Old Testament Commentary - Jeremiah 9

by Don R. Hender


Scriptural Text [& Editorial]
Commentary & Explanation
Footnotes ~ References ~ JST
            CHAPTER 9             

Jeremiah bewails the sins of the people—They will be scattered among the heathen and punished.

  1 OH that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of atears, that I might bweep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my peoplea!
  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 alies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they bknow not me, saith the LORD.
 1a the daughter of my people The Church has been referenced as a bride and Christ or the Lord as the Bridegroom. Those of the 'daughter of his people' might well therefore be thought as those who are rightfully of the covenant, the people of the Lord as members of Christ's people begotten by that daughter of his people who is the 'church' or the mother of Israel in terms of them being the Lord's people.
  4 Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and atrust ye not in any brother: for every brother will butterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with cslanders.
  5 And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak alies, and bweary 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 amelt them, and btry 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 aheart he layeth his wait.
  9 ¶ Shall I not avisit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be bavenged 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 adragons; and I will make the cities of Judah bdesolate, without an inhabitant.
  12 ¶ 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 perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
  13 And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not aobeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
  14 But have walked after the aimagination of their own heart, and after bBaalim, which their fathers taught them:
  15 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.
  16 I will ascatter them also among the bheathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
  17 ¶ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning awomen, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
  18 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.
  19 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.
  20 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 neighbour lamentation.
  21 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.
  22 Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the acarcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.
  23 ¶ 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 ariches:
  24 But let him that glorieth aglory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I bdelight, saith the LORD.
  25 ¶ Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are acircumcised with the uncircumcised;
  26 Egypt, and Judah, and aEdom, 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.