Jeremiah 9 - ESV - Bible Reading / Study Notes

Jeremiah 9

9:1   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!
2   ² Oh that I had in the desert
    a travelers’ lodging place,
  that I might leave my people
    and go away from them!
  For they are all adulterers,
    a company of treacherous men.
3   They bend their tongue like a bow;
    falsehood and not truth has grown strong³ in the land;
  for they proceed from evil to evil,
    and they do not know me, declares the LORD.
4   Let everyone beware of his neighbor,
    and put no trust in any brother,
  for every brother is a deceiver,
    and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5   Everyone deceives his neighbor,
    and no one speaks the truth;
  they have taught their tongue to speak lies;
    they weary themselves committing iniquity.
6   Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit,
    they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.
7   Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts:
  “Behold, I will refine them and test them,
    for what else can I do, because of my people?
8   Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
    it speaks deceitfully;
  with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor,
    but in his heart he plans an ambush for him.
9   Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?
10   “I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,
    and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,
  because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
    and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
  both the birds of the air and the beasts
    have fled and are gone.
11   I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
    a lair of jackals,
  and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
    without inhabitant.”

12 Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? 13 And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, 14 but have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. 15 Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. 16 I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”

17   Thus says the LORD of hosts:
  “Consider, and call for the mourning women to come;
    send for the skillful women to come;
18   let them make haste and raise a wailing over us,
    that our eyes may run down with tears
    and our eyelids flow with water.
19   For a sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
    ‘How we are ruined!
    We are utterly shamed,
  because we have left the land,
    because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20   Hear, O women, the word of the LORD,
    and let your ear receive the word of his mouth;
  teach to your daughters a lament,
    and each to her neighbor a dirge.
21   For death has come up into our windows;
    it has entered our palaces,
  cutting off the children from the streets
    and the young men from the squares.
22   Speak: “Thus declares the LORD,
  ‘The dead bodies of men shall fall
    like dung upon the open field,
  like sheaves after the reaper,
    and none shall gather them.’”

23 Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, 24 but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

25 “Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”

Footnotes

[1] 9:1 Ch 8:23 in Hebrew
[2] 9:2 Ch 9:1 in Hebrew
[3] 9:3 Septuagint; Hebrew and not for truth they have grown strong

Commentary

v1-2: Jeremiah expresses his sorrow for his people. Yet he shares something of God's hatred for their sins. He wanted to seep, identifying with them. And he wanted to escape, to leave the people.

Yet the prophet's place was amongst the people, even at real cost to himself. How much more was this true for the Lord Jesus!

v3: Jeremiah, valiant for truth, stood alone. The people loved lies, and did not speak truth. They persisted in their sins, now knowing the Lord.

v4-6: Everyone was deceitful and untrustworthy, rottenness throughout the nation. Brothers and friends, normally to be trusted, were deceitful.

The people who did not know God now refused to acknowledge Him. Yet He knows and sees; none can hide from Him.

v7: The Lord's desire was now to refine and try His people. Like a parent, He asked "What else can I do?" Here is further proof, if any were needed, of His love and concern.

v8: Deceitful words, covering evil schemes and desires with pleasant words.

v9: They deserved punishment; surely this is the proper righteousness response of a holy God, see 5.29.

v10: The natural world even suffered because of their sins.

v11: Judah and Jerusalem to be made desolate, without inhabitant.

v12: Consider all this. Do they not understand what is going on? Some bad things had already happened, as a foretaste and a warning to the people, yet they did not change their ways. They had boasted of their wisdom in 8.8, yet their alleged knowledge of the law of the Lord was useless without simple obedience.

v13-14: Rebellion against God, disobedience and idolatry.

Instead of walking according to the clear teaching of God, they walked according to the imagination of their own hearts, which imagination naturally turned them away from God.

v15-16: Details of judgment to come; wormwood and gall, bitter food, and poisoned drink; the people would have to feed on these things.

They would also be scattered among the Gentiles, and consumed amongst them.

v17-19: The appropriate response was one of mourning, and sorrow for the judgment that was to come. Given that the people would not repent, the judgment was both inevitable and severe, see 8.18-20. We should be ashamed of our sins as well as of the consequences of our sins, as in v1.

v20-21: None to be exempt from mourning, for death had come in; many thousands died when Babylon attacked.

v22: So many dead, that no one will gather their bodies.

v23-24: In the midst of Jeremiah's message of judgment and mourning, there was a bright light of hope. The repentant individual could still find his hope in God.

Repentance is essential to knowing God, who He really is, His character, and the things in which He delights. We must get to know what really pleases Him. He looks for those who delight in the same things, and who delight in Him.

These verses are quoted in 1 Cor 1.26-28, indicating that God's preferences are different from man's.

v25: Judah to be punished as if uncircumcised; there was now no difference, as the distinction that God had commanded was now lost.

v26: Judah and Israel listed with Gentile nations; they were no better; they were "uncircumcised in heart."