Jeremiah 8:4-22

Sin and Punishment

4 “Say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: “ ‘When people fall down, do they not get up? When someone turns away, do they not return?

5 Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

6 I have listened attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their wickedness, saying, “What have I done?” Each pursues their own course like a horse charging into battle.

7 Even the stork in the sky knows her appointed seasons, and the dove, the swift and the thrush observe the time of their migration. But my people do not know the requirements of the LORD.

8 “ ‘How can you say, “We are wise, for we have the law of the LORD,” when actually the lying pen of the scribes has handled it falsely?

9 The wise will be put to shame; they will be dismayed and trapped. Since they have rejected the word of the LORD, what kind of wisdom do they have?

10 Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit.

11 They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace.

12 Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct? No, they have no shame at all; they do not even know how to blush. So they will fall among the fallen; they will be brought down when they are punished, says the LORD.

13 “ ‘I will take away their harvest, declares the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree, and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.^[a] ’ ”

14 Why are we sitting here? Gather together! Let us flee to the fortified cities and perish there! For the LORD our God has doomed us to perish and given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against him.

15 We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.

16 The snorting of the enemy’s horses is heard from Dan; at the neighing of their stallions the whole land trembles. They have come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who live there.

17 “See, I will send venomous snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.

18 You who are my Comforter^[b] in sorrow, my heart is faint within me.

19 Listen to the cry of my people from a land far away: “Is the LORD not in Zion? Is her King no longer there?” “Why have they aroused my anger with their images, with their worthless foreign idols?”

20 “The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved.”

21 Since my people are crushed, I am crushed; I mourn, and horror grips me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people?

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Jeremiah 8:4-22 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 48

1. Proverbs 24:16; Micah 7:8
2. Psalms 119:67; Jeremiah 31:19
3. S Jeremiah 5:27
4. Jeremiah 7:24; Jeremiah 9:6; Zechariah 7:11
5. Malachi 3:16
6. Revelation 9:20
7. Psalms 14:1-3
8. S Deuteronomy 32:28; S Jeremiah 4:22; Isaiah 1:3; Jeremiah 5:4-5
9. Romans 2:17
10. S Isaiah 29:14; Jeremiah 6:15
11. S 2 Kings 19:26
12. S Job 5:13
13. S Jeremiah 6:19
14. Proverbs 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:20
15. S Jeremiah 6:12
16. S Isaiah 56:11
17. Jeremiah 14:14; Lamentations 2:14
18. Jeremiah 23:11,15
19. ver 15; S Jeremiah 4:10; Ezekiel 7:25; Jeremiah 6:14
20. S Jeremiah 3:3
21. Psalms 52:5-7; Isaiah 3:9
22. S Jeremiah 6:15
23. Hosea 2:12; Joel 1:7
24. Luke 13:6
25. Matthew 21:19
26. S Jeremiah 5:17
27. S Joshua 10:20; Jeremiah 4:5; Jeremiah 35:11
28. S Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15
29. Jeremiah 14:7,20; Daniel 9:5
30. S ver 11
31. S Job 19:8; Jeremiah 14:19
32. S Jeremiah 4:29
33. S Genesis 30:6; Jeremiah 4:15
34. Jeremiah 51:29
35. S Jeremiah 5:17
36. Numbers 21:6; S Deuteronomy 32:24
37. S Psalms 58:5; S Isaiah 3:3
38. Lamentations 5:17
39. Deuteronomy 28:64; Jeremiah 9:16
40. Micah 4:9
41. Jeremiah 44:3
42. S Isaiah 41:24
43. S Deuteronomy 32:21
44. S Psalms 94:5
45. Psalms 78:40; Isaiah 43:24; Jeremiah 4:19; Jeremiah 10:19; Jeremiah 14:17; Jeremiah 30:14; Lamentations 2:13; Ezekiel 6:9
46. S Genesis 37:25
47. Job 13:4
48. S Isaiah 1:6; Jeremiah 30:12

Footnotes 2

[a]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.
[b]. The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.