Jeremiah 8:9

9 [The] Wise men be shamed, they be made afeared and taken. For they cast away the word of the Lord, and no wisdom is in them.

Jeremiah 8:9 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 8:9

The wise men are ashamed
Of the wisdom of which they boasted, when it would appear to be folly, and unprofitable to them: they are dismayed and taken;
frightened at the calamities coming upon them, and taken as in a snare, as the wise sometimes are in their own craftiness, ( Job 5:13 ) . Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
sent by the prophets, which urged obedience to the law, and is the best explanation of it; but this they despised, and refused it: and what wisdom is in them?
to contemn that, which, if attended to, would have been profitable to them, and the means of making them wise unto salvation; let them therefore boast of their wisdom ever so much, it is certain there can be none in persons of such a spirit and conduct.

Jeremiah 8:9 In-Context

7 A kite in the air knew his time; a turtle, and a swallow, and a ciconia, kept the time of their coming; but my people knew not the doom of the Lord, (A kite in the air knew its time; a turtledove, and a swallow, and a stork, kept the time of their coming back, or of their return; but my people did not know the judgement of the Lord/did not know the justice, or the laws, of the Lord,)
8 How say ye, We be wise men, and the law of the Lord is with us? Verily the false stylus, either writing, of scribes wrought leasing. (How can ye say, We be wise men, and the Law of the Lord is with us? Truly the false stylus, or the deceitful writing, of the writers hath wrought lies.)
9 [The] Wise men be shamed, they be made afeared and taken. For they cast away the word of the Lord, and no wisdom is in them.
10 Therefore I shall give the women of them to strangers, and the fields of them to alien heirs; for from the least unto the most all follow avarice, from a prophet unto the priest all make leasing; (And so I shall give their women to strangers, and their fields to foreign heirs; for from the least unto the most all follow avarice, or greed, from the prophet to the priest all make lies, or deception;)
11 and they healed the sorrow of the daughter of my people to (their) shame, saying, Peace, peace, when no peace was. (and they tried to heal the sorrow of the daughter of my people with shallow words, by simply saying, Peace, peace, when there was no peace.)
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.