Jeremiah 9:1-11

1 I wish my head were like a spring of water and my eyes like a fountain of tears! Then I could cry day and night for my people who have been killed.

2 I wish I had a place in the desert -- a house where travelers spend the night -- so I could leave my people. I could go away from them, because they are all unfaithful to God; they are all turning against him.

3 "They use their tongues like a bow, shooting lies from their mouths like arrows. Lies, not truth, have grown strong in the land. They go from one evil thing to another. They do not know who I am," says the Lord.

4 "Watch out for your friends, and don't trust your own relatives, because every relative is a cheater, and every friend tells lies about you.

5 Everyone lies to his friend, and no one speaks the truth. tongues to lie. They have become tired from sinning.

6 Jeremiah, you live in the middle of lies. With their lies the people refuse to know me," says the Lord.

7 So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says: "I will test the people of Judah as a person tests metal in a fire. I have no other choice, because my people have sinned.

8 Their tongues are like sharp arrows. Their mouths speak lies. Everyone speaks nicely to his neighbor, but he is secretly planning to attack him.

9 Shouldn't I punish the people for doing this?" says the Lord. "Shouldn't I give a nation like this the punishment it deserves?"

10 I, Jeremiah, will cry loudly for the mountains and sing a funeral song for the empty fields. They are empty, and no one passes through. The mooing of cattle cannot be heard. The birds have flown away, and the animals are gone.

11 "I, the Lord, will make the city of Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a home for wild dogs. so no one can live there."

Jeremiah 9:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 9

This chapter is a continuation of the judgments of God upon the Jews for their sins and transgressions herein mentioned; illustrated by the lamentation of the prophet; by calling for the mourning women, and upon other women that had lost their husbands or children, with an intimation that none of any rank and class should escape. The prophet is introduced mourning over the destruction of his people, Jer 9:1, and as uneasy at his stay with them, because of their uncleanness, treachery, lying, unfaithfulness, and deceit, Jer 9:2-6, wherefore the Lord threatens to melt and try them; and for their deceitfulness particularly to visit them, and avenge himself on them, Jer 9:7-9, the destruction is described by the desolation of the mountains and habitations of the wilderness; they being so burnt up, that there were neither grass upon them, nor beasts nor birds to be seen or heard about them; and of Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, so that there was no inhabitant in them, Jer 9:10,11, upon which a wise man is inquired after, to give the true reason of all this, Jer 9:12 but none appearing, the Lord gives it himself; which were their disobedience to his law, and their worship of idols, following the imagination of their own hearts, Jer 9:13,14 wherefore they are threatened to be fed with wormwood and gall; to be scattered among the nations, and a sword sent after them to their utter consumption, Jer 9:15,16, hence, for the certainty of it, mourning women are ordered to be called for in haste, to assist them in their mourning, on account of their distress, Jer 9:17-19, and such as were mothers of children are bid to teach their daughters and neighbours lamentation, because of the children and young men cut off by death, and for the carcasses of men that should fall as dung in the field, and as the handful after the harvestman, Jer 9:20-22, and it is suggested that none should escape; not the wise man by any art or cunning he was master of; nor the strong man by his strength; nor the rich man by his riches; and therefore ought not either of them to glory in these things, but in the Lord, as exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, Jer 9:23,24, and the chapter is concluded with a strong asseveration, that the wicked, both circumcised and uncircumcised, should be punished, Jer 9:25,26.