Jeremiah 8:6-16

6 I listened attentively but they spoke nothing right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done!" Each runs off in his own direction, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

7 Storks in the sky know their seasons; doves, swallows and cranes their migration times; but my people do not know the rulings of ADONAI!

8 "'How can you say, "We are wise; ADONAI's Torah is with us," when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has turned it into falsehood?

9 The wise are put to shame, alarmed, entrapped. They have rejected the word of ADONAI, so what wisdom do they have?

10 "'Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who take them over; for from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gains; prophets and cohanim alike all practice fraud

11 they dress the wound of the daughter of my people, but only superficially, saying, "There is perfect shalom," when there is no shalom.

12 They should be ashamed of their detestable deeds, but they are not ashamed at all, they don't know how to blush. So when others fall, they too will fall; when I punish them, they will stumble,' says ADONAI.

13 "'I will put an end to them,' says ADONAI. 'There are no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree; the leaf has withered; and what I have given them will pass from their possession.'"

14 "Why are we sitting still? Assemble! Let's enter the fortified cities and meet our doom there! For ADONAI our God has doomed us; he has given us bitter water to drink, because we have sinned against ADONAI.

15 When we look for peace, nothing good comes; when we seek a time of healing, instead there is terror."

16 From Dan can be heard the snorting of his horses; when his stallions neigh, the whole land trembles. For they come devouring the land and all in it, the city and those who dwell there.

Jeremiah 8:6-16 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.