Jeremiah Chapter 9

From The Open Bible Project

9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring 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 Jeremiah 4:19

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.

• (b) He shows that there was more peace and greater safety for him to dwell among the wild beasts than among this wicked people except that God has given him this charge.
• (c) Utterly turned from God.

9:3 They bend their tongue, [as it were] 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 don't know me, says Yahweh.

• (d) To belie and slander their neighbours.

9:4 Take heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go about with slanders.

• (e) Meaning, that all were corrupt, and none could find an honest man.

9:5 They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves to commit iniquity.

• (f) They have so practised deceit, that they cannot forsake it.

9:6 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, says Yahweh.

• (g) They would rather have forsaken God than left their wicked trade.

9:7 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how [else] should I do, because of the daughter of my people?

• (h) With the fire of affliction.

9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays wait for him.

9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled, they are gone.

• (i) Signifying that all the places about Jerusalem would be destroyed.

9:11 I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and [who is] he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?

• (k) Meaning that they are all without sense and understanding and that God has taken his spirit from them.

9:13 Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,

9:14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;

• (l) He shows that the children cannot excuse themselves by their fathers: for both father and child if they are wicked will perish.

9:15 therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

• (m) Read (Jeremiah 8:14).

9:16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

9:17 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women, that they may come:

• (n) Seeing you cannot lament your own sins, call for those foolish women, whom of a superstition you have to lament for the dead, that they by their feigned tears may provoke you to some sorrow.

9:18 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.

9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.

• (o) As though they were weary of us, because of our iniquities, (Leviticus 18:28, Leviticus 20:22).

9:20 Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and everyone her neighbor lamentation.

• (p) He derides the superstition of the women who made an art of mourning, and taught to weep with feigned tears.

9:21 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our palaces; to cut off the children from outside, [and] the young men from the streets.

• (q) Signifying that there is no means to deliver the wicked from God’s judgments: but when they think to be most sure, and most far off, then they are soonest taken.

9:22 Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and none shall gather [them].

9:23 Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man glory in his riches;

• (r) As none can save himself by his own labour, or any worldly means, he shows that it is vain to put our trust in it, but that we trust in the Lord, and rejoice in him, who only can deliver.

9:24 but let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, says Yahweh.

• (s) These three points are necessary to know correctly his mercy, in which consists our salvation: his judgment, which he executes continually against the wicked, and his justice, by which he defends and maintains the faithful.

9:25 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in [their] uncircumcision:

• (t) Meaning, both Jews and Gentiles, as in this next verse he shows the cause, (Jeremiah 4:4).

9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners [of their hair] cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.