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8 At that time, says the L ord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs; 2and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have followed, and which they have inquired of and worshiped; and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be like dung on the surface of the ground. 3Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them, says the L ord of hosts.
The Blind Perversity of the Whole Nation4 You shall say to them, Thus says the L ord: When people fall, do they not get up again? If they go astray, do they not turn back? 5 Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They have held fast to deceit, they have refused to return. 6 I have given heed and listened, but they do not speak honestly; no one repents of wickedness, saying, “What have I done!” All of them turn to their own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle. 7 Even the stork in the heavens knows its times; and the turtledove, swallow, and crane observe the time of their coming; but my people do not know the ordinance of the L ord.
8 How can you say, “We are wise, and the law of the L ord is with us,” when, in fact, the false pen of the scribes has made it into a lie? 9 The wise shall be put to shame, they shall be dismayed and taken; since they have rejected the word of the L ord, what wisdom is in them? 10 Therefore I will give their wives to others and their fields to conquerors, because from the least to the greatest everyone is greedy for unjust gain; from prophet to priest everyone deals falsely. 11 They have treated the wound of my people carelessly, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there is no peace. 12 They acted shamefully, they committed abomination; yet they were not at all ashamed, they did not know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time when I punish them, they shall be overthrown, says the L ord. 13 When I wanted to gather them, says the L ord, there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree; even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has passed away from them.
14 Why do we sit still? Gather together, let us go into the fortified cities and perish there; for the L ord our God has doomed us to perish, and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the L ord. 15 We look for peace, but find no good, for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.
16 The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan; at the sound of the neighing of their stallions the whole land quakes. They come and devour the land and all that fills it, the city and those who live in it. 17 See, I am letting snakes loose among you, adders that cannot be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the L ord.
The Prophet Mourns for the People18 My joy is gone, grief is upon me, my heart is sick. 19 Hark, the cry of my poor people from far and wide in the land: “Is the L ord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?” (“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with their foreign idols?”) 20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” 21 For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt, I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of my poor people not been restored? New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by
permission. All rights reserved.
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He says now that the wise were ashamed, and astonished, and ensnared By which words he means, that the Jews gained nothing by their craftiness, while they arrogated to themselves wisdom, and under this pretense rejected all admonitions, and sought to be spared. “This wisdom, “he says, “avails you nothing, for God, as it is said in another place, will take you unawares.” (Isaiah 29:14; 1 Corinthians 1:19.) Ashamed, then, he says, are they; not that they were then ashamed; for be said before, in Jeremiah 6:15, and will state the same presently, that they were so hardened that they could not be made ashamed, nor be made to blush: 222222 It would be better to consider the shame in this verse as referring to the people, and the want of shame in Jeremiah 8:12, as applied to the teachers, the scribes, the false interpreters of the law, who promised peace, while there was no peace. — Ed. but he here denounces a punishment, which was soon to overtake them; as though he had said, “Ye have now an iron front, and think that ye can elude God and his servants with impunity; but God will take you unawares, and will so shake off the masks under which you hide yourselves, that your disgrace shall be made manifest to all.” This is the meaning. For the same purpose he says, “Ye are now secure, but God will shortly fill you with such terror, that he will make you greatly astonished ” He intimates, then, that nothing would benefit them while they took delight in their vices, and increasingly hardened themselves; for God would deprive them of their craftiness, and cast them down with terror, however secure and perverse they were now. By the third word he sets forth the manner in which they would be treated: God would have his snares by which he would take them. He alludes to the subterfuges in which those hypocrites trust, who proudly oppose God, while they think that by their arts they can escape in this or that way, and often devise some new schemes by which they may deceive God. Hence the Prophet, alluding to their perverse cunning, says, that God would be as it were a fowler, who would ensnare them, and hold them captive. He afterwards assigns the reason, Because they had repudiated, or despised or rejected, 223223 The verb is here followed by ב: see note on Jeremiah 2:37 (for the verb means all these things,) the word of Jehovah And he uses a demonstrative particle, Behold, that they might not, as usual, make any evasions: “The thing, “he says, “is sufficiently known, and even children can be judges of your impiety, that you have rejected the word of Jehovah.” He draws hence this inference, What does wisdom avail them? or, What is their wisdom? Either of these meanings may be admitted, They were wise to no purpose, while they provoked God by their impious contempt. “I hate the wise who is not wise for himself, “is an old proverb. As then the Jews ill consulted their own benefit, by rejecting the word of God, in which their safety was involved, the Prophet justly alleges, that their wisdom availed them nothing. Others read, “What is their wisdom, “when there is no fear of God? And doubtless it ever remains a truth, that the fear of God is the beginning and the chief part of wisdom. (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Psalm 111:10.) Since then they had basely despised God’s word, rightly does the Prophet ask, “What is their wisdom?” But there is a third meaning which is suitable, even this, And wisdom, what to them? So it is literally, — What is wisdom to them? He still speaks to them ironically, as though he said, “They are indeed wise, but in their own esteem; they have therefore no need of being taught: What then is wisdom to them!” The meaning is, that they were so swollen with pride that they received no instruction. How so? They refused wisdom through the false conceit with which they were inflated. Let, however, every one choose for himself; my object is to shew what I mostly approve. There will be no lecture to — morrow, as a consistory is to be held. |