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 wilderness a lodging place for travelers, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men. 3And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies. But they are not mighty for the truth on the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know Me, says Jehovah. 4Everyone beware of his neighbor, and do not trust any brother! For every brother will supplant and assail his neighbor, and will walk with slanderers. 5And everyone will deceive his neighbor and will not speak the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and they weary themselves to commit iniquity. 6Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, says Jehovah. 7Therefore thus says Jehovah of Hosts, Behold, I will refine them and try them; for how else shall I deal with the daughter of My people? 8Their tongue is a slaughtering arrow; it speaks deceit; one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lies in wait. 9Shall I not punish them for these things? says Jehovah; shall not My soul be avenged on such a nation as this? 10I will take up a weeping and a wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness; because they are burned up, so that no one can pass through them; nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; they are gone. 11And I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant. 12Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of Jehovah has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13And Jehovah says, Because they have forsaken My Law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, and have not walked in it, 14but they have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them. 15Therefore thus says Jehovah of Hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and make them drink bitter water. 16I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them. 17Thus says Jehovah of Hosts, Consider carefully, and call for those who lament, that they may come. And send for the wise women, that they may come; 18and let them make haste and take up a lamentation for us, so that our eyes may run down with tears, and waters flow from our eyelids. 19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion. How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, because we have forsaken the land, because they have thrown down our tents. 20Yet hear the Word of Jehovah, O women, and let your ear receive the Word of His mouth, and teach your daughters a mourning song, and each one teach her neighbor a lamentation. 21For death has come up into our windows, and has entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from outside and the young men from the streets. 22Speak, Thus says Jehovah, Even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the fallen grain after the reaper; and no one shall gather them. 23Thus says Jehovah, Let not the wise glory in his wisdom, nor let the mighty glory in his might; let not the rich glory in his riches; 24but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am Jehovah, doing kindness, justice, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says Jehovah. 25Behold, the days are coming, says Jehovah, that I will punish all the circumcised along with the uncircumcised; 26Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all who are in the remotest quarters, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 JEREMIAH'S LAMENTATION FOR THE JEWS' SINS AND CONSEQUENT PUNISHMENT. (Jer. 9:1-26)
This verse is more fitly joined to the last chapter, as
Jr 9:23 in the Hebrew (compare
Iz 22:4;
Pl 2:11;
Pl 3:48).
2 lodging-place--a caravanseral for caravans, or companies travelling in the desert, remote from towns. It was a square building enclosing an open court. Though a lonely and often filthy dwelling, Jeremiah would prefer even it to the comforts of Jerusalem, so as to be removed from the pollutions of the capital (
Ž 55:7-
Ž 55:8).
3 bend . . . tongues . . . for lies--that is, with lies as their arrows; they direct lies on their tongue as their bow (
Ž 64:3-
Ž 64:4).
not valiant for . . . truth-- (
Jr 7:28). MAURER translates, "They do not prevail by truth" or faith (
Ž 12:4). Their tongue, not faith, is their weapon.
upon . . . earth--rather, "in the land."
know not me-- (
Oz 4:1).
4 supplant--literally, "trip up by the heel" (
Oz 12:3).
walk with slanders-- (
Jr 6:28).
5 weary themselves--are at laborious pains to act perversely [MAURER]. Sin is a hard bondage (
Abk 2:13).
6 Thine--God addresses Jeremiah, who dwelt in the midst of deceitful men.
refuse to know me--Their ignorance of God is wilful (
Jr 9:3;
Jr 5:4-
Jr 5:5).
7 melt . . . try them--by sending calamities on them.
for how shall I do--"What else can I do for the sake of the daughter of My people?" [MAURER], (
Iz 1:25;
Mal 3:3).
8 tongue . . . arrow shot out--rather, "a murdering arrow" [MAURER] (
Jr 9:3).
speaketh peaceably . . . in heart . . . layeth . . . wait--layeth his ambush [HENDERSON], (
Ž 55:21).
9 (
Jr 5:9,
Jr 5:29).
10 Jeremiah breaks in upon Jehovah's threats of wrath with lamentation for his desolated country.
mountains--once cultivated and fruitful: the hillsides were cultivated in terraces between the rocks.
habitations of . . . wilderness--rather, "the pleasant herbage (literally, 'the choice parts' of any thing) of the pasture plain." The Hebrew for "wilderness" expresses not a barren desert, but an untilled plain, fit for pasture.
burned up--because no one waters them, the inhabitants being all gone.
none can pass through them--much less inhabit them.
fowl-- (
Jr 4:25).
11 And--omit "And." Jehovah here resumes His speech from
Jr 9:9.
heaps--(see on
Iz 25:2).
dragons--jackals.
12 Rather, "Who is a wise man? (that is, Whosoever has inspired wisdom,
2P 3:15); let him understand this (weigh well the evils impending, and the causes of their being sent); and he to whom the mouth of the Lord hath spoken (that is, whosoever is prophetically inspired), let him declare it to his fellow countrymen," if haply they may be roused to repentance, the only hope of safety.
13 Answer to the "for what the land perisheth" (
Jr 9:12).
14 (
Jr 7:24).
Baalim--plural of Baal, to express his supposed manifold powers.
fathers taught them-- (
Ga 1:14;
1P 1:18). We are not to follow the errors of the fathers, but the authority of Scripture and of God [JEROME].
15 feed-- (
Jr 8:14;
Jr 23:15;
Ž 80:5).
16 nor their fathers have known--alluding to
Jr 9:14, "Their fathers taught them" idolatry; therefore the children shall be scattered to a land which neither their fathers nor they have known.
send a sword after them--Not even in flight shall they be safe.
17 mourning women--hired to heighten lamentation by plaintive cries baring the breast, beating the arms, and suffering the hair to flow dishevelled (
2Pa 35:25;
Kaz 12:5;
Mt 9:23).
cunning--skilled in wailing.
18 (
Jr 14:17).
19 The cry of "the mourning women."
spoiled--laid waste.
dwellings cast us out--fulfilling
Lv 18:28;
Lv 20:22. CALVIN translates, "The enemy have cast down our habitations."
20 Yet--rather, "Only" [HENDERSON]. This particle calls attention to what follows.
teach . . . daughters wailing--The deaths will be so many that there will be a lack of mourning women to bewail them. The mothers, therefore, must teach their daughters the science to supply the want.
21 death . . . windows--The death-inflicting soldiery, finding the doors closed, burst in by the windows.
to cut off . . . children from . . . streets--Death cannot be said to enter the windows to cut off the children in the streets, but to cut them off, so as no more to play in the streets without (
Za 8:5).
22 saith the Lord--continuing the thread of discourse from
Jr 9:20.
dung-- (
Jr 8:2).
handful . . . none . . . gather them--implying that the handful has been so trodden as to be not worth even the poor gleaner's effort to gather it. Or the Eastern custom may be referred to: the reaper cuts the grain and is followed by another who gathers it. This grain shall not be worth gathering. How galling to the pride of the Jews to hear that so shall their carcasses be trodden contemptuously under foot!
23 wisdom--political sagacity; as if it could rescue from the impending calamities.
might--military prowess.
24 Nothing but an experimental knowledge of God will save the nation.
understandeth--theoretically; in the intellect.
knoweth--practically: so as to walk in My ways (
Jr 22:16;
Jb 22:21;
1K 1:31).
loving kindness--God's mercy is put in the first and highest place, because without it we should flee from God in fear and despair.
judgment . . . righteousness--loving-kindness towards the godly; judgment towards the ungodly; righteousness the most perfect fairness in all cases [GROTIUS]. Faithfulness to His promises to preserve the godly, as well as stern execution of judgment on the ungodly, is included in "righteousness."
in the earth--contrary to the dogma of some philosophers, that God does not interfere in terrestrial concerns (
Ž 58:11).
in these . . . I delight--as well in doing them as in seeing them done by others (
Mi 6:8;
Mi 7:18).
25 with the uncircumcised--rather, "all that are circumcised in uncircumcision" [HENDERSON]. The Hebrew is an abstract term, not a concrete, as English Version translates, and as the pious "circumcised" is. The nations specified, Egypt, Judah, &c., were outwardly "circumcised," but in heart were "uncircumcised." The heathen nations were defiled, in spite of their literal circumcision, by idolatry. The Jews, with all their glorying in their spiritual privileges, were no better (
Jr 4:4;
Dt 10:16;
Dt 30:6;
Ř 2:28-
Ř 2:29;
Ko 2:11). However,
Ez 31:18;
Ez 32:19, may imply that the Egyptians were uncircumcised; and it is uncertain as to the other nations specified whether they were at that early time circumcised. HERODOTUS says the Egyptians were so; but others think this applies only to the priests and others having a sacred character, not to the mass of the nation; so English Version may be fight (
Ř 2:28-
Ř 2:29).
26 Egypt--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.
in the utmost corners--rather, "having the hair shaven (or clipped) in angles," that is, having the beard on the cheek narrowed or cut: a Canaanitish custom, forbidden to the Israelites (
Lv 19:27;
Lv 21:5). The Arabs are hereby referred to (compare
Jr 25:23;
Jr 49:32), as the words in apposition show, "that dwell in the wilderness."
uncircumcised . . . uncircumcised in the heart--The addition of "in the heart" in Israel's case marks its greater guilt in proportion to its greater privileges, as compared with the rest.