Jeremiah 8:3

3 Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.

Jeremiah 8:3 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 8:3

And death shall be chosen rather than life
By them that should be alive in those times, who would be carried captive into other lands, and be used very hardly, and suffer greatly, by the nations among whom they should dwell; see ( Revelation 9:6 ) . The Septuagint version, and those that follow it, make this to be a reason of the former, reading the words thus, "because they have chosen death rather than life"; see ( Deuteronomy 30:19 ) , but the other sense is best, which is confirmed by what follows: by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family;
the nation of the Jews, become very corrupt and degenerate; so the people of Israel are called the whole family of Israel, ( Amos 3:1 ) , now it is foretold, that those which remained of that people, who died not by famine, or were not slain by the sword, yet should be in such a miserable condition, as that death would be more eligible to them than life: even which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith
the Lord of hosts:
for, though they were carried captive by men, yet the thing was of the Lord, and a just punishment upon them for their sins.

Jeremiah 8:3 In-Context

1 "At that time, says the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs;

2 and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped; and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground.

3 Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.

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

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