King James Version
Jeremiah 8
22 verses with commentary
Sin and Punishment
At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse opens a stark oracle of judgment describing the desecration of Judah's dead. 'At that time' (baet hahi, בָּעֵת הַהִיא) connects to the preceding judgment oracle, indicating the Babylonian conquest. The bones of kings, princes, priests, prophets, and inhabitants of Jerusalem would be exhumed from their graves. In ancient Near Eastern culture, proper burial and undisturbed rest for the de...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
VIII.
(1) **At that time.**—There is, it is obvious, no break in the discourse, and the time is therefore that of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldæans, and of the burial of the slain. Not even the dead should sleep in peace. With an awful re-iteration of the word, so as to give the emphasis as of the toll of a funeral bell, the prophet heaps clause upon clause, “the *bones *of the kings,”...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. house of the Lord--**Hence he makes the praises to be sung there prominent in his song (Is 38:20; Psa 116:12-14, 17-19).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 8
The remains of the dead exposed. (Jr 8:1-3) The stupidity of the people, compared with the instinct of the brute creation. (Jr 8:4-13) The alarm of the invasion, and lamentation. (Jr 8:14-22)
**Verses 1-3** Though no real hurt can be done to a dead body, yet disgrace to the remains of wicked persons may alarm those yet alive; and this reminds us that the Divine justice and punishme...
Read full commentary →And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse continues the horrific imagery, showing that the exhumed bones would be spread before 'the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served.' The irony is devastating: the celestial objects Israel worshipped would witness their ultimate shame rather than save them. The verbs accumulate: 'loved' (ahavu, אָהֲבוּ), 'served' (avdum, עֲבָדוּם), '...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Whom they have loved . . .**—Here, again, there is a peculiar characteristic emphasis in the piling up, one upon another, of verbs more or less synonymous. So far as there is a traceable order, it is from the first inward impulse prompting to idolatry to the full development of that feeling in ritual. The sun, moon, and stars shall look, not on crowds of adoring worshippers, but on the carca...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 8
The remains of the dead exposed. (Jr 8:1-3) The stupidity of the people, compared with the instinct of the brute creation. (Jr 8:4-13) The alarm of the invasion, and lamentation. (Jr 8:14-22)
**Verses 1-3** Though no real hurt can be done to a dead body, yet disgrace to the remains of wicked persons may alarm those yet alive; and this reminds us that the Divine justice and punishme...
Read full commentary →And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse pronounces a chilling verdict: 'death shall be chosen rather than life.' The Hebrew maveth yibbachar mechayyim (מָוֶת יִבָּחַר מֵחַיִּים) indicates that surviving exile would be so miserable that death would seem preferable. The phrase 'all the residue of them that remain of this evil family' refers to exiled survivors of judgment. Their scattering 'in all the places whither I have driv...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **The residue of them that remain.**—Once more the emphasis of re-iteration, “the remnant of a remnant.” The “evil family” is the whole house of Israel, but the words contemplate specially the exile of Judah and Benjamin, rather than that of the ten tribes.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 39 Is 39:1-8. Hezekiah's Error in the Display of His Riches to the Babylonian Ambassador.
**1. Merodach-baladan--**For a hundred fifty years before the overthrow of Nineveh by Cyaxares the Mede, a succession of rulers, mostly viceroys of Assyria, ruled Babylon, from the time of Nabonassar, 747 B.C. That date is called "the Era of Nabonassar." Pul or Phallukha was then expelled, and a new ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 8
The remains of the dead exposed. (Jr 8:1-3) The stupidity of the people, compared with the instinct of the brute creation. (Jr 8:4-13) The alarm of the invasion, and lamentation. (Jr 8:14-22)
**Verses 1-3** Though no real hurt can be done to a dead body, yet disgrace to the remains of wicked persons may alarm those yet alive; and this reminds us that the Divine justice and punishme...
Read full commentary →Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse transitions to a new oracle with 'Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD.' The rhetorical questions that follow expose the absurdity of Judah's spiritual trajectory. 'Shall they fall, and not arise?' uses qum (קוּם), the Hebrew word for rising/resurrection. Normal behavior after falling is to get up. 'Shall he turn away, and not return?' uses shuv (שׁוּב), the key word f...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Shall he turn.**—Better, as both clauses arc indefinite, *Shall men fall and not arise? Shall one turn away and not return? *The appeal is made to the common practice of men. Those who fall struggle to their feet again. One who finds that he has lost his way retraces his steps. In its spiritual aspect the words assert the possibility of repentance in all but every case, however desperate it ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. glad--**It was not the mere act, but the spirit of it, which provoked God (2Ch 32:25), "Hezekiah rendered not again according to the benefit done unto him, for his heart was lifted up"; also compare 2Ch 32:31. God "tries" His people at different times by different ways, bringing out "all that is in their heart," to show them its varied corruptions. Compare David in a similar case (1Ch 21:1-8)...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
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KJV Study Commentary
God's lament intensifies: 'Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?' The Hebrew meshuvah nitsachat (מְשׁוּבָה נִצַּחַת) combines meshuvah (backsliding, apostasy, turning away) with nitsachat (perpetual, enduring, complete). This isn't temporary wandering but entrenched, settled apostasy. 'They hold fast deceit' uses chazaq (חָזַק, to strengthen, seize firmly) w...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Slidden back . . . backsliding.**—The English fails to give the full emphasis of the re-iteration of the same word as in the previous verse. *Why doth this people of Jerusalem turn away with a perpetual turning? *Here, so far, there was no retracing the evil path which they had chosen.**
I hearkened and heard.**—Jehovah himself is introduced here, as probably in the question of the previous ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. What ... whence--**implying that any proposition coming from the idolatrous enemies of God, with whom Israel was forbidden to form alliance, should have been received with anything but gladness. Reliance on Babylon, rather than on God, was a similar sin to the previous reliance on Egypt (Is 30:1-31:9).
**far country--**implying that he had done nothing more than was proper in showing attent...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
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KJV Study Commentary
God describes His careful observation of Judah's behavior: 'I hearkened and heard' uses qashav (קָשַׁב, to attend carefully) and shama (שָׁמַע, to hear). God listened intently for evidence of repentance. 'But they spake not aright' (lo-ken yedabberu, לֹא־כֵן יְדַבֵּרוּ)—literally 'they do not speak rightly/correctly.' 'No man repented him of his wickedness' reveals the absence of genuine contritio...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. All--**a frank confession of his whole fault; the king submits his conduct to the scrutiny of a subject, because that subject was accredited by God. Contrast Asa (2Ch 16:7-10).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse introduces a powerful nature contrast: 'Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times.' The Hebrew chasidah (חֲסִידָה, stork) derives from chesed (חֶסֶד), emphasizing the bird's faithful, loyal nature in following migratory patterns. 'The turtle, and the crane, and the swallow observe the time of their coming' (tor, agur, sis)—three more migratory birds instinctively followin...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **The stork in the heaven.**—The eye of the prophet looked on nature at once with the quick observation of one who is alive to all her changes, and with the profound thought of a poet finding inner meanings in all phenomena. The birds of the air obey their instincts as the law of their nature. Israel, with its fatal gift of freedom, resists that which is its law of life. The stork arrives in P...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. Lord of hosts--**who has all thy goods at His disposal.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain. in vain made: or, the false pen of the scribes worketh for falsehood
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse challenges false claims to wisdom: 'How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us?' The Hebrew chakamim (חֲכָמִים, wise ones) and torath YHWH (תּוֹרַת יְהוָה, law/instruction of the LORD) were claimed by scribes and religious leaders. Yet God exposes their self-deception: 'Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.' The 'pen of the scribes' (et...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **How do ye say . . .?**—The question is put to priests and prophets, who were the recognised expounders of the Law, but not to them only. The order of scribes, which became so dominant during the exile, was already rising into notice. Shaphan, to whom Hilkiah gave the re-found Book of the Law, belonged to it (2Chronicles 34:15), and the discovery of that book would naturally give a fresh impe...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. days come--**one hundred twenty years afterwards. This is the first intimation that the Jews would be carried to Babylon--the first designation of their place of punishment. The general prophecy of Moses (Le 26:33; De 28:64); the more particular one of Ahijah in Jeroboam's time (1Ki 14:15), "beyond the river"; and of Am 5:27, "captivity beyond Damascus"; are now concentrated in this specific ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them? The wise: or, Have they been ashamed, etc what: Heb. the wisdom of what thing
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse pronounces judgment on the self-proclaimed wise: 'The wise men are ashamed' (boshu chakamim, בֹּשׁוּ חֲכָמִים). The Hebrew bosh (בּוֹשׁ) denotes public humiliation, disappointed expectation, and covenant curse. 'They are dismayed and taken' adds chatat (חָתַת, shattered, terrified) and lakad (לָכַד, captured, snared)—the wise are caught in their own trap. 'Lo, they have rejected the wor...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **They have rejected the word of the Lord.**—The “wise men” are apparently distinguished from the scribes, probably as students of the ethical or sapiential books of Israel, such as the Proverbs of Solomon, as distinct from the Law. The reign of Hezekiah, it will be remembered, had been memorable for such studies (Proverbs 25:1). They, too, kept within the range of traditional maxims and prece...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. sons ... from thee--**The sons which Hezekiah (as Josephus tells us) wished to have (see on Is 28:3, on "wept sore") will be among the foremost in suffering.
**eunuchs--**fulfilled (Da 1:2, 3, 7).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces judgment on corrupt leaders: 'Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them.' Losing wives and lands to conquerors represented complete social devastation and covenant curse (Deuteronomy 28:30-33). 'For every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness' uses batsa (בָּצַע, unjust gain, covetousness) indic...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10-12) **Every one from the least . . .**—The prophet reproduces, though not verbally, what he had already said in Jeremiah 6:12-15. (Comp. Notes there.) It is as though that emphatic condemnation of the sins of the false teachers were burnt into his soul, and could not but find utterance whenever he addressed the people.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**8. peace ... in my days--**The punishment was not, as in David's case (2Sa 24:13-15), sent in his time. True repentance acquiesces in all God's ways and finds cause of thanksgiving in any mitigation.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse contains Jeremiah's most famous indictment of false religious leaders: 'For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.' The verb 'healed' (rapha, רָפָא) is used sarcastically—they applied superficial bandages to mortal wounds. 'Slightly' (al-neqallah, עַל־נְקַלָּה) means superficially, trivially, treating serious illnes...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD. I will: or, In gathering I will consume
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes false prophets' response to their failure: 'Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination?' The rhetorical question uses Hebrew hevish (הֱבִישׁ, to be ashamed) with to'evah (תּוֹעֵבָה, abomination)—the strongest term for something detestable to God. 'Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.' The doubled negative (lo vosh yevoshu, לֹא בוֹשׁ יֵבֹשׁוּ)...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 40 Is 40:1-31. Second Part of the Prophecies of Isaiah.
The former were local and temporary in their reference. These belong to the distant future, and are world-wide in their interest; the deliverance from Babylon under Cyrus, which he here foretells by prophetic suggestion, carries him on to the greater deliverance under Messiah, the Saviour of Jews and Gentiles in the present eclectic...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse uses harvest imagery to announce judgment: 'I will surely consume them, saith the LORD.' The Hebrew asoph asiph (אָסֹף אֲסִיפֵם) uses an emphatic verbal construction—'I will utterly gather them away/consume them.' The agricultural imagery follows: 'there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade.' Vines and figs represent covenant blessing (1 King...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **I will surely consume.**—Literally, *Gathering, I will sweep away*—*i.e., *I will gather and sweep away, the two verbs being all but identical in sound and spelling, so that the construction has almost the force of the emphatic Hebrew reduplication.
**There shall be.**—These words are not in the Hebrew, and the verse describes, not the judgment of Jehovah on the state of Israel, but that st...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. comfortably--**literally, "to the heart"; not merely to the intellect.
**Jerusalem--**Jerusalem though then in ruins, regarded by God as about to be rebuilt; her people are chiefly meant, but the city is personified.
**cry--**publicly and emphatically as a herald cries aloud (Is 40:3).
**warfare--**or, the appointed time of her misery (Job 7:1, Margin; Job 14:14; Da 10:1). The ulterior ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 4-13** What brought this ruin? 1. The people would not attend to reason; they would not act in the affairs of their souls with common prudence. Sin is backsliding; it is going back from the way that leads to life, to that which leads to destruction. 2. They would not attend to the warning of conscience. They did not take the first step towards repentance: true repentance begins in serious...
Read full commentary →Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD. gall: or, poison
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse transitions to portraying the people's response to coming invasion: 'Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities.' The Hebrew question 'al-mah anachnu yoshevim' (עַל־מָה אֲנַחְנוּ יֹשְׁבִים) reflects sudden awareness that inaction means death. 'Defenced cities' (arei hamibtzar, עָרֵי הַמִּבְצָר) were fortified urban centers offering military prote...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **Why do we sit still? . . .**—The cry of the people in answer to the threatening of Jehovah is brought in by the prophet with a startling dramatic vividness. They are ready to flee into the defenced cities, as the prophet had told them in Jeremiah 4:5, but it is without hope. They are going into the silence as of death, for to that silence Jehovah himself has brought them.
**Water of gall.**...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**3. crieth in the wilderness--**So the Septuagint and Mt 3:3 connect the words. The Hebrew accents, however, connect them thus: "In the wilderness prepare ye," &c., and the parallelism also requires this, "Prepare ye in the wilderness," answering to "make straight in the desert." Matthew was entitled, as under inspiration, to vary the connection, so as to bring out another sense, included in ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse captures disappointed hope: 'We looked for peace, but no good came.' The Hebrew qivvinu leshalom (קִוִּינוּ לְשָׁלוֹם) indicates confident expectation of the false prophets' 'shalom' message (v. 11). 'And for a time of health, and behold trouble!' uses the contrast between marpeh (מַרְפֵּא, healing) and be'atah (בְּעָתָה, terror, calamity). The false prophets had promised healing; reali...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **A** **time of health . . .**—Better, *healing, *or, following another etymology, *a time of quietness, and behold alarm. *“Peace,” in the first clause, is used in its wider sense as including all forms of good.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
4. Eastern monarchs send heralds before them in a journey to clear away obstacles, make causeways over valleys, and level hills. So John's duty was to bring back the people to obedience to the law and to remove all self-confidence, pride in national privileges, hypocrisy, and irreligion, so that they should be ready for His coming (Mal 4:6; Lu 1:17).
**crooked--**declivities.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein. all: Heb. the fulness thereof
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes the approaching enemy: 'The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan.' Dan, at Israel's northern border, would first detect invaders approaching via the Fertile Crescent trade route. 'Snorting' (nachrah, נַחְרָה) evokes powerful war horses, their breath and sounds preceding visible approach. 'The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones' uses abirim...
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(16) **Heard from Dan.**—As in Jeremiah 4:13, the invasion by an army of which cavalry and war chariots formed the most terrible contingent was a special terror to Israelites. Even at Dan, the northern boundary of Palestine (see Note on Jeremiah 4:15), there was a sound of terror in the very snortings of the horses. The patristic interpretation that the prophet indicates the coming of Antichrist f...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. see it--**The Septuagint for "it," has "the salvation of God." So Lu 3:6 (compare Lu 2:30, that is, Messiah); but the Evangelist probably took these words from Is 52:10.
**for--**rather, "All flesh shall see that the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken it" [Bengel].
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse introduces startling imagery: 'For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed.' The Hebrew nachashim (נְחָשִׁים, serpents) and tsephionim (צִפְעֹנִים, vipers, poisonous snakes) represent the Babylonian invaders. 'Which will not be charmed' (asher ein-lahem lachash, אֲשֶׁר אֵין־לָהֶם לָחַשׁ) indicates these 'serpents' cannot be controlled by magical ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **Serpents, cockatrices.**—There is a sudden change of figure, one new image of terror starting from the history of the fiery serpents of Numbers 21:6, or, possibly, from the connection of Dan with the “serpent” and “adder” in Genesis 49:17. It is not easy to identify the genus and species of the serpents of the Bible. Here the two words are in apposition. “Cockatrice,” however, cannot be rig...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. The voice--**the same divine herald as in Is 40:3.
**he--**one of those ministers or prophets (see on Is 40:1) whose duty it was, by direction of "the voice," to "comfort the Lord's afflicted people with the promises of brighter days."
**All flesh is grass--**The connection is, "All human things, however goodly, are transitory: God's promises alone steadfast" (Is 40:8, 15, 17, 23, 24); th...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me. in: Heb. upon
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse expresses Jeremiah's personal anguish: 'When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.' The Hebrew mabligiti (מַבְלִיגִיתִי) means 'my comfort' or 'when I would refresh myself.' Jeremiah seeks emotional relief from prophetic burden but finds none. 'My heart is faint' (libbi devai, לִבִּי דַוָּי) describes heart-sickness, emotional exhaustion, grief beyond recovery....
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **When I would comfort myself . . .**—The word translated *comfort *is not found elsewhere, and has been very differently understood. Taking the words as spoken after a pause, they come as a cry of sorrow following the proclamation of the judgment of Jehovah, *Ah, my comfort against sorrow! *(mourning for it as dead and gone); *my heart is sick within me. *The latter phrase is the same as in ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**7. spirit of the Lord--**rather, "wind of Jehovah" (Psa 103:16). The withering east wind of those countries sent by Jehovah (Jon 4:8).
**the people--**rather, "this people" [Lowth], which may refer to the Babylonians [Rosenmuller]; but better, mankind in general, as in Is 42:5, so Is 40:6, "all flesh"; this whole race, that is, man.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities? them: Heb. the country of them that are far off
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse voices the people's desperate cry: 'Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country.' Jeremiah hears his people crying to God from distant lands of exile. 'Daughter of my people' (bat-ammi, בַּת־עַמִּי) is a tender phrase expressing Jeremiah's love for his nation despite their sin. 'Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her?' Th...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **Because of them that dwell . . .**—The verse should read thus: *Behold, the voice of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from the land of those that are far off. *The prophet, dramatising the future, as before, in Jeremiah 8:14, hears the cry of the exiles in a far-off land, and that which they ask is this—“Is not Jehovah in Zion? Is not her king in her?” That question is asked ha...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
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KJV Study Commentary
God responds to the people's questions with His own: 'Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?' The Hebrew hikh'isuni (הִכְעִיסוּנִי) indicates deliberate provocation, not accidental offense. 'Graven images' (pesilim, פְּסִילִים) are carved idols; 'strange vanities' (havlei nekhar, הַבְלֵי נֵכָר) are foreign empty things—pagan deities from neighboring...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **The harvest is past . . .**—The question of Jehovah, admitting of no answer but a confession of guilt, is met by another cry of despair from the sufferers of the future. They are as men in a year of famine—“The harvest is past,” and there has been no crop for men to reap.
**Summer.**—In Isaiah 16:9; Jeremiah 40:10, and elsewhere, the word is rendered by “summer fruits.” “The summer” (better...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
9. Rather, "Oh, thou that bringest good things to Zion; thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem." "Thou" is thus the collective personification of the messengers who announce God's gracious purpose to Zion (see on Is 40:1); Is 52:7 confirms this [Vulgate and Gesenius]. If English Version be retained, the sense will be the glad message was first to be proclaimed to Jerusalem, and then from it ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse expresses Jeremiah's deepest anguish: 'For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt.' The Hebrew sheber (שֶׁבֶר, breaking, fracture, ruin) appears twice—Jeremiah is shattered by his people's shattering. 'I am black' (qadarti, קָדַרְתִּי) indicates mourning posture, wearing dark clothes, face blackened with grief. 'Astonishment hath taken hold on me' uses shammah (שַׁמָּה, desolat...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **For the hurt . . .**—Now the prophet again speaks in his own person. He is *crushed *in that *crushing *of his people. His face is *darkened, *as one that mourns. (Comp. Psalm 38:6; Joshua 5:11.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**10. with strong hand--**or, "against the strong"; rather, "as a strong one" [Maurer]. Or, against the strong one, namely, Satan (Mt 12:29; Re 20:2, 3, 10) [Vitringa].
**arm--**power (Psa 89:13; 98:1).
**for him--**that is, He needs not to seek help for Himself from any external source, but by His own inherent power He gains rule for Himself (so Is 40:14).
**work--**or, "recompense for his ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? recovered: Heb. gone up?
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KJV Study Commentary
This famous verse cries out for healing: 'Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there?' Gilead, the Transjordanian region, was renowned for medicinal balm exported throughout the ancient world. The Hebrew tseori (צֳרִי, balm, balsam) was a precious healing ointment. 'Physician' (rophe, רֹפֵא) indicates professional healers. The questions expect positive answers—yes, there is balm; yes,...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **Is there no balm in Gilead . . .?**—The resinous gums of Gilead, identified by some naturalists with those of the terebinth, by others with mastich, the gum of the *Pistaccia lentiscus, *were prominent in the pharmacopœia of Israel, and were exported to Egypt for the embalmment of the dead (Genesis 37:25; Genesis 43:11; Jeremiah 46:11; Jeremiah 51:8). A plaister of such gums was the receive...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**11. feed--**including all a shepherd's care--"tend" (Eze 34:23; Psa 23:1; He 13:20; 1Pe 2:25).
**carry--**applicable to Messiah's restoration of Israel, as sheep scattered in all lands, and unable to move of themselves to their own land (Psa 80:1; Jr 23:3). As Israel was "carried from the womb" (that is, in its earliest days) (Is 63:9, 11, 12; Psa 77:20), so it shall be in "old age" (that is, ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 14-22** At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. I...
Read full commentary →