Jeremiah 8:9

9 The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.

Jeremiah 8:9 Meaning and Commentary

Jeremiah 8:9

The wise men are ashamed
Of the wisdom of which they boasted, when it would appear to be folly, and unprofitable to them: they are dismayed and taken;
frightened at the calamities coming upon them, and taken as in a snare, as the wise sometimes are in their own craftiness, ( Job 5:13 ) . Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord;
sent by the prophets, which urged obedience to the law, and is the best explanation of it; but this they despised, and refused it: and what wisdom is in them?
to contemn that, which, if attended to, would have been profitable to them, and the means of making them wise unto salvation; let them therefore boast of their wisdom ever so much, it is certain there can be none in persons of such a spirit and conduct.

Jeremiah 8:9 In-Context

7 The kite in the air hath known her time: the turtle, and the swallow, and the stork have observed the time of their coming: but my people have not known the judgment of the Lord.
8 How do you say: We are wise, and the law of the Lord is with us? Indeed the lying pens of the scribes hath wrought falsehood.
9 The wise men are confounded, they are dismayed, and taken: for they have cast away the word of the Lord, and there is no wisdom in them.
10 Therefore will I give their women to strangers, their fields to others for an inheritance: because from the least even to the greatest all follow covetousness: from the prophet even to the priest all deal deceitfully.
11 And they healed the breach of the daughter of my people disgracefully, saying: Peace, peace: when there was no peace.
The Douay-Rheims Bible is in the public domain.