Jeremiah 8:4-17

Sin and Treachery

4 "You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: ¹When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?

5 Why then has this people ²turned away in perpetual ³backsliding? ⁴They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return.

6 ⁵I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, 'What have I done?' Everyone turns to his own course, ⁶like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

7 Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and ⁷the turtledove, ⁸swallow, and crane^[a] keep the time of their coming, ⁹but my people know not the rules^[b] of the LORD.

8 ¹⁰"How can you say, 'We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us'? But behold, the lying pen of the scribes has made it into a lie.

9 ¹¹The wise men shall be put to shame; they shall be dismayed ¹²and taken; behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom is in them?

10 ¹³Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone ¹⁴is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest, everyone deals falsely.

11 They have healed ¹⁵the wound of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace,' when there is no peace.

12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, ¹⁶they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. ¹⁷Therefore they shall fall among the fallen; when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the LORD.

13 When I would gather them, declares the LORD, there are ¹⁸no grapes on the vine, ¹⁹nor figs on the fig tree; ²⁰even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them."^[c]

14 Why do we sit still? ²¹Gather together; ²²let us go into the fortified cities and perish there, for the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and has ²³given us ²⁴poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

15 ²⁵We looked for peace, but no good came; for a time of healing, but behold, terror.

16 ²⁶"The snorting of their horses is heard ²⁷from Dan; at the sound of the neighing ²⁸of their stallions ²⁹the whole land quakes. They come ³⁰and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who dwell in it.

17 For behold, I am sending among you ³¹serpents, adders ³²that cannot be charmed, ³³and they shall bite you," declares the LORD.

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Jeremiah 8:4-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 8

In this chapter the prophet goes on to denounce grievous calamities upon the people of the Jews; such as would make death more eligible than life; and that because of their idolatry, Jer 8:1-3 and also because of their heinous backslidings in other respects, and continuance in them, Jer 8:4,5 likewise their impenitence and stupidity, Jer 8:6,7 their vain conceit of themselves and their own wisdom; their false interpretation of Scripture, and their rejection of the word of God, Jer 8:8,9 their covetousness, for which it is said their wives and fields should be given to others, Jer 8:10, their flattery of the people, and their impudence, on account of which, ruin and consumption, and a blast on their vines and fig trees, are threatened, Jer 8:11-13, their consternation is described, by their fleeing to their defenced cities; by their sad disappointment in the expectation of peace and prosperity; and the near approach of their enemies; devouring their land, and all in it; who are compared to serpents and cockatrices that cannot be charmed, Jer 8:14-17 and the chapter is closed with the prophet's expressions of sorrow and concern for his people, because of their distress their idolatry had brought upon them; and because of their hopeless, and seemingly irrecoverable, state and condition, Jer 8:18-22.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 33

1. [Romans 11:11]
2. See Jeremiah 7:24
3. See Jeremiah 2:19
4. Jeremiah 9:6
5. [2 Peter 3:9]
6. See Job 39:19-25
7. Song of Songs 2:12
8. Isaiah 38:14
9. [Jeremiah 5:4, 5; Isaiah 1:3]
10. [Romans 2:17, 18]
11. [1 Corinthians 1:19, 20]
12. Job 5:13
13. For ver. 10-12, see Jeremiah 6:12-15
14. [Isaiah 56:11]
15. ver. 21
16. See Jeremiah 3:3
17. [Hosea 4:5]
18. Isaiah 5:1, 2; Joel 1:7
19. [Matthew 21:19; Luke 13:6]
20. Isaiah 1:30
21. Jeremiah 4:5
22. Jeremiah 4:5
23. Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15; Lamentations 3:15, 19; Amos 6:12; [Revelation 8:11]
24. Jeremiah 23:15; Deuteronomy 29:18
25. Jeremiah 14:19; Job 30:26
26. Job 39:20
27. Jeremiah 4:15
28. Judges 5:22
29. Jeremiah 49:21; Jeremiah 51:29; Psalms 60:2
30. Jeremiah 10:25; Jeremiah 47:2
31. [Leviticus 26:22]
32. Psalms 58:4, 5; [Ecclesiastes 10:11]
33. Numbers 21:6

Footnotes 3

[a]. The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
[b]. Or just decrees
[c]. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.