Jeremiah 8:14-22

God's People Unrepentant

14 Why are we just sitting here? Gather together; let us enter the fortified cities and there suffer our fate,^[a] for the Lord our God has condemned^[b] us. He has given us poisoned water to drink,^[c] because we have sinned against the Lord.

15 We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good; for a time of healing, but there was only terror.^[d]

16 From Dan is heard the snorting of horses. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds,^[e] the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all its residents.

17 Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you, poisonous vipers^[f] that cannot be charmed.^[g] They will bite you. [This is] the Lord's declaration.

Lament over Judah

18 My joy has flown away; grief has settled on me. My heart is sick.

19 Listen-the cry of my dear^[h] people from a far away land: Is the Lord no longer in Zion,^[i] her King not in her midst? Why have they provoked Me to anger with their graven images, with their worthless foreign idols?^[j]

20 Harvest has passed, summer has ended, but we have not been saved.

21 I am broken by the brokenness of my dear^[k] people.^[l] I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.

22 Is there no balm^[m] in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear^[n] people not come about?

Jeremiah 8:14-22 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 8

In this chapter the prophet goes on to denounce grievous calamities upon the people of the Jews; such as would make death more eligible than life; and that because of their idolatry, Jer 8:1-3 and also because of their heinous backslidings in other respects, and continuance in them, Jer 8:4,5 likewise their impenitence and stupidity, Jer 8:6,7 their vain conceit of themselves and their own wisdom; their false interpretation of Scripture, and their rejection of the word of God, Jer 8:8,9 their covetousness, for which it is said their wives and fields should be given to others, Jer 8:10, their flattery of the people, and their impudence, on account of which, ruin and consumption, and a blast on their vines and fig trees, are threatened, Jer 8:11-13, their consternation is described, by their fleeing to their defenced cities; by their sad disappointment in the expectation of peace and prosperity; and the near approach of their enemies; devouring their land, and all in it; who are compared to serpents and cockatrices that cannot be charmed, Jer 8:14-17 and the chapter is closed with the prophet's expressions of sorrow and concern for his people, because of their distress their idolatry had brought upon them; and because of their hopeless, and seemingly irrecoverable, state and condition, Jer 8:18-22.

Footnotes

• [a] Or there be silenced
• [b] Or silenced
• [c] Jr 9:15
• [d] Jr 14:19; 33:9
• [e] Jr 47:3; 50:11; Jdg 5:22
• [f] Nm 21:6-9; Dt 32:24
• [g] Ps 58:4-5; Ec 10:11
• [h] Lit of the daughter of my
• [i] Ps 99:2; 102:21; Jl 3:17,21
• [j] Jr 2:5
• [k] Lit of the daughter of my
• [l] Jr 6:14; 8:11
• [m] a medicine
• [n] Lit of the daughter of my