Jeremiah 8:17

17 "Look! I am sending poisonous snakes to attack you. These snakes cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," says the Lord.

Jeremiah 8:17 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 8:17

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,
&c.] The Chaldeans, comparable to these noxious and hurtful creatures, because of the mischief they should do unto them. The Targum is,

``for, lo, I will raise up against you people that kill as the destroying serpents.''

These were raised up by the Lord, and sent by him, just as he sent fiery serpents among the Israelites in the wilderness, when they sinned against him; there literally, here metaphorically. Which will not be charmed:
Jarchi says, at the end of seventy years a serpent becomes a cockatrice, and stops its ear, that it will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, according to ( Psalms 58:4 Psalms 58:5 ) , the meaning is, that these Chaldeans would not be diverted from their purposes in destroying of the Jews by any arts or methods whatever; as not by force of arms, so not by good words and entreaties, or any way that could be devised. And they shall bite you, saith the Lord;
that is, kill them, as the Targum interprets it; for the bite of a serpent is deadly.

Jeremiah 8:17 In-Context

15 We hoped to have peace, but nothing good has come. We hoped for a time when he would heal us, but only terror has come.

16 From the land of Dan, the snorting of the enemy's horses is heard. The ground shakes from the neighing of their large horses. They have come and destroyed the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there."

17 "Look! I am sending poisonous snakes to attack you. These snakes cannot be charmed, and they will bite you," says the Lord.

18 God, you are my comfort when I am very sad and when I am afraid.

19 Listen to the sound of my people. They cry from a faraway land: "Isn't the Lord still in Jerusalem? But God says, "Why did the people make me angry by worshiping idols, useless foreign idols?"