Jeremiah 9:7

7 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “See, I will melt them down in a crucible and test them like metal. What else can I do with my people?

Jeremiah 9:7 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 9:7

Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts
Because of this deceit and hypocrisy, and lying: behold, I will melt them, and try them:
as the refiner does his gold and silver, by putting them into the fire of afflictions, and thereby remove their dross and corruption from them. So the Targum,

``behold, I will bring distress upon them, and melt them, and try them.''

For how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
the sense is, what could be done otherwise or better? what was more fit or proper to be done, than to melt and try them, and purge away their sin, "from the face of the daughter of my people", as the words may be rendered? The Septuagint version is, "what shall I do from the face of the wickedness of my people?" and so the Targum,

``what shall I do from before the sins of the congregation of my people?''

that is, by way of resentment of them, and in order to remove them.

Jeremiah 9:7 In-Context

5 They all fool and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies; they wear themselves out with all their sinning.

6 They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,” says the LORD .

7 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: “See, I will melt them down in a crucible and test them like metal. What else can I do with my people?

8 For their tongues shoot lies like poisoned arrows. They speak friendly words to their neighbors while scheming in their heart to kill them.

9 Should I not punish them for this?” says the LORD . “Should I not avenge myself against such a nation?”

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew with the daughter of my people? Greek version reads with the evil daughter of my people?