Jeremiah 8:17

17 See, I am letting snakes loose among you, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall 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 look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.

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

17 See, I am letting snakes loose among you, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the Lord.

18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick.

19 Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: "Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?" ("Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?")