. Nor as ridding the earth of the cruel and vile; but tearing from us the innocent, the children. Nor are vigor, strength, and promise any more a defense against him than decrepit old age; for “the young men” are his victims even as others. And no multitude of slain will satiate him. Jer 9:22 represents the numbers of the dead as so great that they have to be left unburied and uncared for to rot upon the open field. It is true that this frightful picture is taken from the awful experiences of a besieged city, but with slight modifications it is true everywhere and always. This life is the carnival of Death. What are men but a long succession of mourners? As the poet says
“Our hearts like muffled drums are beating
Funeral marches to the grave.”
And when we contemplate the cruel consequences of this carnival of Death, which is going on still, the mind and heart reel, and faith in the fatherhood of God would fade utterly out of men’s souls were it not that in brighter colors still the Word of God portrays
II. DEATH‘S CONQUEROR. Christ has abolished death. The broken pillar, the turned-down torch, the “Vale, vale, in aeternum vale,” of the old Pagan world, have now no appropriateness because no truth. Death is sorrow still, even to those who believe in him who is “the Resurrection and the Life;” but it is not and cannot be that hopeless, unutterable, unfathomable woe which it was till he came who hath abolished death. No doubt this terrible verse (Jer 9:21), which tells of Death’s dread doings, is yet far more true than we would like it to be, and often and often, in the blank desolation and shattered hopes which earth’s bereavements bring to us, we fail to derive all the consolation and help which Death’s glorious Conqueror has given to us. But, nevertheless, he has given them, and it is true that “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord.” Let us see to it that we are, by a living abiding trust, “in the Lord,” and then, though we sorrow, and sorrow bitterly still, yet it will not be, it is not, “as those that have no hope.”C.
Jer 9:23-26
Whereof to glory.
Introduction. Cannot understand these prophecies without a knowledge of the history of the times. This is true of all prophecies, and especially of these. Therefore we will glance at such history as we proceed. Note
I. THE GLORYING THAT IS CONDEMNED.
1. That of the wise man in his wisdom. The statesmen of Jeremiah’s days had been thus glorying. They had prided themselves in their political sagacity. For many years they had formed alliances, now with one power and now with another. And they seemed to have managed well, for, for nearly a whole century, Judah had been, though so weak a power and so valuable a prize, left unattacked. Therefore no wonder that the wise men gloried in their wisdom. But now political trouble was beginning again. Egypt had become a great power, and was warring against Assyria. In this war the king Josiah sided with Assyria, and was slain in the battle of Megiddo. Thus they were without their king, and compelled to ally themselves with Egypt and to share in her fortunes, which to the eye of the prophet were the reverse of bright. Great troubles were drawing near, and it is in view of them that Jeremiah says, “Let not the wise man,” etc.
2. The strong in their strength. The army of Judah was large, their fortress of Jerusalem was all but impregnable, but Jeremiah saw that all this would not avail. Their utter overthrow was fast hastening on. The great Babylonian power which had absorbed the Assyrian should accomplish this. Hence the word, “Let not the strong man,” etc.
3. The rich in their riches. The long continuance of peace had enabled the nation to accumulate vast wealth. But this only made them yet more an object of desire to their approaching invaders. Their wealth was their wee.
4. The children of Abraham in the covenant, of which circumcision was the sign (Verses 25, 26). From the time of Hezekiah’s reformation until the time when Jeremiah wrote, Judah and Jerusalem had professed the ancient faith. The temple service had gone on, the sacrifices offered, etc. There had been a short, sad interval during Manasseh’s reign. But so far as profession went they had been worshippers of God. And of late years Josiah’s reformation had led to still louder profession. And in this profession we know they trusted very implicitly (cf. Jer 7:1-34.). But it had not preserved them from the Divine displeasure in days gone by, nor in the present, nor would it in days to come. For beneath all this profession the moral and spiritual condition of the nation was most evil. Even in Hezekiah’s day Isaiah had told the people that, in spite of all their profession, “he whose head was rock,” etc. (cf. Isa 1:1-31.). And that this was so was shown by the readiness with which they followed Manasseh in his idolatries, and joined in the persecution of the faithful servants of God. And when Manasseh repented, and there was again an external profession, it was scarcely any better. But the monstrous conduct of Amon, who “sinned more and more,” made the people desire the old ways. Hence, when Josiah came to the throne, they were prepared for his reforms. But again it was only a change of custom, not of character; outward, but not inward. Jeremiah sought to help forward a true reformation, for it was indeed needed (see his description of the moral condition of the people, Verses 2-8 in this chapter). Hence it was that he told them their circumcision was no better than uncircumcision. Apply all this to our-solves:
(1) As a nation. We have all these several advantages above named: wise statesmen, great strength, vast wealth, universal religious profession; but all these, apart from moral and spiritual worth, will go for nothing. It is “righteousness,” and that alone, that “exalteth a nation.”
(2) As individuals. We are not to despise any of these things. They are God’s good gifts; but they will not save us. We may not glory in them as a sure safeguard.
II. WHEREOF WE MAY AND SHOULD GLORY. (Cf. Verse 24.) This means that them should be:
1. Intellectual apprehension of the truth in regard to God. His character is shown:
(1) In his exercise of loving-kindness. It is well to be open-eyed to the many and varied proofs of thisin creation, providence, redemption, grace. And it is well to be able to trace these proofs and to show that God is good.
(2) In his exercising judgment. He has given proofs of this also, and that is but a partial and therefore most misleading theology that shuts out of view the sterner aspects of the Divine Father. As in Christ we see most of all how God exercises loving-kindness, so too in him we may see the sure warnings of his judgment. “If they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?” “If the righteous scarcely be saved, where,” etc.?
(3) In his exercise of righteousness. How full the proofs of this also! How manifest in Christ, his teachings, life, death, his Spirit’s work now, etc.! Now, it is most desirable to understand all this, for the mind to grasp these sure truths. Too much of the religiousness of the day is weak, flaccid, unstable, because there is wanting knowledge and understanding in the truth. We are apt to be satisfied with an emotional religion, with the play of feeling and the outgoing of the affections. But for all this to be reliable we must understand as well as feel.
2. In that he “knoweth” as well as understandeth. This is more than to understand. For “to know” continually means, in Bible language, to approve, to be in sympathy with, to delight in, etc. (cf. “I will not know a wicked person; The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous; This is life eternal, to know thee the only” etc.). And so here to know God is to have moral sympathy, personal experience, inward approval and delight in regard to God. He who thus understandeth and knoweth God hath “whereof to glory.” The prophet desired that his people might have this glorying, for this would save them, whilst all the other things in which they gloried but left them to perish. Appeal to all who profess religion and who instruct others, Can you thus glory? Do you understand? Better still, Do you know God in his loving-kindness, judgment, righteousness? C.
HOMILIES BY J. WAITE
Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24
The chief good.
The people had little reason to glory in their wisdom, or power, or wealth. These natural resources had utterly failed them as a safeguard against the avenger and destroyer. The prophet directs them to an infinitely surer ground of trust, a higher cause of rejoicing. These words are a striking appeal to faith, all the more remarkable because of the desperate circumstances of the time. In spite of all the desolation of the land, the wreck and ruin of all their pride as a nation, let them hold fast to their faith in the living God, and especially in those attributes of his being and principles of his governmentloving-kindness, judgment, righteousnesswhich such circumstances tend to obscure and seem even to disprove. We fix our minds now simply on this thoughtthe knowledge of God and personal fellowship with him are immeasurably more worth our seeking and rejoicing in than all those endowments which to the carnal eye are so full of charm. There is a natural tendency in men to rejoice unduly in the good that they derive by birth, or education, or the favor of providence, forgetting that the chief good is something of a different kind, something that must come to them in a different way. Nothing that tends to enrich and adorn and gladden our life in this world is to be despised; but if we measure things by a true standard, and esteem them according to their real and relative value, we shall place everything else that men call good or great beneath that which connects us directly with God and heaven and immortality. Note respecting this higher good
I. IT IS MORE TRULY OUR OWN THAN ANYTHING ELSE CAN EVER BE. This is seen if we consider:
1. The way in which it becomes ours. The surface acquirements and adornments of lifewealth, social position, favorable circumstances, etc; cannot be called “ours” in the sense in which that which is an inherent element of our individuality is ours. And even as regards personal qualities, there are important differences. Whatever natural gifts belong to us, our own will has had nothing to do with our possession of them. Their development may be dependent on it, but in their origin they are not so. Whereas the affections that connect us with God tell how the deepest depths of our being were stirred at their birth within us. Nothing so truly ours as that which has thus become ours.
2. The absolute satisfaction it brings. All the “springs of our being” are in God. He is the true Home and blissful Center of rest for every human spirit. “The good man is satisfied from himself” (Pro 14:14), not because of anything in the resources of his own finite being, but because he has learnt by the utter renunciation of all trust in these to find his true “self” in God.
3. Its perpetuity. We may soon be bereft of all other endowments; this we can never lose. There is no possession over which a man can rejoice in this world which is not precarious and uncertain. And though the sense of this need not check our free use and hearty enjoyment of it, it will always cast some slight shadow over the sunshine of our delight. But there is no shadow here, no sense of insecurity, no fear of disappointment. Have your soul in conscious fellowship with God, and you may rest in the thought that “nothing shall ever be able to separate you from his love” (Rom 8:38, Rom 8:39). “This is life eternal,” etc. (Joh 17:3). “The water that I shall give him shall be in him,” etc. (Joh 4:14).
II. UNLIKE OTHER FORMS OF GOOD, IT IS INCAPABLE OF ABUSE. What natural gift is there that men may not turn, and have not actually turned, to some purpose contrary to that for which it was given? The false use grows, not so much out of any quality or tendency in the thing itself, as out of the innate perversity of our human nature. And there is nothing in the thing itself, or in the fact of our possessing it, that necessarily acts as a cure for that perversity. Intellectual capacity, genres, literary culture, rank, wealth, etc.,how often have these been allied with moral corruption, and given their possessors the ability to inflict incalculable mischief on the human race? The graces of holy character which spring from fellowship with God cannot, in the nature of things, be thus abused. You cannot conceive of their being prostituted to evil ends. They bear within them the pledge of their Divine use and issue.
III. IT ENABLES US, AS NOTHING ELSE CAN, TO APPRECIATE ALL THAT IS TRUE AND GOOD IN THIS PRESENT WORLD. You must know God before you can rightly understand and realize the highest profit of the world in which he has placed you. There are two popular errors in this directionone is the error of supposing that the apprehension of the truth of nature depends solely on mental capacity and scientific investigation. Does not the inability of some of the most illustrious thinkers of every age to find out the Divine in nature, rather show that it is more a question of spiritual sympathy than of intellectual power? The other error is that of supposing that the power to procure the good of this life is the same thing as the power to enjoy it. And yet how many pampered children of wealth and fashion are there who bear upon their faces the marks of weariness and discontent! Their souls are withered by excessive physical indulgence and artificial culture. They have lost the capacity of pure and simple enjoyment, and childlike wonder and delight are things to them unknown. Let your spirit be in fellowship with God, let your “heart be set to hallow all you find,” and the deepest treasures of truth and the sweetest satisfactions of life are within your reach. God has made purity of heart the condition, not only of knowing himself, but of knowing the best of his gilts. It both creates and verifies-
“The cheerful faith that all which we behold
Is full of blessing.”
“Godliness with contentment is great gain” (1Ti 6:6). “Blessed are the meek,” etc. (Mat 5:5). “All things are yours,” etc. (1Co 3:21-23).
IV. IT GIVES US THE POWER TO CONFER HIGHEST BENEFIT ON OUR FELLOW–CREATURES. We are disposed sometimes to envy the talents, the range of influence, the means of usefulness, that others possess. It seems a grand thing to us to be in certain commanding positions, and have resources that may be used at pleasure for the working out of certain desired ends. Remember, however, that what can alone give worth to these things are precisely those personal, moral qualities that are within the reach of all. The influence of godly character is deeper, more radical, more productive of enduring fruits of blessedness than any other kind of influence. Who would not rejoice in the power to confer this highest good upon the world?W.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG
Jer 9:1
Incessant weeping over the calamities of Israel.
We have here still another measure of how great, in the estimation of the prophet, the calamity was which had fallen upon his people. Other measures have already been given, in the despoiling of the tombs (Jer 8:1, Jer 8:2), in the exile worse than death (Jer 8:3), in the visitation of serpents which were beyond the charmer’s power (Jer 8:17), and in the suffering through the sin of his people, which even a true servant of God could not escape (Jer 8:21). And now this extraordinary desire of the prophet comes in to make plain from yet another direction how great he reckoned the impending calamity to be. We may well imagine that as he set before Jerusalem these gloomy prospects, the people in their light-heartedness replied, “Why make all this ado? Why try thus to alarm us by these threatenings and cries and tears?” The exclamation of Jer 9:1 guides us to what the prophet’s answer would be. “My tears, which you count so causeless, rather fall shortshort beyond all expressingof the occasion for them.” The fact is that the deepest, tenderest human pity and sorrow, when compared with the actual needs of fallen man, are but as a slight thaw that vainly struggles with the penetrating frost of the heart. Not that human beings lack the power of deep emotion. Whole peoples will be responsive enough to certain touches. But who is to bring before the hearts of all men a sufficient perception of what it is that underlies and perpetuates the misery of the whole world? The thing wanted is an abiding pity for men lying in the suffering of sin. It is perfectly true that there is not pity enough for men because of their poverty, their bodily defects and infirmities, and all miseries that are visible to the natural man. But the real reason why even this pity falls so lamentably short is that there is no searching consideration of what lies deeper than any visible miseries. Nothing effectual can be done with the seen unless the unseen is put right. Then we may be sure of it that the seen will come right with wonderful quickness and stability. We must make our hearts to dwell with the utmost pity on those who are not yet born again, not yet living the life of faith, not yet in living union with the great Source of eternal life, not yet rejoicing with the joy of the Holy Ghost. If we ourselves are really in process of salvation, and with our increased knowledge of truth comprehending more and more what salvation will bring with it for ourselves, then it will not appear to us extravagant and rhapsodical rhetoric that a prophet should wish his head to be waters, and his eyes a fountain of tears. It is unmanly and utterly despicable to weep for trifles, to weep over some spoiled gratification of self; but what sort of a heart must that man have who can watch, free from the deepest agitation, his brethren going on heedlessly into perdition? Jeremiah would have been unworthy of his call and his visions as a prophet if he had fallen short of his exclamation here. Not, of course, that we are to make too much of the mere shedding of tears. In the case of the prophet copious tears were the index of a heart within right in its thoughts, steady in its purposes. But there are many instances where copious tears have no such value. They come and go like a thundershower, lasting us briefly and leaving as little trace behind. Men of few tears may be men of a large, wise, far-seeing kindness. He who never gives to beggars in the street may yet be doing much to make beggary cease altogether. Jeremiah’s wish, then, was the wish of a man who saw deeply into the confusions of his time; and yet he did not see as deep as Jesus. Those few tears that Jesus dropped amid the bereaving agonies of Bethany, had in them more of a pure and profound pity over men than all the tears that sinners themselves have shed. No sinful man can imagine that ideal of human life which was ever before the eyes of the Son of God. He alone knows how far man has fallen; he alone knows how high fallen man can be raised. He sees what men miss who do not repent and believe in him. He sees what possibilities of remorse and shame and self-condemnation may be opening up in eternity to the negligent and the impenitent. What wonder, then, that he spoke of the worm that dieth not, and the fire that is not quenched I What tears must not be shed over those who choose to sow the wind, seemingly forgetting that they must reap the whirlwind!Y.
Jer 9:2
The lodging-place in the wilderness.
I. WHAT IT IS THE PROPHET WISHES FOR. The occurrence of the word “wilderness” may easily mislead us into thinking that the prophet’s wish was for solitude, and thus we may be disposed to reproach him, as if, Timon-like, he wanted to get away from his fellow-men altogether. But it is not on the word “wilderness” that we must fix our attention to discover the prophet’s feeling. The reference to a travelers lodging-place is the main thing to be considered. It is not between some hermit’s humble, solitary shelter and the well-built house, which is but one out of many making up the stately city, that the contrast is made, but rather between the inn of the traveler and the abode of the man who, day after day, has to mingle busily in the society of which he forms a part. If you are staying at an inn for the night, it matters very little, so far as acquaintance is concerned, who your fellow-guests may be. You scarcely meet them; you are in their company for a few hours, and on the morrow each takes his several way. Jeremiah prefers to live in an inn, whore he would see a succession of strange faces, to living even amongst his own people. Then that the inn should be in a wilderness was a sort of necessity, to round his wish off and make it perfectly express the state of his mind. Travelers had often wide stretches of wilderness-land to cross, where, just because it was wilderness, some sort of shelter needed to be provided for the night. But it might not be an inn in anything like our understanding of the wordperhaps nothing more than a rough enclosure, where only that was provided which the bare necessities of the moment demanded.
II. WHY THE PROPHET WISHES FOR THIS. The settled society in which the prophet has been living has become rotten in all its important relations. Jeremiah has a people whom he must describe as “my people.” He is connected with them by a tie of nature which no repugnance of his can destroy. But, though they are his people, that cannot make him to overlook, excuse, or tolerate their iniquities. Nay, the very fact that they are his people helps to make the iniquity more burdensome to him; for with one’s own people one has so much to do. A righteous son of Sodom, if such a character were imaginable, sickened with all the abominations around him, might well have left his kinsfolk, if they would not listen to his warning or profit by his refusal to join in their wrong-doing. And Jeremiah may be looked on here pretty much as if he had been a dweller in Sodom, for Jerusalem was spiritually Sodom. Adultery, knavery, habitual lying and wrong-doing,these were sad elements to be charged as going to the substance of the social life of the people. And the prophet wished to be free from all entanglement with such. Of course we are not to take his wish literally. It is but an emphatic way of indicating how separated he was in the spirit of his mind from such considerations as ruled in only too many hearts of Israel. Though among his people, he was not of them. United according to the flesh, there was a great gulf between them according to the spirit. His people though they were, he yet was compelled to look upon them as travelers whom he casually met just for a little time. And so must God’s people ever learn to look upon many of those whom they are continually meeting on earth. For enduring society there must be something more than natural ties, frequent intercourse, or community of intellectual tastes and pursuits. It is a small thing to be brought together in the concerns of time if we are not also brought together in the concerns of eternity. Sad it is to think that there may be a closer bend between those who have never met on earth than between those who, on earth, have lived for years together I Those who are travelling to the same place may never meet by the way, but when they do meet it is not in the traveler’s mere lodging-place, but where there are many mansions, and whence they “go out no more for ever.” A mansion is itself a place that abides, and those who dwell in it are meant to abide also.Y.
Jer 9:3
Wickedness prevailing, and why it prevails.
“These wicked people,” says the prophet, “prevail, but their prevailing does not come by truth and good faith.”
I. WE HAVE HERE AN ADMISSION THAT WICKEDNESS PREVAILS. It is, indeed, one great consideration in the prophet’s unutterable grief that wickedness is so strong and successful. Man, weak and puny as he is in some respects, is in others strong to achieve very impressive results. In mere physical strength there are many brutes that far excel him, but he has faculties which so multiply his strength as to put the rest of creation under his feet. That man, with his peculiar nature, should be strong to do good, means that if his choice so falls he may also be strong to do evil. The prophet looks out, then, upon wicked men who prevail in their plots and schemes. He has no wish to minimize their success. He uses a strong word to indicate it. The word used to indicate the prevailing of the waters at the Deluge is the word also used to indicate the prevailing of the wicked here. The wickedness is not only extensively present, but manifestly successful. There must be no shirking of this fact. It is another matter, indeed, what the success may be worth, and how long it may last; but there it is, such as it is. The wicked prevail by putting the good into prison, and even to the taking away of their lives. They prevail by seducing the weak and self-indulgent into temptation. They prevail by deceiving the simple. They go upon the maxim that everything is fair, and has in it the highest necessity if it helps toward the attainment of their ends. And their ends they do attain, making a boast of their success, and sneering at the scrupulosity of those who will not follow in their steps.
II. THE INSTABILITY OF THIS PREVALING IS HINTED AT. Integrity, truth, good faith, are thrown to the winds. The prophet does not need to have extorted from him an admission that the wicked prevail; but along with the admission he makes an assertion which, even in the midst of his melancholy, gives him confidence and a measure of satisfaction. This prevailing, great and proud as it is, cannot last, for it lacks the essential constituents of endurance. The man who gains his ends by deceit and perfidy must of necessity deceive himself as much as he does others. He persuades himself that he will never grow weary of what he so much enjoys. He forgets, too, that every one whom he deceives may be thereby learning a lesson which some day may come back in unexpected and terrible treachery to himself. There is not a single instance of wicked prosperity that need alarm or perplex us. The more wickedness raises its head in boasting, the more sudden may be the final overthrow.
III. THOSE WHO CLEAVE TO TRUTH ALWAYS PREVAIL IN THE END. They do it by the best kind of prevailingthat of vanquishing the evil in their own hearts; and, so far as their overcoming is also an overcoming of others, they do it in such a way as provokes no retaliation. He who has a settled regard for what is real and true and abiding, keeps out of his future those very things which bring confusion to the wicked. The prevailing of the righteous may not, indeed, be exhibited so as to impress the eyes of the world; but that is a small matter. He who overcometh looks forward to God’s rewards, which are such that the world cannot appreciate them. The great thing is to be calmly conscious in our own breasts that we are winning the victory God would have us win.Y.
Jer 9:4-8
The social bond a rope of sand.
This is very strong language for a man to use concerning the society in which he lives, but it harmonizes with the strength of the language which the prophet has been using with respect to himself in Jer 9:1, Jer 9:2. A very bad state of things cannot be described by mild words. Such descriptions as that in this passage make plain how just and necessary the impending desolation of Jerusalem was. He who has just expressed such wishes for himself must speak with words that startle when he comes to counsel all who, in the midst of many perils, would wish to act prudently.
I. THERE IS AN IMPLICATION HERE AS TO WHAT SOCIETY IN ISRAEL MIGHT HAVE BEEN. Without looking for perfection, it was reasonable to expect something a great deal better than what the prophet saw. There is the strength and help coming from real friendship. The more men are brought together the more chances they have of making most precious friendships. Modern facilities of intercourse have probably done much to enlarge such relations. Men meet oftener and communicate more easily than they were once able to do. But it ought to be especially true of those living near one another that neighborhood and acquaintance, other things being equal, should lead on to friendship. The claim of friendship is recognized as something specialbeyond the claim of kindred, humanity, and common country. In time of trouble we look to friends as those to whom we have a right to look, and we must be ready for similar claims upon ourselves, the prophet indicates also the claim of brotherhood. Brother should help brother. Not, of course, that mere natural nearness can compensate for deeper differences of disposition and temperament; but the remembrance of a common parentage should have at least the negative effect of destroying all temptation to injure. Then there is general integrity in all dealings between man and man. It is one of the most reasonable of all expectations that we shall so live and act that our word shall be as good as our bend. That which is fair and just towards every one should be wished and provided for. The good name of each should be the care of all.
II. THERE IS A VERY BOLD STATEMENT AS TO WHAT THE SOCIETY IN ISRAEL ACTUALLY WAS. The man who could speak thus must have been a man of great couragea man into whom God had put a spirit of resolution agreeing with the words he had to speak. Stern, unsparing words are only belied and made to look ridiculous when uttered by a faltering lip. If the prophet’s words here were true, this was a society only in name. Some may say that such words could not be truethat things could not possibly be so bad. But, remember, these are the words of a prophet of God, and God is he who searches the heart and can tell exactly how far advanced in corruption a society is at any particular time. Note how a skilled physician will assert the existence of mortal mischief in a patient when as yet there is no sign of it to others, and also predict with tolerable correctness how long it will take the mischief to run its course. And shall not God be much more discerning? All doleful statements as to the rottenness of society have come to be called jeremiads, as if they were really in the same class as the statement of Jeremiah here. But very often such doleful statements are only the result of ignorance and partial views, coming from a defect in him who sees and not in the thing seen. Jeremiah stated the simple truth here. If there had been hopeful signs they would have been mentioned, for God never lacks in an encouraging recognition of the preservative elements in society. To one who notes the warnings of Isaiah it will be nothing wonderful that the evils perceptible in his time should have strengthened into the deplorable universality indicated here. And even now, in places where the outward signs of Christianity abound, there are proofs that society might, in no very long time, approach the description of Jeremiah. The same evils are continually present, though kept in check. No one trusts a stranger. He must first of all take the lowest place, and do such things as need the least amount of trust, and so gradually work himself into the highest place of esteem. No one complains that he cannot win confidence at the first. Family jars and disputings are proverbial. Jesus, we know, divides brother against brother; but it is nothing new that he thus brings into society, for Jacob is the supplanter of Esau, and brother complains against brother to this very Jesus, because he thinks himself defrauded of his rights in the inheritance. There were two couples of natural brethren in the company of the apostles, and in their carnal days they were found hotly embroiled in the dispute as to who should stand greatest in the kingdom. There are abundant seeds of evil in society which are mercifully prevented from having free scope, else the result might soon show us that Jeremiah was in no wise going beyond the essential truth in what is said here.Y.
Jer 9:23, Jer 9:24
Exultation of heart and life according to the will of God.
I. MAN IS SET BEFORE US HERE AS BEING IN A STATE OF VERY LIVELY EMOTION. He is spoken of as glorying; and the Hebrew word used is such as suggests the idea of a man, not only intensely pleased within his own breast, but whose pleasure, like heat bursting into flame, finds vent in words and songs of exultation. The glory and exultation felt by the mind within may appear in many waysin the face, in the gestures, in the speech; but the prophet indicates here the highest kind of expression, that of poetic and musical utterance. Genius comes in to render permanent certain experiences of exultation, the record of which would otherwise speedily pass away. There is thus set before us a certain state of mind and a certain expression of it. And be it observed that this state of mind is not condemned in itself; nay, it is rather invited and encouraged. It is only condemned when it is produced by a wrong consideration of the objects exciting it, and there is a plain direction how to produce it in the right way. Hence we see how God intends man to be raised into great activity of emotion. It is a wicked thing to repress and starve the feelings. Some there are who act as if the expression of emotion were a thing to be ashamed of; they seem to think they are doing a good work in trying to kill everything like living feeling within them. Now, it is perfectly certain that God would encourage everything which gives the emotions a large part to play in human life, and particularly the joyful emotions. Notice, for it is an interesting thing to notice, how it is Jeremiah, the weeping prophet as he is called, who here points out to his erring brethren the way to the best sort of exultation. The truth is that Jeremiah was a rejoicing believer as well as a weeping prophet. He wept over Jerusalem, as did the greater One who came long after; but it is plain that he must also have had deep joys in his own soul, even as Jesus had. God wishes us to cultivate the singing, exultant heart; for that we all may have, even when we lack the singing lip. We are to have much grief and pity, continual sorrow of heart, because of the world’s sins, but it argues a great lack and a great loss if we have not much joy because of God’s salvation. The exultation which comes from a selfish use of the world and a selfish success must be put away, but only that another and purer kind of exultation may take its place.
II. THE WARNING LEST THIS EXULTATION, WITH THE CONSEQUENT EXPRESSION OF IT, SHOULD BE PRODUCED IN A WRONG WAY. Three classes are spoken ofthe wise, the strong, the rich. Wise and strong by natural endowments; rich by the acquirement of visible, tangible possessions. And wise, strong, and rich men may rejoice and boast and sing when, perhaps, their feelings should rather tend to the other extreme, of mourning and humiliation. A word on the warning to each of these classes.
1. The wise. The existence of the wise man is recognized. A wise man is not of necessity to be always contrasted with the foolish. He has a right to the name of wise if his practical faculties of mind rise above the common level. When such a one has shown himself foreseeing and cautious, patient to wait when action would be hurtful, yet prompt to decide when decision is necessarywhen, in short, he has obtained a general reputation for wisdomit is then only mock-modesty for him to pretend that his gifts are not beyond those of common men. Wisdom is the strength of the mind, and the man who has it cannot be unconscious of it, any more than the man strong in body can be unconscious of his strength. But this wisdom, while it is to be used, disciplined, made the most of, is not a thing to glory in. The more it is looked at, the more its limits will be seen. See how easily it can be misused. It was said of Burke that he gave up to party what was meant for mankind, although he would strenuously have maintained that, through party, he got his best means for serving mankind. But of many it is only too true that their great faculties of intellect, meant for the good of men and the glory of God, have been deliberately given up to that which hurts men. Wisdom, as wisdom, is not to be gloried in. It must be an instrument in a higher hand before it can work out such a result as will fill the contemplating mind with exultation and praise.
2. The strong. How much men admire strengthstrength of body, or strength to maintain and carry out some settled purpose! The young men who contended in the Grecian games gloried in their strength, and so did their kinsfolk and all the people who took pride in the land that produced such. And yet glorying of this sort would not bear reflection. Assuredly it could not endure in a renewed mind to think that the prize of victory had been gotten by the defeat and humiliation of a brother man. Glorying in strength means looking back on victories of brute violence, such victories as Goliath was wont to rejoice in. Glorying in strength means sitting down at the banquet with the bleed-stained conqueror, and singing of his achievements amid the flush and insolence of wine. And it means also the encouragement and the formation of similar hopes and purposes for the future. Such feelings of glorying in mere strength the beast of prey may have as he goes up and down in the forest, but they are not the feeling of a man considering the possible range of his thoughts and aspirations. A strong man must employ his strength usefully, recollecting that it was given so that, with a devout and obedient mind in a strong body, he might serve God in his day and generation.
3. The rich. Rich men glory in their wealth, and not without plausibility. They find that it stands excellently well in the place of wisdom and strength. They can buy the wisdom and the strength of others; and the more freely they expend, the more also, in certain ways, they obtain. He who professes to despise wealth never gets credit for sincerity; and yet it is perfectly certain that those who profess to glory in this same wealth are preparing for themselves, in one way or another, a terrible humiliation. Let them lose their wealth, and they will waken to the discovery that they have also lost their attractions. There is more to be said for glorying in one’s wisdom and strength than in one’s external possessions; for the wisdom and strength, whatever their shortcomings, are really a part of the man, while the external possessions are little better than an accident.
III. MAN IS DIRECTED TO A CAUSE OF EXULTATION WHICH, WITH THE UTMOST CONFIDENCE, HE MAY ALLOW TO OPERATE FREELY ON HIS MIND. There is a song for man to sing worthy of his highest powersa song in which he may glory with respect to himself, because he has become somewhat of that which he ought to be. We are not allowed to sing exultingly and proudly of our own natural powers, even if they were the powers of a Plato, a Shakespeare, or a Newton; but there is a sure standing-place for us to exult lawfully in what we have become. The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than the greatest horn of women. We may always magnify humanity when we see one of ourselves coming to a true knowledge of God. The peculiar possibility of glory to man is that he is able to know his Maker. Understand and know. Surely these words mean a great deal; one can hardly put too much of meaning and encouragement into them. Through Isaiah, Jehovah said, “The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” And yet, if Israel will only consider and turn, it is capable of knowing God as no brute, however docile, attentive, and faithful it be, can ever come to know its master. The brute gives to its master a brute’s recognition; it does the utmost its faculties enable it to do; but in coming to man we come to one who can be so altered as to know God even as a child knows its father. The true glory of the worst of men is that he can be regenerated. The glory of the best of men is that has been regenerated. The great end to be aimed at is that every man should exult in his having been made a partaker of the Divine nature. The more he thinks of his Savior, the more he will glory in thisthat he, in spite of all his spiritual ignorance and blindness, has had in him a power to be so renewed and uplifted; that he has become one of the exceeding great multitude, who owe eternal blessedness to the work of Christ. To speak of the possibility of such glorying as comes from the knowledge of God was a great matter in relation to these children of Israel. They had fallen into the most appalling errors as to the character and disposition of deity. They had come to have gods manygods who were the patrons of cruelty, rapacity, tyranny, injustice, lust, and covetousness. They had to practice, as a matter of religion, things opposed to those very things in which Jehovah here represents himself as delighting. What was required from them, therefore, was to listen humbly and attentively to those prophetic expostulations which pointed towards light, truth, redemption, and a new song to be put in their mouths by Jehovah himself. And a similar way is to be ours if we would be sure of glorying in the Lord. The way of God in this matter is by the truth as it is in Jesus, and into that way God’s Spirit must lead us, and keep us in it even to the end, amid all the difficulties arising from the natural pride of human hearts.Y.
Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary
Jer 9:1. Oh that my head were waters We have here a fine instance of the pathetic, wherein Jeremiah so much excels. He sympathizes with the calamities of his people, in order to excite them to a sense of their own misfortunes, and to prevail upon them to humble themselves under the afflicting hand of the Almighty.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
III. THIRD CHARGE: THE GENERAL ENTIRE ABSENCE OF TRUTH AND FAITH
Jer 9:1-21
1. Description of the prevailing deceit
Jer 9:1-8
1O that I had1 in the desert a travellers lodge,
That I might leave my people and go from them:
For they are all adulterers, a gang of knaves,
2And bend2 their tongue as their bow of deceit;
And not by truth do they prevail in the land,
But proceed from wickedness to wickedness:
But Me they knew not, saith Jehovah.
3Guard ye every one against his neighbor,
And trust no brother;
For every brother practices deceit,
And every neighbor slanders.
4One overreaches3 another, and truth they speak not;
They taught their tongues to speak lies,
And weary themselves to commit iniquity.4
5Thy habitation is in the midst of deceit;5
And through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith Jehovah.
6Therefore thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth:
Behold, I melt them and try them;
For how should I act in view of the daughter of my people?
7A deadly arrow6 is their tongue, they speak deceit;
With the mouth they speak7 to their neighbor peaceably,
But in the heart8 they lay snares.
8Should I not visit them for such things? saith Jehovah.
Or should not my soul avenge itself on a people like this?
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
As the main thought of the preceding chapter was contained in Jer 9:4-9 so the main thought of the present is found in Jer 9:1-8. The rest is added as a sequel. As in Jeremiah 8. the stiff-necked impenitence of Israel is censured, so here (as the third charge) their falseness in every relation. The two following strophes (Jer 9:9-15 and Jer 9:16-21) relate to the punishment threatened by God. In Jer 9:1-8 the prophet portrays the want of fidelity and trust, the falseness, malicious desire to defame, which was prevalent among his contemporaries (Jer 9:1-5) and which would compel the Lord to subject them to the punishment of a severe melting and refining process. (Jer 9:6-8).
Jer 9:1. O that I had in the desert a gang of knaves. On travellers lodge comp. Jer 14:8. Living with his godless countrymen is so intolerable to the prophet that he would prefer the scanty protection of a tent erected in the desert to his present residence. [Henderson supposes the discomfort of a caravanserai to be alluded to.S. R. A.]Adulterers. The violation of conjugal fidelity or of the fidelity due to a neighbor by the invasion of his conjugal rights was censured by the prophet in the second discourse, in the passage where he reproaches the Israelites with their violations of faith, Jer 5:7-8., he who acts secretly (Vide, Fuerst) who deals in falsehood, deceit and treachery in general. This reproach also is found in Jer 9:11.
Jer 9:2. And bend their tongue saith Jehovah. The imperfect with Vau consecutive here designates not a single act, but oft recurring acts, from which this course is to be understood as habitual; this case is therefore to be numbered among those in which the imperfect with Vau consec. is used to designate a permanent quality. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 88, 9.According to the Masoretes we must read: they caused their tongue to tread the bow of deceit. In this way the tongue would not be compared to a bow, (which might appear unsuitable to the Masoretes), but to an archer, and the bow would then be a purely ideal conception, a figure for the means and instrument of the intellectual activity connected with the tongue. But this would be a very artificial mode of expression. Since the tongue is elsewhere compared with a sword, (Psa 57:4; Psa 64:3) and an arrow (infra Jer 9:7) it may also be compared with a bow and in Psa 64:3 this is the fundamental conception.bow is used as a simile in apposition with tongue. Comp. Psa 22:13; Psa 11:1. Naegelsb. Gr., 72, 4.Deceit may according to the sense be referred either to bend or bow, but on account of its position it is better to refer it to the latter. On the construction comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 63, 4, g.And not by truth. The prophet has especially the rulers in view. Comp. Psa 12:4, different from Jer 5:3; here indicates the norm as in ,Vid. Naegelsb. Gr., 112, 5, b.On wickedness to wickedness. Comp. Jer 25:32.
Jer 9:3. Guard ye slanders. Comp. Mic 7:5-6.On every brother, etc. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 82, 1. . Since this verb in Kal occurs besides only in Gen 27:36 and Hos 12:4, both times of Jacob (it is found in Piel in Job 37:4) it is certainly probable that the prophet, speaking here of the deceit practised by one brother towards another, had this early instance in view (Gen 25:29 sqq.; Gen 27:35). go about for tale-bearing. Vide supra6:28.
Jer 9:4. One overreaches another to commit iniquity.They taught. Comp. Jer 2:33. The Niphal of signifies elsewhere to be weary, disgusted with a thing (Jer 6:11; Jer 15:6; Jer 20:9). This meaning does not suit here. The connection requires the meaning to weary ones self. Comp. Gen 19:11; Isa 16:12.
Jer 9:5. Thy habitation saith Jehovah. The verse has this object, to describe the relation of the deceitful race to the prophet and to Jehovah. They surround the prophet so that he dwells as the only honest man among deceivers (comp. Psalms 120); from the Lord however they turn away, the lying spirit rules them in such wise (comp. Gen 27:35; Gen 34:13) that they know nothing of God and desire not to know Him. (Comp. Jer 5:3).
Jer 9:6. Therefore daughter of my people. A corruption so deeply rooted and so widely extended can be removed only by a process of entire melting, which will certainly be grievous but will also refine. Comp. Jer 6:27, etc. has by no means always a negative sense, (as for example Gen 44:34, quomodo ascenderem?i.e., non ascendam) but as often a decidedly positive meaning, Jer 9:18, 2Sa 1:25; 2Sa 1:27; how do ye advise me? 1Ki 12:6. So the Lord here asks, how He should act, if not as already indicated? He would say, there is nothing else remaining but to do this.After to supply , with reference to Jer 4:4; Jer 7:12, appears to me unnecessary, for is used in a causative sense even immediately before names of persons. Comp. Jer 4:26; Jer 23:9. In both these passages it is also evinced by an explanatory addition that it is to be taken in a causative sense.
Jer 9:7-8. A deadly arrow on a people like this. It might appear strange that the prophet, after he had properly concluded with Jer 9:6, should repeat the main point of the charge. But he evidently intended to conclude with the words repeated from Jer 5:9; Jer 5:29, in order to indicate by this conclusion that he had the section of his former discourse, so closely related to this, (Jeremiah 5) in view. The words of the eighth verse could not however follow immediately on Jer 9:6. The words them for such things would thus obtain a false reference. The prophet was therefore compelled again to mention the sins of the people.
2. FIRST PUNISHMENT: DESOLATION OF THE LAND AND DISPERSION OF THE PEOPLE
Jer 9:9-15
9On the mountains let me raise a weeping and wailing,
And on the pastures of the desert a lamentation,
For they are desolated, without a man to pass through them;
And hear no longer the lowing of the cattle.
From the fowl of the heavens to the beast they are fledgone!
10And I will make Jerusalem a heap of stones,
The dwelling of jackals;
And the cities of Judah I will make desolate
Without an inhabitant,
11Who is the man who is wise and understands this?
And who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken,
That he may declare such things?
Why was the land destroyed
And laid waste as a desert without a man to pass through it?
12And Jehovah said:
Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them,
And have not heard My voice, nor walked according to it;
13But walked after the perversity of their heart,
And after the Baalim which their fathers have taught them;
14Therefore thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth, God of Israel:
Behold! I give to them, this nation,
Wormwood to eat and poison water to drink.
15And I scatter them among nations
Whom neither they nor their fathers have known;
And send after them the sword till I extirpate them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The preceding strophe contained the main thought of the chapter; description of the want of truth and faith among the people. As already remarked, to this are attached two additional strophes, which are occupied with the judgment provoked by that moral corruption. The connection of this strophe with the preceding is effected by Jer 9:6; Jer 9:8, declaring how the Lord would try and purify the people and avenge Himself upon them. Verses 9 and 10 describe accordingly the desolation of the land ordained as a punishment; Jer 9:11-13 again set forth the main causes of the moral corruption (Jer 9:12 negatively, Jer 9:13 positively); Jer 9:14-15 show us the fate of the inhabitants driven from the lands, and serve therefore to supplement the figure contained in verses 9 and 10.
Jer 9:9-10. On the mountains make desolate without an inhabitant. may grammatically and according to the connection designate both the place and the object. Comp. in the latter reference Jer 9:17; Eze 26:17; Amo 5:1. Yet it would be flat and prosaic to restrict to the object. The poetic liveliness of the style requires us to refer it to the place (comp. Jer 3:21) and the object at the same time. properly they are burnt, singed, and then generally desolated. Comp. Jer 9:11 and the remark on Jer 2:15. Compare besides Jer 46:19; 2Ki 22:13; 2Ki 22:17; Neh 1:3; Neh 2:17.Without a man, etc. Comp. Jer 9:11, Zep 3:6; Eze 33:28.fled, etc. Comp. Jer 4:25; Jer 1:3.And I will make, etc. Sudden change of subject. Jehovah Himself announces that not only the country but the cities, Jerusalem before all, shall be desolated.heap of stones. Comp. Jer 51:37. (comp. Jer 10:22; Jer 49:33; Isa 34:13; Isa 35:7; Isa 43:20) and (Isa 13:22) both mean jackals. Comp. Ges. Thes.S. 39, 1457, 1511.Make desolate. Comp. Jer 2:15; Jer 4:17; Jer 33:10; Jer 46:19; Jer 51:29, etc.
Jer 9:11-13. Who is the man have taught them. These three verses present the motive of the prospective desolation. It might be supposed that after what was said in Jer 9:1-8 this question would be superfluous. But we must not lose sight of the tableauesque character of Jeremiahs style. Thus this strophe, besides the new elements contained in Jer 9:9-10; Jer 9:14-15, presents also the old elements in a modified form. The real root of this moral corruption is here indicated, viz., that Israel had turned from the Lord and to idolsWho is he, etc. These words remind us of Hos 14:9. It is only the wise man who knows, only he to whom the Lord has spoken, who tells the truth. The prophet presupposes that the correct knowledge of the true cause of the destruction (Jer 9:9) is not such an easy matter. The unspiritual sense seeks the cause everywhere but where it is really to be found. To it external accidental circumstances are at fault. To seek the reason in themselves, in the perversity of their own hearts, does not occur to the foolish Israelites. Hence it is that not Israel but the Lord answers in Jer 9:12. Among Israel there was none so wise as to know the reason. The Lord is obliged to declare it.This and the suffix, in such things point, back to Jer 9:8-9;to whom expresses in the form of a direct question in what relation that which was previously said is to be understood. It is knowledge of the reason, namely, which is treated of. points back to , Jer 9:9, and is to be taken in the same sense.Allusions to passages in Deuteronomy are here frequent. Comp. Deu 4:8; Deu 11:32; Deu 28:15; Jer 26:4; Jer 44:10.According to it refers back to my law. In Jer 9:12 the negative reason for the judgment coming upon the land is stated; in Jer 9:13 the positive.Walked. Comp. Jer 3:17; Jer 7:24; Deu 29:18.Baalim. Comp. Jer 2:8; Jer 2:23; Deu 4:3.On taught comp. Jer 12:16; Deu 11:19.
Jer 9:14-15. Therefore thus saith Jehovah extirpate them.With therefore the prophet proceeds to the statement of the consequences, naming first the consequences which the sins mentioned in Jer 9:12-13 will bring upon the men, and afterwards those mentioned Jer 9:9-10, on the land. and occur together in Deu 29:17; Amo 6:12; Lam 3:19. Wormwood was considered poisonous by the ancients, but in the biblical use it is its bitterness which is prominent. Comp. Amo 5:7; Pro 5:4; Lam 3:15.On poison-water, comp. Jer 8:14. Our words are repeated, Jer 23:15.To them, this nation The anticipation of a noun by a pronoun is frequent in Jer 27:8; Jer 31:2; Jer 41:2-3; Jer 43:11; Jer 48:44; Jer 51:56. Comp. Ewald, 309, c., Naegelsb. Gr., 77, 2.neither they nor their fathers. etc. Comp. Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64; Lev 26:33; Jer 16:13; Jer 17:4. That till I extirpate them is not to be understood absolutely, is seen from passages like Jer 4:27; Jer 5:10; Jer 5:18 coll. Lev 26:44.
Footnotes:
[1]Jer 9:1.. Comp. Psa 55:7, and Naegelsb. Gr., 78.
[2]Jer 9:2.The Masoretes punctuate (the form like Sam. Jer 14:22; Jer 31:2; Job 19:3) probably because they regarded the Hiphil as causative. But for various reasons (Vid. Exeg. and Crit.) it is better with Hitzig, Graf and Meier to suppose that the reading, which corresponds to the consonants, is the original and correct.
[3]Jer 9:4. Comp. Job 13:9, and 1Ki 18:27. The forms may be Piel from or Hiphil from . Comp. Olsh. 257. Ewald, 127, d.
[4]Jer 9:4. (Jer 3:21) Inf. constr., as Eze 21:15, Hos 6:9.Comp. Ewald, 238, c; Olshausen, 191, b.
[5]Jer 9:5.Graf has rightly declared against the alteration of the text, while Ewald, appealing to the LXX., proposes . The infinitive is frequently used with suffixes; Psa 27:4; Psa 139:2; 1Ki 8:30; Rth 2:7, etc.
[6]Jer 9:7.Instead of the Chethibh jugulans, throttling, killing, the Keri would read which elsewhere occurs only with (1Ki 10:16-17; 2Ch 9:15) and seems to denote gold beaten thin. Although from this the meaning pointed may be derived, which is also expressed by the Syriac and Chaldee, yet it is better to adhere to the reading of the text and to translate, a deadly murderous arrow.
[7]Jer 9:7.. The change of number is analogous to the frequently occurring change or person. Comp. Gram. 101, Anm.
[8]Jer 9:8.. The suffix is most naturally referred to the subject like that of Jer 9:8. Vide Jer 5:9; Jer 5:29.
3. SECOND PUNISHMENT: DEATH SNATCHES AWAY AN INNUMERABLE SACRIFICE
Jer 9:16-21
16Thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth: Consider ye,
And call for mourning women,9 that they may come,10
And send for the skilful ones, that they appear;
17And hasten, and raise a wailing11 over us,
That our eyes may run12 with tears,
And our eyelids overflow with water.
18Forloud wailing is heard from Zion:
How are we spoiled! We are greatly confounded;
For we have forsaken the land,
For they have thrown down our dwellings
19Hear then, ye women, the word of Jehovah,
And let your ear receive the word of his mouth,
And teach your daughters13 a song of lamentation,
And [teach ye] one another a dirge!
20For death cometh in through our windows,
It enters into our palaces,
To exterminate the child from the street,
The youths from the free places.
21[Speak: Thus saith Jehovah:]
And the carceases of men fall like dung14 on the field,
And like sheaves behind the reaper
When there is none to gather them.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
In connection with the close of the preceding strophe, the prophet sets forth another element of the punishment, viz., the fruitful harvest, which the sword would yield. He does this by even now calling for the mourning-women to lament over the future destruction of Zion and the dispersion of the people (Jer 9:16-18): but not content with this, he also calls upon all other women, as by divine command, to instruct their daughters and one another in the art of wailing, for death will summon his victims in masses.
Jer 9:16-17. Consider ye overflow with water.Consider is emphatic (comp. Jer 2:10; Jer 23:20; Jer 30:24) for what is required is something unusual. Usually mourning-women are called to weep over those who are already dead, and therefore others than those who call them. Here they are to raise their wailing over those very persons who call them, and over their future destruction.Skilful. Since wailing does not require wisdom in the higher sense, and as the expression wise women is not proved to be a technical term for mourning-women (as sage femme for midwife), the word must denote only those who are skilful, experienced, in general, comp. Jer 10:9, and skilful of lamentation, Amo 5:16. [Comp. also Mat 9:23, and Thomson, The Land and the Book, I., p. 146.S. R. A.]
Jer 9:18-19. For loud wailing a dirge. The prophet feigns a kind of vision: the Israelites perceive, not with their bodily but spiritual ear, a loud wailing. This is future, and it is they who wail. The subject of lamentation is: we are destroyed (Jer 4:13), put to shame (Jer 51:51), have been obliged to forsake the land, because the enemy has thrown down our dwellings. So I render, with Raschi, Rosenmuller, Graf and others, since is not merely to throw away, but also to throw to the ground (Job 18:17; Eze 19:12), and of the throwing down of a dwelling is expressly used in Dan 8:11.Hear them. The second introduces a second reason for the wailing commanded in Jer 9:18. Jer 9:18 speaks only of destruction and exile in general. But dirges presuppose particular cases of death. Therefore in Jer 9:19-20 it is added, that the destruction and deportation will result in the death of many. This is introduced in this way: the mourning-women in the divine commission are further commanded to instruct not only their daughters, but also the other women in the art of wailing, for on account of the unusual number of deaths, a much larger number of mourners than usual will be required. The wailing of Jer 9:17 is not to be raised, therefore, because the women received the command contained in Jer 9:19, but because they received this command for the reason given in Jer 9:20-21.
Jer 9:20-21. For death cometh in when there is none to gather them. Death will not, as an enemy lurking without, attack those only who venture out to him, but will assault the people, penetrating into all their houses to fetch his sacrifices. The figure is like that in Joe 2:9.From the street. While death strangles the children and youths in the houses, he has at the same time taken them from the street and the places.The words speak, thus saith Jehovah, are very disturbing. They interrupt the close connection, which according to the sense and the construction there is between and the carcases, etc., and Jer 9:20; they are wanting in the LXX., and the whole manner of expression is foreign to Jeremiah. For the imperative does not occur once in Jeremiah, either in the addresses of God to the prophet or elsewhere, and Jeremiah never says . He also never places before, but always after the beginning, like the Latin inquam, or at the close of the address.And the carcases, etc. These words we read in 2Ki 9:37 of the corpse of Jezebel. Comp. Psa 83:11; Jer 8:2; Jer 16:4; Jer 25:33.The stricken will lie like sheaves behind the reaper, but there is to be this difference, that while the sheaves are collected and taken home, the dead bodies will lie in the field unregarded. Compare the figure of the sheaves, Mic 4:12.
Footnotes:
[9]Jer 9:16. here only. Comp. besides Eze 32:16, and Winer, R. W. B., art. Leichen.
[10]Jer 9:16., Psa 45:17; 1Sa 10:7 (Chethibh) is the more frequent form, comp. ex. gr., Gen 30:38; 1Ki 3:16; Isa 48:3.
[11]Jer 9:17. (the same form in Rth 1:14; Zec 5:9) for (Rth 1:9) for which also (Eze 23:49). Comp. Olsh., 239; Gesen., 74; Anm. 4.
[12]Jer 9:17. designates the intended effect. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 89, 3, b. 2.On the accusative construction. Comp. Jer 14:17; Lam 3:48; Joel 4:18; N. Gr., 69:2 a.
[13]Jer 9:19.On the suffix in and , comp. Naegelsb. Gr., 60:5. [Green, Gr., 220:1 b.]
[14]Jer 9:21. occurs only in the passages, Psa 83:11; Jer 8:2; Jer 16:4; Jer 25:33, and in figurative language.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 9:1. O that I had in the desert, etc. So it sounds here and there when the servant of the Lord comes from confession, from church, from the sick, from pastoral visitation, on the great fast-day, on the third festival-day, on almost every Sunday afternoon. A beautiful character of a witness when he needs nothing but a little spot in the desert, no improvement, no great management, when it is not necessary to say, Alas, my heart is whelmed with grief! and whence Song of Solomon 1 obtain relief? When no one sits by him who presses upon him. The desert was to retain Jeremiah in connection with his people. He wished there to weep for them. Zinzendorf.
2. On Jer 9:2. They proceed from one wickedness to anotherpunished with the sins, which are suspended over them a poor sold people who know not how to raise their ransom-money. We must tell them, and tell them again, whence it is to be fetched. Zinzendorf.
3. On Jer 9:3. Guard ye every one against his friend, and trust not even his brother. This is the Hobbesii jus natur. Zinzendorf. Hoc loco utendum est in tempore persecutionis et angusti, quando aut rara, aut nulla fides est; quando nee fratri, nec proximo credendum est, et inimici hominis domestici ejus, quando juxta evangelium tradet pater filium et filius patrem, et dividentur duo in tres et tres in duo (Mat 10:34 sqq.) Jerome.
4. On Jer 9:4. Laborant homines loqui mendacium, nam veritatem tota facilitate loquerentur. Ille enim laborat, qui fingit quod dixit. Nam qui verum vult dicere non laborat. Ipsa veritas sine labore loquitur. Ipsum mendacium hominum est labor labiorum ipsorum (Psa 7:14), Augustin., Enarr. in Psalms 139. [Henry:They are wearied with their sinful pursuits, but not weary of them. The service of sin is a perfect drudgery; men run themselves out of breath in it; and put themselves to a great deal of toil to damn their own souls.S. R. A.]
5. On Jer 9:11. We are not to search with culpable curiosity into the causes of divine judgment which God has hidden from us. But if God Himself discovers them to us, we should ponder them well and apply them as best we may (Jer 6:17-18). Starke.
6. On Jer 9:11. It is always an important part of true wisdom to recognize the object of the divine chastisement. At Jericho (Joshua 7.) it was made known by an extraordinary revelation that the ban of sacrilege was resting upon Israel, and the lot further brought to light the author of the crime. But this mode of revelation is not the usual one. When punishment is the direct and immediate consequence of sin, ex. gr., when sickness follows on dissipation, and poverty on laziness and negligence, then every one who wishes, may easily see, whither the chastisement tends. But often the connection between sin and punishment is more remote and secret, although it is never an artificial and arbitrary, but always an organic and necessary one. Then is the time, in all humility and honesty to examine ones self in order to learn why the land is laid waste.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 9:1-6. This text might serve as a foundation in cases where a preacher has occasion to speak to his congregation on separation from the world, etc. He might especially draw from it arguments in favor of such separation. Comp. Rev 2:2, .As a counterpoise might be applied, Heb 12:3; 2Ti 2:24.A servant of the Lord is to be and .
2. On Jer 9:3. On the various stages in the condition of security. 1. Of evil rising into Acts 2 Of rising from one sin to another. Brandt: Altes und Neues in extemporirb. Entwrfen, Nrnberg, 1829, 1, 2.
3. On Jer 9:7-9. The double object of the divine judgments. 1. Restoration of the right (Jer 9:9). 2. Improvement of men (Jer 9:7, to melt and try).
4. On Jer 9:12-16. On the connection of temporal evil with our sins. Such a connection (1) undoubtedly exists, and should be (2) recognized and (3) announced by us (that is, not passed over in silence, but openly expresssed).
5. On Jer 9:20-21 (to be used in times when death snatches many away). Death as a destroying angel: 1. Who sends him: 2. Wherefore he is sent: 3. How we may protect ourselves against him.
IV. CONCLUSION: (Jer 9:22-25; Jer 10:17-25.)
1. The only means of escape, and the reason why it is not used
Jer 9:22-25
22Thus saith Jehovah:
Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom,
Nor let the strong man glory in his strength,
Nor let the rich man glory in his riches.
23But let him that glorieth glory15 in this,
To be wise16 and to know me
That I am Jehovahwho exercise mercy,
Judgment and righteousness on the earth;
For in these do I delight, saith Jehovah.
24Behold! the days are coming, saith Jehovah,
That I will punish every circumcision in foreskin:17
25Egypt and Judah and Edom, and the children of Ammon and Moab,
And all with shorn hair [-corners] who dwell in the desert;
For all the people are uncircumcised,
The whole house of Israel is uncircumcised at heart.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
The prophet introduces the concluding part of his discourse with a general moral reflection, the object of which is to present the only means of escape from such fearfully threatening dangers, viz., a living and truly productive knowledge of the Lord (Jer 9:22-23). Unfortunately the prophet is at the close of the strophe (Jer 9:24-25) compelled to acknowledge the mournful fact that such a true knowledge of God by the people Israel was not to be expected, since they were a people of uncircumcised heart, and were therefore, notwithstanding their bodily circumcision, essentially like the uncircumcised heathen nations. From this it is evident that the passage (Jer 9:22-25) can be dispensed with neither from the inner connection nor the connection with the preceding context, and we should not therefore be justified in regarding it (with Graf) as a later addition.
Jer 9:22-23. Let not the wise man delight. As the things in which they are not to glory, wisdom, strength (power), riches, are certainly mentioned, because they appear above all to the natural man as the most desirable, comp. 1Ki 1:13, where in substance these three ideas are placed in juxtaposition, with 2Ch 9:22; Job 12:13. But at the same time the prophet has doubtless in view actual circumstances and declarations previously made by him. The inclination of his hearers presumptuously to boast of external carnal advantages was censured by him in the seventh chapter (comp. Jer 9:4; Jer 9:8; Jer 9:10; Jer 9:14; Jer 9:24; Jer 9:26); that the Jews gloried in their wisdom is expressly stated in Jer 8:8-9. The mention of strength seems to point back to Jer 9:2, and riches remind us of Jer 5:26-28. The wisdom in which they are not to glory is not that which is called better than strength in Ecc 9:16, and which is essentially identical with that recommended in Jer 9:23, but it is worldly wisdom, which though it boast of enjoying divine direction, in truth rejects the word of God, and is therefore put to shame (Jer 8:8-9,) against which also a warning is given in Pro 3:5, in the words, Trust in Jehovah with all thine heart, but on thine own understanding rely thou not.Strength is both physical strength (Psa 147:10, Job 39:19) and power (2Ki 10:34; 2Ki 20:20.)Every man must have something in which to glory, i.e., which he esteems as his highest blessing and honor (without self-esteem) comp. Isa 51:16; 1Co 1:31; 2Co 10:17.Me must depend on knows alone, or also on to be wise (understand) (Psa 64:10; Psa 106:7.) 1 prefer the latter. Wise then does not, as Graf assumes, contradict the beginning of Jer 9:22, but only opposes the true to the false wisdom. For in these, etc., is not the fundamental statement, but the explanation of the general . Comp. Naegelsb. Gr 109, 1 a.God is to be known as the eternally existent, therefore the only true God, who exercises mercy, judgment and righteousness on the earth. There is an antithesis here to strength, etc., Jer 9:22 (Jer 9:2; Jer 5:26 sqq.) But he who has learned to know the Lord as such, acts accordingly. Mercy is not in opposition to justice and righteousness as sometimes in Christian usage, but mercy is the root of righteousness, i.e., the disposition which does not with brute force trample upon the poor and weak, but with kindness and love secures to them their rights, and thus blessing and salvation. Comp. rems. on Jer 7:5-6. Psa 145:17.
Jer 9:24-25. Behold! the days are coming uncircumcised at heart. All here primarily depends on the explanation of the expression = circumcision in foreskin. The explanations all circumcised on the foreskin (LXX. and Vulg.) and all the circumcised, together with those who have the foreskin (Tremell., Pisc., Rosenm.) neither suit the connection, nor can they be justified grammatically. The explanation of Hitzig, Graf, [Henderson, Noyes, Blayney,] according to which circumcised in foreskin is equivalent to uncircumcised (Hitzig compares a knife without a handle and to which the blade is wanting) imputes nonsense to the prophet. Grammatically the words can mean only: to circumcise in foreskin, i.e., circumcision, which is yet connected only with the foreskin, therefore no true circumcision. In favor of this explanation Isaiah 1. That the prophet mentions Judah among these nations. If it cannot be denied of this nation, that its circumcision was connected with the foreskin, the same must apply, though in a different sense, to the others. 2. If the prophet wished to mention only absolutely uncircumcised nations, why has he mentioned particularly these? He might then have omitted Judah, and mentioned all others in preference to these. The selection is evidently intentional. All these nations are either notoriously oron account of their affinity of race with Israelat least probably circumcised. The former was the case with the Egyptians (Herod. II. 36, 104). If circumcision was practiced only among the higher castes of the Egyptians (Winer, R. W. B. Art. Beschneidung) this would be another reason for the prophet to reckon the nation generally among the circumcised in foreskin. The were undoubtedly circumcised. For it is evident from Jer 25:23; Jer 49:28; Jer 49:32, that by this phrase Arabian tribes, especially the Kedarenes, are understood, of which Herodotus (III. 8) reports that they , which was forbidden to the Jews (Lev 19:27; Lev 21:5). The Kedarenes, however, were descended from Ishmael (Gen 25:13; comp. Herzog, R-Enc. 1, S. 463) who was circumcised by Abraham (Gen 17:23) and among whose descendants the practice of this rite is continued even to this day, not by order of Mohammed (the Koran nowhere enjoins circumcision, comp. Michaelis, Mos. Recht. 184) but as an ancient sacred custom. If now it cannot also be proved of the Edomites, Ammonites and Moabites (Gen 19:37-38) that they had circumcision (John Hyrcanus gave the Edomites the alternative either of abandoning their country or accepting circumcision, and they chose the latter. Joseph. Antiqu. XIII. 9, 1) yet Jeremiah must have reckoned them among the circumcised. Whether he erred in this or not is another question. There is of course the possibility that the usage may have prevailed at his time among them also and afterwards declined, as even among the Israelites this law was by no means always punctually followed (Jos 5:2, sqq. Comp. Herzog. R-Enc. II. S. 108).In short the juxtaposition of Judah and two other undoubtedly circumcised nations with three whose circumcision on account of their origin is possible and indeed highly probable, but not proved, shows that according to the intention of the prophet the expression ( ) is to be taken in the sense, which as we have shown above, is alone grammatically admissible.With this also accords the causal sentence for all the nations, etc. It is entirely unnecessary to regard the article as a retrospective pronoun = all these nations. The prophet really wishes to say that all the nations of the heathens are uncircumcised, from which however it follows that those previously mentioned are so. If these are uncircumcised in spite of a circumcision, which from the standpoint of the theocracy must appear an unjustifiable imitation of the sacred sign of the covenant, and the whole house of Israel, including Judah, is uncircumcised at heart, it is explained why the Lord named Judahs and the other nations circumcisionin foreskin. From this it further results that an improvement of Judah in the sense of Jer 9:23 is not to be expected, whence finally it follows that Judah is exposed to the judgment of the Lord as well as those other nations.
Footnotes:
[15]Jer 9:23.. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr.. 101, 2 c.
[16]Jer 9:23.. The preposition is omitted, as frequently: Isa 48:16; Isa 28:6; Isa 41:7. Comp. N. Gr., 72, 2; 112,8.
[17]Jer 9:24.[A. V.: The circumcised with the uncircumcised.]
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. On Jer 9:22-23. Paul says, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord (2Co 10:17), and Jesus, This is life eternal that they might know Thee that Thou art the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent (Joh 17:3). This is to glory, as though one should say, God be praised, I am right well and sound. To be sound in the faith is to have the knowledge of Jesus Christ, to maintain it, to grow in it. This is to prosper. To be silent concerning grace from humility is an affectation. To make a great noise of good works as our own, is ridiculous. For grace produces them, the power of God dwelling in us. We do nothing and should do nothing if it were left to us; but the work of God in us, that we believe, is not to be passed over in silence, moroseness, and ingratitude. What a noise do the humble saints in the Revelation make of their grace, freedom, priesthood, royal dignity, victory, redemption (chap. 4, 5, 7, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19). There is also nothing any longer secret when we bear His name on our forehead. O that the whole earth were full of our glorying in the Lord! O that we were able, our songs so high to raise, That all the country round, might echo with His praise. The world and false theology recommend in this respect a certain silence, which shows that they do not know which is their proper sphere. And against them it is best to contend realiter by manifestation of the Spirit and of power. Let your light so shine before men that they may glorify the Father in heaven (Mat 5:16). Zinzendorf.
2. On Jer 9:23. Qui fideliter et obedienter vivit, non de ipsa obedientia tamquam de suo non accepto bono extollatur, sed qui gloriatur, in Domine glorietur. In ullo enim gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil sit. Augustin: De bono Persever. Cap. xiv:7. Comp. Hilarius, Enarr in Psa 52:8.
3. On Jer 9:23. Qui gloriatur, in Domine glorietur. Hoc est Christum pascere, hoc est Christo pascere, in Christo pascere, prter Christum sibi non pascere. Augustin: De Pastoribus. Cap. Jer 13:9.
4. On Jer 9:23. Videte quomodo nobis abstulit gloriam, ut daret gloriam; abstulit nostrum ut daret suam; abstulit inanem, ut daret plenam; abstulit nutantem, ut daret solidam. Anselm. Comment. in 1Co 1:31.
5. On Jer 9:24-25. Like brothers, like caps. If the circumcised and uncircumcised are alike good and pious, they will not unfairly be punished in like manner. Cramer.
6. On Jer 9:24-25. A clear testimony that the holy sacraments procure nothing per opus operatum, for the works sake. For the Jews were indeed circumcised in the flesh, but this was to be a sign to them of righteousness, that they should be spiritually circumcised in faith and good works. But since such spiritual circumcision did not follow, and they remained uncircumcised at heart, the other fleshly circumcision helped them not, but redounded instead to their sin. Cramer.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer 9:22-23. (Luther, Jer 9:23-24). The Christians highest and true glory. It consists in 1. Believing in the Lord; 2. Living in the Lord; 3. Working for the Lord; 4. Suffering for the Lords sake. (Florey: Trost Und Mahnung an Graben, I. Bndchen, S. 151).
2. On Jer 9:22-23. The true knowledge of God 1. Its nature (not dead science, but living experience); 2. its fruit, a. the highest blessing (mercy, justice and righteousness in Jesus Christ); b. the highest honor (he who has it will not be put to shame as he who glories in the flesh).
3. On Jer 9:22. [Eng. Vers. Jer 9:23. Bp. Bull:Examples of the folly of glorying (or trusting) in wisdom, might or riches:Solomon, Samson and Ahab.S. R. A].
4. On Jer 9:23. [Eng. Vers. Jer 9:24. Abp. Tillotson:1. The wisest and surest reasonings in religion are grounded on the unquestionable perfections of the divine nature (ex. gr. belief in Divine Providence and veracity). 2. The nature of God is the true idea and pattern of perfection and happiness.S. R. A.].
5. On Jer 9:23. The Christians self-glorying. 1. Evil self-glorying keep far from thee; 2. If thou wilt glory, glorify thyself in the Lord. Gezetz. u. Zeugniss. 1860, Jan.
6. On Jer 9:25-26. Circumcision as a figure of the relation of man to God. 1. The three stages of circumcision, uncircumcised, outwardly circumcised, truly circumcised, correspond to the three stages of being without God, serving God outwardly, serving God in spirit and in truth. 2. As external circumcision without that of the heart is equivalent to uncircumcision, so the outward service of God without the inward is equivalent to no service at all.
Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange
CONTENTS
This Chapter opens with the cry of the Prophet over the sins and calamities of the people. Jeremiah having poured out his soul upon this occasion, and wept before the throne, prosecutes his Sermon, in calling upon the people to hear the Lord’s decrees concerning them.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
How blessed is it to behold faithful ministers, who enter into a deep concern for their people. What a beautiful portrait is here undesignedly drawn of Jeremiah. How endeared is that servant of the Lord, or ought to be, who takes part in all that concerns Zion. But Reader! while looking at the servant, let us not overlook the Master. Yea, blessed Jesus! doth not my meditation take wing and behold thee in thine unequalled sorrow over Jerusalem? Luk 13:34 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
The Wish to Escape
Jer 9:2
Jeremiah had cried wildly, ‘Oh that I could escape’; but when escape was possible he turned his back or. it. He went to Mizpah with Gedaliah, and though only the dregs of Judah had been left there, still dregs or no dregs they were his own people, and like a gallant soul he would not leave them.
I. We all feel sometimes the longing to escape. To escape from what? in the first place from monotony.
Or again responsibility may cause it the pressure of responsibility and care not the weary weight of this unintelligible world, but just the burdens that lie at our own doors.
But to most of us there come hours when the great longing is to escape from ourselves.
O that a man might arise in me,
That the man I am might cease to be!
II. This longing betrays itself in many ways.
1. It betrays itself in day-dreams. It is one of the great offices of imagination to be a refuge when we are in rebellion against facts.
2. It betrays itself in pleasure, and especially in the craving for exciting pleasure. The very charm of excitement lies in this that it helps men for a little to forget.
3. And then does it not betray itself in theories? How easy it is to blind ourselves to facts, when we once adopt some theory about them! When I see, and I see it every day, how men turn away from the straight gaze of Christ, and when I see how they run to philosophies and theories which have no cry in them, no cross, no blood only harmonious and flattering music to me at least that is another betrayal of the strange yet quenchless longing to escape.
III. The duty of a Christian is to crush it. However instinctively this wish may rise, it must when it rises be sternly combated. This is our duty every day we live, because of the example of Christ Jesus. ‘O my Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from me!’ What is that, but the wild cry of all humanity, to flee from its Calvary and be at rest? Yet immediately, ‘Not My will, but Thine be done. I am here not to do My will but Thine, O God.’ And that instant recognition of the Father, and the immediate owning of His will, tells how in the very moment that the wish was formed, the wish to escape, to flee away was crushed.
G. H. Morrison, The Unlighted Lustre, p. 102.
References. IX. 2. A. Ramsay, Studies in Jeremiah, p. 47. G. A. Smith, British Weekly Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 309. IX. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2274. IX. 23, 24. J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvii. 1890, p. 150. A. E. Tonkin, ibid. vol. xliv. 1893, p. 122. J. Parker, Hidden Springs, p. 153. X. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. 1. No. 2893.
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 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
Ver. 1. Oh that mine head were waters. ] Mira sermonis transfiguratione utitur propheta, A wonderful wish of this weeping prophet, and to be taken up by God’s faithful ministers, considering the woeful condition of their perishing people, posting to perdition. Pia est illa tristitia, et si dici potest, beata miseria, Appease this sadness and if able to be said, bless this woe, saith Augustine; a this is a sweet sorrow, a blessed misery. Such waters will be turned into wine, at the wedding day of the Lamb; for which purpose also they are kept safe in God’s bottle. Psa 56:8
And mine eyes a fountain of tears.
a Epist. 545.
b Proborum virorum lachrymae sunt peccatorum diluvium, et mundi piamentum – Nazianzen, Orat. 3.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Jeremiah Chapter 9
The rest of the chapter (Ver. 18 to the end) and the first eight verses of Jer 9 set forth the affliction of the prophet over the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord, which forbade their knowledge of Him. Then, from ver. 9, follows their judgment under the Lord’s indignant displeasure. Well might they call (Ver. 17) for mourning women, and with haste; and men shall fall like the handful after the reaper, but with none in their case to gather them. (ver. 22.) Human acquirements and resources would never do for man to glory in, but in understanding and knowing Jehovah righteous in all His ways here below, and delighting in goodness. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.” (Ver. 25, 26.) If grace can be indiscriminate, judgment sometimes takes this shape also. And of this Jeremiah treats.
Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 9:1-6
1Oh that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For the slain of the daughter of my people!
2Oh that I had in the desert
A wayfarers’ lodging place;
That I might leave my people
And go from them!
For all of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous men.
3They bend their tongue like their bow;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me, declares the LORD.
4Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
Because every brother deals craftily,
And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5Everyone deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth,
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me, declares the LORD
Jer 9:1 The prophet is using emotional figurative language to express his pain over YHWH’s necessary judgment of His covenant people (cf. Heb 12:5-11). In reality it is YHWH’s pain that the prophet is revealing (cf. Hos 11:8-9). This same emotion is seen in Jer 8:18; Jer 13:17; Isa 22:4; Lam 2:18. See Special Topic: GOD DESCRIBED AS HUMAN (ANTHROPOMORPHISM) .
This verse is one of the sources of Jeremiah being known as the weeping prophet. He was such because YHWH was the weeping God (cf. Hos 11:8-9).
Jer 9:2-4 Notice how the prophet/YHWH describes the covenant people.
1. adulteress, Jer 9:2
2. treacherous men, Jer 9:2
3. lie, Jer 9:3
4. evil to evil, Jer 9:3
5. do not know YHWH, Jer 9:3
6. untrustworthy, Jer 9:4
7. crafty, Jer 9:4
8. slanderer, Jer 9:4
9. deceiver, Jer 9:5
10. do not speak truth, Jer 9:5
11. liars, Jer 9:5
12. commit iniquity, Jer 9:5
13. deceitful, Jer 9:6
14. refuse to know YHWH, Jer 9:6
And those are the people of God. He must do something lest His purpose for this planet is lost (cf. Eze 36:22-38).
Jer 9:2 A wayfarers’ lodging place This was a lean-to or an uninhabited wooden shelter used by travelers in desert areas. What a shocking metaphor that God’s prophet wanted to run away from (i.e., two Qal COHORTATIVES, leave and go) the covenant people and hide in the desert.
For all of them are adulterers
An assembly of treacherous men There is an obvious comparison and play on these two phrases as a title for the people of God. Their lifestyle and attitude reflected both physical and spiritual adultery.
Jer 9:3 They bend their tongue like their bow Their speech showed who and what they really were (cf. Jer 9:8). This metaphor seems to refer to one of three things.
1. their tongues were bent which reflected the words for sin, a deviation from the standard
2. they were ready to shoot their words at anyone (cf. Psa 64:3-4)
3. it refers to the pain that their lies caused both to God and their fellow Israelites (cf. Lev 19:15-16)
And they do not know Me This is the tragedy the pain that God felt (cf. Hos 4:1; Hos 4:6; Hos 5:4; Hos 8:2; Hos 11:8-9) after He had given so much to this people and they had knowingly, willfully turned their backs on Him. There is a word to the church today in these verses.
Jer 9:4 Even among the covenant people, there is no trust. They not only lie, cheat, and steal from others, but from each other. The terrible results of the Fall are obvious.
1. let everyone be on guard against his neighbor – BDB 1036, KB 1581, Niphal IMPERATIVE
2. do not trust any brother – BDB 105, KB 120, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense
3. craftily – this is an INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and an IMPERFECT VERB from the same root (BDB 784, KB 872), which shows intensity
The people of God were more like Jacob (supplanter, BDB 784) than Israel (see Special Topic: Israel [the name] ).
Jer 9:5 They weary themselves committing iniquity What a horrible description of God’s people as they go headlong into rebellion and idolatry (BDB 521, KB 512, Niphal PERFECT).
Jer 9:6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit This describes metaphorically this people’s worldview and daily lifestyle!
they refuse to know Me The VERB (BDB 549, KB 540, Piel PERFECT) denotes a settled condition. They are not duped but willful rejecters of truth.
For know see Special Topic: Know .
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Oh that, &c. Figure of speech Pathopoeia.
waters . . . fountain . . . tears. Figure of speech Catabasis.
slain. Not healed by “balm” or “physician”.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Chapter 9
Now Jeremiah declares,
Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes were as a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men ( Jer 9:1-2 );
You know now why he was called the weeping prophet. He wished that his head were water and his eyes were the fountain that these tears might run continually for the tragedy of the people. “Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men.”
that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, they are an assembly of treacherous men. And they bend their tongues like a bow for lies ( Jer 9:2-3 ):
That’s quite a picturesque speech, isn’t it? Bending their tongue like a bow so they can shoot out the arrow of lies. Hit ya!
but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from one evil to another, and they know not me, saith the LORD. Take ye heed every one of his neighbor, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbor, and they will not speak the truth: for they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; and through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD. Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people? Their tongue is as an arrow that is shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he is lying in wait [to strike him]. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. And I will make Jerusalem heaps [that is, heaps of destruction], the den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perished and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; But they have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them the 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, until I have consumed them ( Jer 9:3-16 ).
So God pronounces His judgment. But the reasons for His judgment: they have forsaken His law which He had set before them; they had not obeyed His voice, neither walked they according to His commandments. But they walked everyone after his own wickedness, the imagination of his own heart.
Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come: And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbor lamentation. For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children without, and the young men from the streets. Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them. Thus saith the LORD, 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 ( Jer 9:17-23 ):
It is interesting, these are three things that people often glory in. The wise men glory in their wisdom. The mighty man glories in his strength. And the rich man glories in his riches. But God said,
but he that glorieth let him glory in that he understands and knows me ( Jer 9:24 ),
Now that’s worth glorying about. “How dies the wise man?” Solomon says, “as the fool” ( Ecc 2:16 ). How dies the rich man? like the poor. And even the strong are made weak through age. Catabolic forces. So these things in which men glory are all temporal things. They’re all very passing. My strength is failing. My wisdom will yield to senility. And my riches will be left unto others. If I’m going to glory, I need to glory in the fact that I understand and know God, because that’s eternal and that has eternal value to it. The rest may give me an advantage for a time. Wisdom may give me an advantage for a time. Strength may give me an advantage for a time. Riches may give me an advantage for a time. But understanding and knowing God will give me an advantage for eternity. That’s something to really glory in-that I know God. That you understand the ways of God.
that I am the LORD which exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD ( Jer 9:24 ).
What does He delight in? Just look again. Loving-kindness, true judgment. Fairness, actually, is what it’s about. Righteousness–that’s what God wants you to do. That’s how God wants you to live. Loving one another. Kind to one another. “Be ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven us” ( Eph 4:32 ). God wants you to be fair in your dealings. Just. God wants you to be righteous, do the right thing. And in that He is pleased.
Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcision ( Jer 9:25 );
In other words, this ritual of circumcision–not going to do a thing for you. You’re going to be punished just as those who are uncircumcised. Ritual is of no avail if it isn’t a reality. The physical ritual is meaningless unless there is a corresponding work within a person’s heart. Baptism is totally meaningless unless there is a corresponding work of the Spirit within your heart. They can hold you down till you drown; it’s not going to save you. They can baptize you frontwards, forwards, or any formula that they might seek to use. It’s not going to save you unless there is a corresponding work of God’s Spirit within your heart. And the death to the old man, the old nature, and the burying of the old man and the newness of life in Christ Jesus as we live and walk after the Spirit. That’s what counts, not the ritual.
Now these people were counting in the fact that they’ve gone through the ritual of circumcision which marked them as God’s special people. And the whole idea of circumcision was cutting off the flesh which was a symbol of no longer living after the flesh but living after the Spirit. But here they’d gone through the ritual of circumcision but were still living after the flesh. Thus, the ritual was totally meaningless as long as they lived after the flesh. It is only meaningful if a man lives after the Spirit. So Paul the apostle reasons, “If my living after the flesh can negate my experience of circumcision, then my living after the Spirit will make unnecessary the right of circumcision in that God counts the heart of the man.”
Now your lifestyle can negate your water baptism. Water baptism can’t save you. And your lifestyle can totally negate any kind of baptismal experience you’ve ever had, because the whole idea is there in baptism, it is death to the self and living after the Spirit, the new man after Christ. And baptism is to the church what circumcision was to the Jew, in that a symbol of no longer living after the flesh, now living after the Spirit. But if your life is lived after the flesh, it can negate any meaning to your baptism. In the same token, if you’re living and walking after the Spirit, that would be accounted as baptism. Though I believe that person should be baptized, I do not believe in baptismal regeneration, and I don’t believe that a person is lost who lives after the Spirit who has not had an opportunity to be baptized.
So the days are going to come when I’ll punish all of them which are circumcised along with the uncircumcised.
Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are as they were uncircumcised for they are uncircumcised in the heart ( Jer 9:26 ).
It’s only in the flesh. It’s only an outward ritual, but it isn’t in the heart where it really counts.
“
Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary
Jer 9:1. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
This is how Gods servants feel about the dying and perishing souls all around them. They cannot bear the thought of the sinners awful doom; it brings continuous heartbreak and heaviness of spirit upon them. That men should eternally perish, that they should bring on their own heads the doom of their own sin, is no small thing, and therefore the Lords servant mourns over those who mourn not for themselves. God save every one of us, for the Lord Jesus Christs sake! Amen.
This exposition consisted of readings from Psalms 12.; and Jeremiah 8, and Jer 9:1.
Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible
Jer 9:1
Jer 9:1
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
This verse is a continuation of the unbearable pain of the prophet as expressed in Jer 8:18-22. Jeremiah had already wept over the condition of Israel as much as it was possible for him to weep; and here he expressed a wish for the ability to weep even more. Henry pointed out that in Hebrew the same word signifies “both the eye and a fountain, as if in this land of sorrows our eyes were designed rather for weeping than for seeing. And while we find our hearts such fountains of sin, it is fit that our eyes should be fountains of tears.”
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
In answer to his own question, Jeremiah sighed for some adequate means of expressing the anguish of his heart, and then for escape to some lonely place in the wilderness. All this was in the nature of complaint against God, for he revealed most carefully how conscious he was of the sin of his people, describing it in terrible detail.
To this cry of His servant Jehovah replied in a fivefold declaration. First, that He had no choice but to afflict because of their sin; He next affirmed His own sorrow also, but by a question reminded the prophet that there was a reason for the perishing of the land and the destruction of the city.
In the next place, He plainly stated what the reason was. Their persistent rebellion had made necessary His wrath. He then called the people to lament, but insisted that it should be for right causes. Finally, He proclaimed the true ground of glorifying for man, not in his own wisdom or riches, but in his understanding and knowledge of Jehovah.
Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible
National Perversity
Jer 9:1-16
Jer 9:1-6
Once the voice of joy and thanksgiving had been heard in Jerusalem, but now on every side there was bloodshed, and the patriot-prophet could only weep incessantly over the slain. A lodge in the wilderness seemed preferable to the most luxurious mansion in the city. Solitude would be better than association with the ungodly perpetrators of such crimes. Yet we must not go out of the fray so long as our Captain wants us to remain in it, in dependence upon him.
Jer 9:7-16
What a magnificent description of the effect of Gods judgments on the land! No bird, no beast, no lowing of cattle, but jackals gamboling over the ruins of Jerusalem. However fast we shut our doors and windows, death enters our homes. Neither palace nor cottage is exempted. There is no escape for young or old from the judgments of God, except in penitence and faith. The secret of national decay and overthrow is the same in all ages. The tree is rotten at the core before it falls beneath the hurricane. Let us turn to 1Co 1:18, which belongs to this chapter, and learn how little the wisdom and might of the world can avail us in the dread hour of universal desolation. Stand with the Crucified and glory in His Cross; be content to bear His reproach and shame, that you may become a son of the Resurrection, and be accounted worthy to escape those things that must come to pass, and at last stand, before Him.
Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary
“Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” (Jer 9:1)
Well has Jeremiah been called the “Weeping Prophet.”
His was not the pharisaic spirit that could build its own reputation for holiness on the ruined testimony of others. Israel was his people. He would not be viewed as other than a part of the desolate nation – he identifies himself fully with it. True, he longs to flee from them to a wayfarer’s lodge in the wilderness, as did David in Psa 55:6-8; but he is one with them still.
Their ways grieve him to the soul, as they must one in fellowship with GOD about them; but for themselves he has tenderest love and compassion. Sad that it should ever be otherwise with any of GOD’s people now. Yet, alas, a hard, judging spirit often accompanies outward separation from evil. How easy to forget that we are all part of a ruined Church, and all share in the responsibility of that ruin. With Jeremiah, we see that while he is obliged to make known to his people their deep, deep sin and departure from GOD, he does so with breaking heart, as one who longs after them all and is full of heaviness on their account.
How graphic is the language of Jer 9:21, descriptive of the decimating plague following the horrors of war:
“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.”
In such a world as this, how strange that a man should glory in the fleeting things of time and sense! Yet how needful to our souls ever to keep in mind the verses following:
“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 understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the Lord which exerciseth lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord” (Jer 9:23-24).
In the close of the chapter, Israel uncircumcised in heart is put on a level with the uncircumcised nations about them. They must be judged with the idolatrous nations whose ways they had followed.
Judgment, unsparing, will fall on the heathen; chastisement, leading eventually to restoration, must be meted out to His own.
~ end of chapter 4 ~
Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets
Jer 9:1
The “weeping prophet” is the title often given to Jeremiah. He is not a popular prophet. Unhappy men are not commonly popular men. Yet this one had ample reason for the depression under which he lived and the minor key which runs through the strain of his writings. He had a most delicately sensitive nature, a most profound attachment to the cause of God, an intense patriotic love of his native land; yet it was his lot to live at an age when the people of God had fallen into most fearful apostasy, and the most terrible judgments were impending over them. It was his mission to tell the people of their sins, to rebuke the nobles for their oppression, the humbler orders for their vileness, the priesthood for their falseness, even his fellow-prophets for their infidelity to the living God. To his own times and people he was the prophet of doom.
I. Jeremiah represents a class of good men and women of whom some exist in every age. There are some good men of whom it must be conceded that they are not gay Christians. They have a peculiarly sensitive and deep nature. Their religion is proportionately deep and tender.
II. Christians of the broken heart, it must be confessed, are not apt to be popular with the world; very hard things are said of them, very unjust judgments they have to bear in silence.
III. The class of men and women of whom Jeremiah is the type possess a very profound style of Christian character. Eternity will show to us all that some of the world’s great souls are among them.
IV. Such Christians as the weeping prophet represents are men and women of great spiritual power. The world does not like them, but cannot help respecting them. We love realities after all. We feel the power of the man who knows the most of them and feels them most profoundly.
V. Who can help seeing that brokenhearted Christians are in some respects very nearly akin to the Lord Jesus Christ?
VI. These Christians of the broken heart are sure of a very exalted rank in heaven.
A. Phelps, The Old Testament a Living Book, p. 7.
Reference: Jer 9:1.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii., No. 150.
Jer 9:23-24
There is at least so much similarity between the nature of God and the nature of man that both God and man can take delight in the same thing. The spirit of the text is saying, “Take delight in lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness because I take delight in them; come up to My moral altitude, place your affections where I place Mine.
I. “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom: (1) because of the necessary littleness of man’s vastest acquisitions; (2) because the widest knowledge involves but partial rulership.
II. Is man then without an object in which to glory? It is as natural for man to glory as it is natural for man to breathe; and God who so ordered his nature, has indicated the true theme of glorying. Man’s glorying is to be restrained until he reaches the “Me,” the Personality, the living One. Let him that glorieth glory in knowing God as a moral Being, as the righteous Judge, as the loving Father.
III. The whole subject may be comprehended in four points. (1) God brands all false glorying; (2) God has revealed the proper ground of glorying, that ground is knowledge of God, not only as Creator and Monarch, but as Judge, and Saviour, and Father; (3) God, having declared moral excellence to be the true object of glorying, has revealed how moral excellence may be attained. Loving-kindness, righteousness, and judgment are impossibilities apart from Christ; (4) God has revealed the objects in which He glories Himself. “For in these things I delight, saith the Lord.” They who glory in the objects which delight Jehovah must be drinking at pure and perennial springs.
Parker, City Temple, vol. iii., p. 481.
References: Jer 9:23-24.-J. H. Evans, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. xv., p. 357; G. Brooks, Outlines of Sermons, p. 150; H. W. Beecher, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 484, and vol. xxiii., p. 139; E. Johnson, Ibid., vol. xvi., p. 148. Jer 10:10-12.-J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii.,p. 133. Jer 10:11.-J. Hiles Hitchens, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxvii., p. 155. Jer 11:8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv., No. 838. Jer 12:1.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xx., p. 277.
Fuente: The Sermon Bible
CHAPTER 9
1. The prophets complaint and Jehovahs answer (Jer 9:1-9)
2. The cause of desolation and destruction (Jer 9:10-16)
3. The call for the mourning and wailing women (Jer 9:17-22)
4. Glorying in the Lord in view of judgment (Jer 9:23-26)
Jer 9:1-9. Here again is a deplorable break. The opening verses of this chapter belong to the preceding one. The prophet still speaks. He is overwhelmed with sorrow; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps day and night over the slain. He wishes himself away in some wilderness, to be alone and separated from the adulterous generation. Then follows a description of the moral corruption of the people. The Lord answered him and once more asks the question: Shall not I visit them for these things? saith the LORD; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? (See Jer 5:9; Jer 5:29.)
Jer 9:10-16. Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of dragons. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they forsook His law, obeyed not His voice, and practiced idolatries. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
Jer 9:17-22. The time of wailing and mourning is at hand. 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 street. Pestilence was to sweep over them and enter into their habitations. Hence the call to the professional wailers to sing the mournful dirges of death. These wailing women are also called wise women, for they dabbled in magical, occult things, in familiar spirits and in soothsaying.
Jer 9:23-26. The days were coming when judgment would strike Jews and Gentiles, for the uncircumcised Gentiles and for Israel, uncircumcised in heart. In view of these days of judgment the prophet exhorts to stop their boasts in wisdom, in might and in riches, for all availeth nothing. But let him that glorieth glory in Me, that he understandeth and knoweth Me, that I am the LORD which exercise loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness, in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. May we also glory in Him and not in the things of the dust, the temporal, the passing things, which are but for a moment! Let us remember the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)
O that, Heb. Who will give, etc. Jer 4:19, Jer 13:17, Jer 14:17, Psa 119:136, Isa 16:9, Isa 22:4, Lam 2:11, Lam 2:18, Lam 2:19, Lam 3:48, Lam 3:49, Eze 21:6, Eze 21:7
weep: Psa 42:3
the daughter: Jer 6:26, Jer 8:21, Jer 8:22
Reciprocal: 1Sa 7:6 – drew water 1Sa 15:11 – it grieved 1Sa 15:35 – Samuel mourned 2Sa 1:12 – General 2Sa 11:14 – wrote a letter 2Ki 8:11 – wept 2Ki 22:19 – wept Ezr 10:1 – weeping Est 8:6 – For how Isa 59:11 – mourn Jer 4:11 – daughter Jer 8:4 – Moreover Jer 9:18 – our eyes Jer 10:19 – Woe Jer 17:16 – neither Jer 23:9 – heart Jer 30:15 – for the Jer 45:3 – Woe Lam 1:2 – weepeth Lam 1:16 – I weep Eze 6:11 – Smite Eze 12:2 – thou Eze 19:1 – take Eze 24:16 – thy tears Dan 10:2 – I Daniel Mic 1:8 – I will wail Mat 18:31 – they Luk 6:21 – ye that weep Luk 19:41 – and wept Joh 11:35 – General Act 20:19 – many Rom 9:2 – General Rom 12:15 – weep 1Co 13:6 – Rejoiceth not 2Co 12:21 – that I Phi 3:18 – even 1Th 2:9 – night 2Pe 2:7 – vexed
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
A TRUE PATRIOT
Oh that I might weep day and night.
Jer 9:1
How was this one man able to do so much for Israel, to give it no less than six hundred years of life? Because of his character.
We, too, have great tasks to perform. Salt kills corruption and so saves life. Christ says to us, Ye are the salt of the earth. Are we giving life to the nation we belong to?
If we wish to know how to do it, let us note what it was that empowered Jeremiah for his bitter, glorious task. Three characteristics are worthy of note.
I. His unbending steadfastness.His two strongest passions were love of country and love of God. But he made the love of God supreme, and had to suffer abuse, imprisonment, all but death, at the hands of the countrymen he so dearly loved (Jer 20:7-11). He was, as God had called him to bean iron pillar. This is what we need in our churches. To save our nation from the love of pleasure we need such iron pillars.
II. His tender sympathy.The four chapters, 3133, are known as the Book of Consolation. Where can you find more touching messages than these? Is Ephraim my dear son? Is he a pleasant child? My bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord. Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears. I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul. Upon this I awaked and beheld, and my sleep was sweet unto me (Jer 31:20; Jer 31:16; Jer 31:25-26). He was a man of a great soul, able and willing to weep with the oppressed and suffering and guilty. He was an iron pillar in steadfastness to his God, but he was as a gentle mother to the erring children.
III. His spirituality.The people had broken the old covenant. It had been written on tables of stone. Jeremiahs great hope was in looking forward to a New Covenant that was to be purely spiritual. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. In their heart will I write it. They shall all know Me. I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more for ever (Jer 31:33-34).
Here, then, is to be our strengthin unbending steadfastness to God, in tender love for the people, and in having the law and the love of God written on our hearts. Let us see to these three things and we shall become powerful for the pulling down of strongholds.
Illustrations
(1) With the beautiful Temple fell all the hopes and confidence of the Jews. They were carried off into captivity, and it seemed as if the last stay of Gods true worship was gone. (597 and 586 b.c.) But one man was left to build up the ruins. It was Jeremiah. He preserved his faith in the one true God; rallied Israel around that belief as the centre of their national life; and gave them the hope of again enjoying Gods favour. Thus they were kept steadfast in exile, and came back, some sixty or seventy years after (537 b.c.), to their own land with a purified faith. The nation had been at the point of extinction. It was brought back to its fatherland and lived six hundred years. But it sinned once again, and this time against Gods own Son, and was finally shattered in the year 70 a.d.
(2) Tears, give me tears, as I see the vast population of Great Britain, growing up without the religion that made our land great. When the working classes in growing numbers absent themselves from places of worship; when the youths and maidens turn their backs upon the religion of their fathers; when the little children count their Sunday-schools irksomewhat reason there is to weep! When Jesus beheld the city He wept over it.
(3) Once the voice of joy and thanksgiving had been heard in Jerusalem, but now on every side there was bloodshed, and the patriot prophet could only weep incessantly over the slain. A lodge in the wilderness seemed preferable to the most luxurious mansion in the city, better than to continue to associate with the ungodly perpetrators of such crimes. Yet we must not go out of the fray as long as our Captain wants us to remain in it, in dependence upon Him.
Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary
Jer 9:1. The “weeping pronhet” again expresses himself on behalf of his people because of the misfortunes soon to come upon them.. The reference to waters and fountains is figurative and indicates the intensity of his grief.
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 9:1. O that my head, &c. The prophet sympathizes with the calamities of his people, as before, Jer 1:19; Jer 8:21; and thereby excites them to a sense of their own misfortunes, that they might humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. The passage is a fine instance of the pathetic, wherein Jeremiah so much excels. That I might weep day and night for the slain, &c. For the multitudes of his countrymen that he foresaw would fall by the sword of the Babylonians. When we hear of great numbers slain in battles and sieges, we ought not to make a light matter of it, but to be much affected with it; yea, though they be not of the daughter of our people For of whatever people they are, they are of the same human nature with us; and there are so many precious lives lost, as dear to them as ours to us, and so many precious souls gone into eternity.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 9:2. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodgingplace of wayfaring men. In countries where the peasantry are very poor, travellers provide for themselves as they can. Even in Spain many of the passadoes only lodge the traveller; he must provide his own food. Jeremiah preferred a lodging among the country poor, rather than occupy his station in the temple. In the East they have caravanseras, often dirty and very offensive.
Jer 9:4. Take ye heed every one of his neighbour. Take heed of his tongue, his bow is already bent. Take heed of your character among the people of Sodom; take heed of your property, of your wife, of your daughter, yea of your own life. Do we need books on original sin? Is not every heart a volume?
Jer 9:5. Weary themselves to commit iniquity. What is it that bad men will not do to gratify the leading passion of their heart? Money, honour, the tenderest ties, and life itself must go in pursuit of some imaginary pleasure. But when the prodigal drank water instead of wine, he came to himself.
Jer 9:10. Both the fowl and the beasts are fled. The remark of Jerome on Hosea 4., applies here. He who thinks that this has not happened to the people of Israel, let him behold Illyricum. Let him behold Thrace, Macedonia, and Pannonia, and all that tract of land from Propontis and Bosphorus to the Alps; and he will then confess that not only men, but likewise every animal, which was originally formed for the use of man, are extinct, and swept away by the besom of destruction.
Jer 9:12. The landis burnt up like a wilderness. When Bonaparte was on his march to Moscow, the Russians set the metropolis on fire that the French might find no shelter. It is likely that the Hebrews did the same to stop the progress of the invading armies, the word burning being of frequent occurrence.
Jer 9:15. I willgive them water of gall. Hebrews rosh, or hemlock. This word must designate a herb, because it grows in the furrows, or bye- places of the field. Hos 10:4. Moses also associates this plant with wormwood, as in the present instance. With these herbs a stupifying potion was made for culprits before their crucifixion.
Jer 9:17. Call for the mourning women, taught to touch the minstrel, and utter in dirges the sentiments of a wounded heart for the loss of parents and children. See more in Dr. Beatties Minstrel, a beautiful poem; and on Gen 50:10. It would seem, from Jer 9:20, that women were taught the pensive art by their ancestors. Oh ye women, teach your daughters wailing. The prophet justly calls on the women to mourn, for they had been particularly faulty in drawing their husbands to idolatry; to walk after Baal in the imagination of their heart.
Jer 9:21. Death is come up into our windows. The Hebrew soldiers being slain, the assailants overleaped the walls, and stormed the barricaded houses by the windows. These are the scenes which call for the prophets tears.
Jer 9:25. I will punish all the circumcised with the uncircumcised. Egypt, Edom, Ammon, and Moab; and all the house of Israel, uncircumcised in heart.Blaney. After this time, as in Daniel the xith, Syria became the successive theatre of wars, and in scourges so disastrous that the country to the present age has never recovered its glory.
Jer 9:26. All that are in the utmost corners. Nearly all the Versions support the marginal reading: All who have the corners of their hair polled, or cut short.
REFLECTIONS.
We have just followed the weeping prophet, in an awful portrait of the sins and the punishments of his people. But when he came to see that the harvest was past, and no salvation; and that the balm of Gilead failed of a cure, the tears trickled down his cheeks, and here he sighs for torrents of tears as the only consolation which remained for his soul.
He not only wept, but he wept for the mountains, he wept for the cities, and wished to fly from a place already accursed in the sentence of heaven. Shrinking from the sight of villas, of palaces, and pleasure-grounds, he sighed for a shepherds hut, frequented only by a peaceful group of travellers. Ah, when prophets and saints are prompted to escape a country, and when the Holy Spirit departs from a guilty people, the hour of visitation is just at the door. Yet, oh Lord, stay, stay with Britain; forsake not thy Zion, nor take thy Holy Spirit and arm of sure defence from a forgetful people. This plaintive prophet assigns just and awful reasons for this wish. His people having quenched the emotions of grace, rejected the ministry, and stifled humanity, were rapidly approaching the resemblance of devils rather than men. Every man prevaricated, and bent his discourse as a bow to wound his neighbour, and to supplant him in trade. They were as fed horses neighing for their neighbours wives; and they wearied themselves to commit iniquity. Oh what have thy prophets to do any longer among such a people?
While Jeremiah, looking on the dark side, saw nothing but baseness, rust and dross among his people, the Lord saw a small quantity of precious metal among the mass. Therefore said he, I will melt and try them. The famine, the pestilence, and the sword were furnaces through which the people passed, and but a small proportion escaped. Hence, as the canker would soon consume the whole, the Lord seemed compelled to hasten his vengeance, lest the remnant should be as the multitude.
On hearing Gods terrible design, the prophets sorrow flowed afresh. He wept for the wailings of Zion, to see her young men defeated in the field; he wept for the open country strewed with the slain, and for the survivors about to be scattered among the heathen. Yea, he calls upon Jerusalem to join him in tears; to employ their mourning women, and women most skilled in funeral cries. He calls upon the delicate women of Jerusalem to train up their daughters, not to the fascinating powers of music and song, but to those doleful wailings which better became their situation. What a mirror in which other nations may see their own portrait.
This catastrophe should not be averted by any wisdom or might, or wealth of man. Ahithophel was famed as an oracle in counsel. Samson gloried in his might, and Hezekiah was ostentatious of his treasures. No good followed in any of those cases: so it should be with Jerusalem. The circumcision of Judah was become uncircumcision, and therefore they are sentenced to suffer with the gentile nations. The true glory of man is to know the Lord, and to exult in his favour. Here, though not expressly named, he seems in his sorrows to glance his eye on the gospel glory. St. Paul at least found this passage pertinent to the case of the learned Greeks, to humble the pride of science by a display of the superior wisdom of God in the gospel, which reveals glories which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard.
Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jer 8:18 to Jer 9:1. Jeremiahs Sorrow over Judahs Suffering.The prophet, in sorrowful sympathy with his people, hears in anticipation the cry of the exiles and Yahwehs answer. They reproach Him with His abandonment of Zion; He points to their idolatry, and introduction of foreign (strange) deities. The people lament (apparently in proverbial form) the disappointment of their hope of deliverance; it is as when the hope of harvest (April-June) has been destroyed, and the failure of the autumn ingathering (Jer 8:20 mg.) has removed the remaining expectation; they (emph.) have not been rescued from their distress (the reference in saved is to material prosperity, not to a spiritual change). The prophet himself goes arrayed as a mourner (I am black, mg.), appalled because of his peoples wound; is there no cure? He cannot sorrow enough for the tragedy of Judah.
Jer 8:22. balm: not the balsam, but mastic, a medicinally used resin, abundant in Gilead (Gen 37:25, mg.), and exported to other countries.health: Heb. new flesh, which comes up, i.e. forms over a wound.
Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible
9:1 O that my head were {a} waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
(a) The prophet shows the great compassion that he had toward this people, seeing that he could never sufficiently lament the destruction that he saw to hang over them, which is a special note to discern the true pastors from the hirelings. See Geneva “Jer 4:19”
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Jeremiah loved his people so much that he wished he had more tears to shed for those of them that had died (cf. 2Sa 18:33; Mat 23:37; Luk 19:41-44; Rom 9:1-5; Rom 10:1). His empathy with his people’s sufferings earned him the nickname "the weeping prophet" (cf. Jer 13:17; Jer 14:17). This is the last verse of chapter 8 in the Hebrew Bible.
"It’s unusual today to find tears either in the pulpit or the pews; the emphasis seems to be on enjoyment." [Note: Wiersbe, p. 90.]
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.