Jeremias 8:13-22

13 There are no grapes on the vines, and there are no figs on the fig-trees, and the leaves have fallen off.

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the strong cities, and let us be cast out there: for God has cast us out, and made us drink water of gall, because we have sinned before him.

15 We assembled for peace, but there was no prosperity; for a time of healing, but behold anxiety.

16 We shall hear the neighing of his swift horses out of Dan: the whole land quaked at the sound of the neighing of his horses; and he shall come, and devour the land and the fullness of it; the city, and them that dwell in it.

17 For, behold, I send forth against you deadly serpents, which cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you

18 mortally with the pain of your distressed heart.

19 Behold, a sound of the cry of the daughter of my people from a land afar off: Is not the Lord in Sion? is there not a king there? because they have provoked me with their graven , and with strange vanities.

20 The summer is gone, the harvest is past, and we are not saved.

21 For the breach of the daughter of my people I have been saddened: in my perplexity pangs have seized upon me as of a woman in travail.

22 And is there no balm in Galaad, or is there no physician there? why has not the healing of the daughter of my people taken place?

Jeremias 8:13-22 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.