King James Version
Jeremiah 9
26 verses with commentary
Jeremiah Weeps for the People
Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh: Heb. Who will give my head, etc
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse opens chapter 9 with Jeremiah's famous lament: 'Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!' The Hebrew imagery is extravagant—wishing his head were a reservoir (mayim, מַיִם, waters) and his eyes a spring (maqor, מָקוֹר, fountain) of perpetual tears. 'Day and night' (yomam valaylah) indicate...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
IX.
(1) **Oh, that my head were waters . . .!**—Literally, *Who will give my head waters** . . .***? The form of a question was, in Hebrew idiom as in Latin, the natural utterance of desire. In the Hebrew text this verse comes as the last in Jeremiah 8. It is, of course, very closely connected with what precedes; but, on the other hand, it is even more closely connected with what follows. Strictly...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
12. Lest the Jews should suppose that He who was just before described as a "shepherd" is a mere man, He is now described as God.
**Who--**Who else but God could do so? Therefore, though the redemption and restoration of His people, foretold here, was a work beyond man's power, they should not doubt its fulfilment since all things are possible to Him who can accurately regulate the proportion of...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse reveals Jeremiah's conflicted desire: 'Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men.' The Hebrew malon orchim (מְלוֹן אֹרְחִים) is a travelers' lodge—a simple shelter in the desert. 'That I might leave my people, and go from them!' expresses desire to escape prophetic burden. The reason follows: 'for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.' 'Adulterer...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **Oh, that I had . . .!**—Literally, as before, *Who will give** . . .***?
**A lodging place of wayfaring men.**—i.e., a place of shelter, a *khan *or *caravanserai, *such as were built for travellers, such, *e.g., *as the “inn” of Genesis 42:27, the “habitation” of Chimham (Jeremiah 41:17), which the son of Barzillai had erected near Bethlehem, as an act of munificent gratitude to his adopted...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
13. Quoted in Ro 11:34; 1Co 2:16. The Hebrew here for "directed" is the same as in Is 40:12 for "meted out"; thus the sense is, "Jehovah measures out heaven with His span"; but who can measure Him? that is, Who can search out His Spirit (mind) wherewith He searches out and accurately adjusts all things? Maurer rightly takes the Hebrew in the same sense as in Is 40:12 (so Pr 16:2; 21:2), "weigh," "...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies: but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes moral decay: 'And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies.' The Hebrew imagery pictures the tongue as a weapon—bent and aimed like a bow shooting arrows of falsehood. 'But they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth' uses gavar (גָּבַר, to be mighty, prevail)—they show no courage for truth. 'For they proceed from evil to evil' indicates progression in wickedness ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **Like their bow for lies.**—The inserted words turn the boldness of the metaphor into a comparatively tame simile. *They bend their tongue to be their bow of lies. *The same figure meets us in Psalm 57:4; Psalm 58:7; Psalm 64:3.
**They are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.**—Better, *they are not mighty for truth, *i.e., *faithfulness, in the land*—*i.e., *they do not rule faithfully....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**14. path of judgment--**His wisdom, whereby He so beautifully adjusts the places and proportions of all created things.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. neighbour: or, friend
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse warns against trusting neighbors: 'Take ye heed every one of his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother.' The Hebrew shameru (שִׁמְרוּ, guard yourselves) and al-tivtachu (אַל־תִּבְטְחוּ, do not trust) indicate pervasive social breakdown. 'For every brother will utterly supplant' uses the Hebrew aqov ya'aqov (עָקוֹב יַעֲקֹב), a wordplay on Jacob's name—who 'supplanted' his brother Es...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Take ye heed . . .**—The extreme bitterness of the prophet’s words is explained in part by what we read afterwards of his personal history (Jeremiah 12:6; Jeremiah 18:18). Then, as at other times, a man’s foes were those of his own household (Matthew 10:36).
**Every brother will utterly supplant.**—The word is that which gave the patriarch his significant name of Jacob, the supplanter (Genes...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**15. of--**rather, (hanging) from a bucket [Maurer].
**he taketh up ... as a very little thing--**rather, "are as a mere grain of dust which is taken up," namely, by the wind; literally, "one taketh up," impersonally (Ex 16:14) [Maurer].
**isles--**rather, "lands" in general, answering to "the nations" in the parallel clause; perhaps lands, like Mesopotamia, enclosed by rivers [Jerome] (so Is...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. deceive: or, mock
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse continues describing deceit: 'And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth.' The Hebrew hathal (הָתַל, mock, deceive) and emeth lo yedabberu (אֱמֶת לֹא יְדַבֵּרוּ, truth they will not speak) emphasize comprehensive dishonesty. 'They have taught their tongue to speak lies' uses the Hebrew limmedu (לִמְּדוּ, trained, disciplined)—lying requires practice unti...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Deceive.**—The word is commonly translated, as in the margin, *mock. *(So in 1Kings 18:27; Judges 16:10; Judges 16:13; Judges 16:15.) The context here shows, however, that the kind of mockery is that which at once deludes and derides; and as the former meaning is predominant, the text of the English version had better stand as it is.
**To commit iniquity.**—Literally, *to go crookedly, *or, ...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
16. All Lebanon's forest would not supply fuel enough to burn sacrifices worthy of the glory of God (Is 66:1; 1Ki 8:27; Psa 50:8-13).
**beasts--**which abounded in Lebanon.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes dwelling amid deceit: 'Thine habitation is in the midst of deceit.' The Hebrew shivtekha betokh mirmah (שִׁבְתְּךָ בְּתוֹךְ מִרְמָה) indicates living surrounded by treachery—deceit is the environment, the atmosphere. 'Through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.' The connection between deceit and refusing to know God is profound: dishonesty prevents genuine relations...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **Thine habitation . . .**—The words may be an individualised, and therefore more emphatic, reproduction of the general warning of Jeremiah 9:4. It is, however, better to take them as spoken by Jehovah to the prophet individually. The LXX., following a different reading and punctuation, translates “usury upon usury, deceit upon deceit; they refuse to know Me, saith the Lord.” And this has been...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
17. (Psa 62:9; Da 4:35).
**less than nothing--**Maurer translates, as in Is 41:24, "of nothing" (partitively; or expressive of the nature of a thing), a mere nothing.
**vanity--**emptiness.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them; for how shall I do for the daughter of my people?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces coming judgment: 'Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them.' The metallurgical imagery uses tsaraph (צָרַף, to smelt, refine) and bachan (בָּחַן, to test, assay). God's judgment functions as a refiner's fire, testing metal for purity by melting. 'For how shall I do for the daughter of my people?' This rhetorical question reveals divine pat...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **I will melt them, and try them.**—The prophet, speaking in the name of Jehovah, falls back upon the imagery of Jeremiah 6:28-30; Isaiah 48:10. The evil has come to such a pass that nothing is left but the melting of the fiery furnace of affliction. How else could He act for the daughter of His people? The phrase throws us back upon Jeremiah 8:21-22. The balm of Gilead had proved ineffectual....
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
18. Which of the heathen idols, then, is to be compared to this Almighty God? This passage, if not written (as Barnes thinks) so late as the idolatrous times of Manasseh, has at least a prospective warning reference to them and subsequent reigns; the result of the chastisement of Jewish idolatry in the Babylonish captivity was that thenceforth after the restoration the Jews never fell into it. Per...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait. in heart: Heb. in the midst of him his wait: or, wait for him
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes the tongue as deadly weapon: 'Their tongue is as an arrow shot out.' The Hebrew chets shachut (חֵץ שָׁחוּט) literally means 'a slaughtering arrow' or 'a sharpened arrow'—designed for killing. 'It speaketh deceit' continues the theme of verbal treachery. 'One speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.' The contrast between mouth (peh, פ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **An arrow shot out.**—Better, *an arrow that pierceth, *or *slayeth.*
**In heart.**—More literally, *inwardly.*
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**19. graven--**rather, an image in general; for it is incongruous to say "melteth" (that is, casts out of metal) a graven image (that is, one of carved wood); so Jr 10:14, "molten image."
**spreadeth it over--**(See on Is 30:22).
**chains--**an ornament lavishly worn by rich Orientals (Is 3:18, 19), and so transferred to their idols. Egyptian relics show that idols were suspended in houses by...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces divine visitation: 'Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD.' The Hebrew paqad (פָּקַד, to visit, attend to, reckon with) indicates divine audit and judgment. The rhetorical question expects affirmative answer—of course God will judge such behavior. 'Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?' The Hebrew naqam (נָקַם, avenge) indicates vindication o...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(9) **Shall I not visit . . .?**—The previous use of the same warning in Jeremiah 5:9; Jeremiah 5:29 gives these words also the emphasis of iteration.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**20. impoverished--**literally, "sunk" in circumstances.
**no oblation--**he who cannot afford to overlay his idol with gold and silver (Is 40:19).
**tree ... not rot--**the cedar, cypress, oak, or ash (Is 44:14).
**graven--**of wood; not a molten one of metal.
**not be moved--**that shall be durable.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them; neither can men hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone. habitations: or, pastures burned up: or, desolate both: Heb. from the fowl even to, etc
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse shifts to lament: 'For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing.' The Hebrew nehi (נְהִי, lamentation) and qinah (קִינָה, funeral dirge) indicate formal mourning. 'For the habitations of the wilderness a lamentation' (ne'oth midbar, נְאוֹת מִדְבָּר, pastures of the wilderness). The devastation extends from mountainous terrain to desert pastures. 'Because they are burned up, so...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **For the mountains . . .**—The Hebrew preposition means both “upon” and “on account of,” and probably both meanings were implied. The prophet sees himself *upon *the mountains, taking up the lamentation *for* them because they are “burned up.”
**The habitations.—**Better, as in the margin, *pastures. *The wilderness is simply the wild open country.
**So that none can pass . . . neither can m...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**21. ye--**who worship idols. The question emphatically implies, they had known.
**from the beginning--**(Is 41:4, 26; 48:16). God is the beginning (Re 1:8). The tradition handed down from the very first, of the creation of all things by God at the beginning, ought to convince you of His omnipotence and of the folly of idolatry.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant. desolate: Heb. desolation
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces Jerusalem's fate: 'And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons.' The Hebrew gallim (גַּלִּים, heaps, ruins) describes rubble piles; tannim (תַּנִּים, jackals, wild dogs) indicates desolate ruins inhabited only by scavengers. 'And I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant' uses shemamah (שְׁמָמָה, desolation, waste) and ein yoshev (אֵין יוֹשֵׁב, ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **A den of dragons.**—Better, here and in Jeremiah 10:22; Isaiah 13:22, *jackals. *The word means, literally, *a howler. *The English version follows the LXX. and Vulgate versions; but even taking “dragons” in its non-mythical sense as applied to some species of serpent, there is nothing in the word to lead us to assign this meaning. The mistake has probably arisen from the likeness of the wo...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**22. It is he--**rather, connected with last verse, "Have ye not known?"--have ye not understood Him that sitteth ...? (Is 40:26) [Maurer].
**circle--**applicable to the globular form of the earth, above which, and the vault of sky around it, He sits. For "upon" translate "above."
**as grasshoppers--**or locusts in His sight (Nu 13:33), as He looks down from on high (Psa 33:13, 14; 113:4-6).
...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
Chapter 9
The people are corrected, Jerusalem is destroyed. (Jr 9:1-11) The captives suffer in a foreign land. (Jr 9:12-22) God's loving-kindness, He threatens the enemies of his people. (Jr 9:23-26)
**Verses 1-11** Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Chri...
Read full commentary →Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse poses a wisdom question: 'Who is the wise man, that may understand this?' The Hebrew chakam (חָכָם, wise) and yavin (יָבִין, understand, discern) challenge those claiming wisdom to explain the situation. 'And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it?' Questions both sages and prophets—who can explain why the land is ruined? 'For what the land perisheth...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(12) **Who is the wise man . . .?**—Sage (comp. Jeremiah 8:9) and prophet are alike called on to state why the misery of which Jeremiah speaks is to come upon the people. But they are asked in vain, and Jehovah, through the prophet, makes answer to Himself.
**That none passeth through.**—The English is ambiguous. “That” stands either for a relative with “wilderness” as its antecedent, or as a conj...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
23. (Psa 107:4; Da 2:21).
**judges--**that is, rulers; for these exercised judicial authority (Psa 2:10). The Hebrew, shophtee, answers to the Carthaginian chief magistrates, suffetes.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse provides divine answer: 'And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law.' The Hebrew azvu (עָזְבוּ, forsaken, abandoned) with torati (תּוֹרָתִי, my Torah/instruction) identifies the fundamental problem—covenant law abandoned. 'Which I set before them' (natati liphneihem) recalls Deuteronomy's presentation of the covenant at Moab. 'And have not obeyed my voice' (shamu beqoli) echo...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**24. they--**the "princes and judges" (Is 40:23) who oppose God's purposes and God's people. Often compared to tall trees (Psa 37:35; Da 4:10).
**not ... sown--**the seed, that is, race shall become extinct (Na 1:14).
**stock--**not even shall any shoots spring up from the stump when the tree has been cut down: no descendants whatever (Job 14:7; see on Is 11:1).
**and ... also--**so the Sep...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them: imagination: or, stubbornness
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes Israel's alternative: 'But have walked after the imagination of their own heart.' The Hebrew sheriruth libbam (שְׁרִרוּת לִבָּם) indicates stubbornness, obstinacy of heart—following their own desires rather than divine instruction. 'And after Baalim, which their fathers taught them.' Baalism wasn't spontaneous apostasy but generational transmission of idolatry. 'Their fathers'...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(14) **Imagination.**—Stubbornness, as in Jeremiah 3:17.
**Baalim.**—The generic name for false gods of all kinds, and therefore used in the plural. (Comp. Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 2:23.)
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
25. (Compare Is 40:18).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces specific judgment: 'Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood.' The Hebrew la'anah (לַעֲנָה, wormwood) is a bitter plant, possibly poisonous, representing bitterness and judgment. 'And give them water of gall to drink' (mei-rosh) indicates poisoned water. The imagery suggests forced consumption of bitte...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(15) **Wormwood.**—As a plant, probably a species of *Artemisia, *four species of which are found in Palestine. In Deuteronomy 29:18 it appears as the symbol of moral evil, here of the bitterness of calamity.
**Water of gall.**—See Note on Jeremiah 8:14.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**26. bringeth out ... host--**image from a general reviewing his army: He is Lord of Sabaoth, the heavenly hosts (Job 38:32).
**calleth ... by names--**numerous as the stars are. God knows each in all its distinguishing characteristics--a sense which "name" often bears in Scripture; so in Ge 2:19, 20, Adam, as God's vicegerent, called the beasts by name, that is, characterized them by their sev...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known: and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes scattering judgment: 'I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known.' The Hebrew patsats (פָּצַץ, scatter, disperse) with goyim (גּוֹיִם, nations) describes exile among foreign peoples. 'Whom neither they nor their fathers have known' emphasizes the foreignness, alienation, and disorientation of exile—not just distant but completely...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
27. Since these things are so, thou hast no reason to think that thine interest ("way," that is, condition, Psa 37:5; Jr 12:1) is disregarded by God.
**judgment is passed over from--**rather, "My cause is neglected by my God; He passes by my case in my bondage and distress without noticing it."
**my God--**who especially might be expected to care for me.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come:
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse calls for mourners: 'Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women.' The Hebrew meqonenoth (מְקוֹנְנוֹת, mourning women) were professional wailers who led public lamentation at funerals. 'That they may come; and send for cunning women, that they may come.' The Hebrew chakamoth (חֲכָמוֹת, skilled/wise women) indicates expertise in funeral rites and laments. T...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(17) **Mourning women . . .** **cunning women.**—Eastern funerals were, and are, attended by mourners, chiefly women, hired for the purpose. Wailing was reduced to an art, and they who practised it were cunning. There are the “mourners” that “go about the streets” (Ecclesiastes 12:5), those that “are skilful of lamentation” (Amos 5:16), those that mourned for Jehoiakim (Jeremiah 22:18), those that...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**28. known--**by thine own observation and reading of Scripture.
**heard--**from tradition of the fathers.
**everlasting, &c.--**These attributes of Jehovah ought to inspire His afflicted people with confidence.
**no searching of his understanding--**therefore thy cause cannot, as thou sayest, escape His notice; though much in His ways is unsearchable, He cannot err (Job 11:7-9). He is ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse continues the summons: 'And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us.' The Hebrew mahar (מָהַר, hasten, hurry) and nehi (נְהִי, lamentation) indicate urgency—mourning must begin immediately. 'That our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.' The Hebrew imagery is extravagant: eyes 'running' (yarad, יָרַד, descend, flow) with tears, eyelids 'gushing' ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(18) **Take up a wailing for us.**—There is in all such figures of speech an inevitable blending of metaphors. The mourners wail for the dead nation, and yet the members of the nation are sharers in the obsequies, and their eyes run down with tears.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
29. Not only does He "not faint" (Is 40:28) but He gives power to them who do faint.
**no might ... increaseth strength--**a seeming paradox. They "have no might" in themselves; but in Him they have strength, and He "increases" that strength (2Co 12:9).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse describes the mourners' voice: 'For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion.' The Hebrew qol nehi (קוֹל נְהִי) is the characteristic sound of formal lamentation. 'How are we spoiled!' uses shadad (שָׁדַד, devastated, ruined)—the cry of complete destruction. 'We are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out.' The Hebrew bosh (בּוֹשׁ, sh...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(19) **We have forsaken.**—Better, *we have left. *The English version suggests a voluntary abandonment, which is not involved in the Hebrew.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**30. young men--**literally, "those selected"; men picked out on account of their youthful vigor for an enterprise.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Yet hear the word of the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation.</strong> This verse forms part of Jeremiah's prophecy of imminent judgment upon Judah. The Hebrew imperative <em>shema</em> (שְׁמַעְנָה, "hear") demands urgent attention to divine revelation. God directly addresses women, like...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(20) **Teach your daughters wailing.**—The thought of Jeremiah 9:9 is continued. The words rest upon the idea that wailing was an art, its cries and tones skilfully adapted to the special sorrows of which it was in theory the expression. They perhaps imply also that death would do its work so terribly that the demand for mourners would be greater than the supply, and that supernumeraries must be t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**31. mount up--**(2Sa 1:23). Rather, "They shall put forth fresh feathers as eagles" are said to renovate themselves; the parallel clause, "renew their strength," confirms this. The eagle was thought to moult and renew his feathers, and with them his strength, in old age (so the Septuagint, Vulgate, Psa 103:5). However, English Version is favored by the descending climax, mount up--run--walk; in ...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse personifies Death as an invader: 'For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces.' The Hebrew maveth (מָוֶת, death) climbs through windows and enters palaces—no building provides safety. 'To cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.' Death claims children (olalim) playing outside and young men (bachurim) in public spaces. The imagery ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(21) **Death is come up into our windows.**—“Death” stands here, as in Jeremiah 15:2, specifically for the pestilence, which is to add its horrors to those of the famine and the sword, and which creeps in with its fatal taint at the windows, even though the invader is for a time kept at bay, and cuts off the children who else would play “without,” *sc*., in the court-yard of the house, and the “yo...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse continues Death's work: 'Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field.' The Hebrew nivlath (נִבְלַת, carcass, corpse) describes bodies lying unburied like dung (domen) spread on fields. 'And as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.' The imagery shifts to harvest: scattered grain sheaves left behind, with no one to gather them. Unburied bodies r...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(22) **Speak, Thus saith the Lord.**—The abrupt opening indicates a new prediction, coming to him unbidden, which he is constrained to utter as a message from Jehovah.
**As the handful.**—The reaper gathered into swathes, or small sheaves, what he could hold in his left hand, as he went on cutting with his sickle. These he threw down as they became too big to hold, and they were left strewn on the...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 41 Is 41:1-29. Additional Reasons Why the Jews Should Place Confidence in God's Promises of Delivering Them; He Will Raise Up a Prince as Their Deliverer, Whereas the Idols Could Not Deliver the Heathen Nations from That Prince.
1. (Zec 2:13). God is about to argue the case; therefore let the nations listen in reverential silence. Compare Ge 28:16, 17, as to the spirit in which we ought t...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 12-22** In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and...
Read full commentary →Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:</strong> Jeremiah delivers God's prohibition against humanity's three primary sources of self-confidence. The Hebrew <em>al-yithalel</em> (אַל־יִתְהַלֵּל, "let not glory") uses the reflexive form of <em>halal</em>, meaning to boast, praise ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(23) **Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.**—The long prophecy of judgment had reached its climax. Now there comes the conclusion of the whole matter—that the one way of salvation is to renounce all reliance on the wisdom, greatness, wealth of the world, and to glory only in knowing Jehovah. The “wise man” is, as before in Jeremiah 8:9, and Jeremiah 9:12, the scribe, or recognised teacher of...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. Who--**else but God? The fact that God "raiseth up" Cyrus and qualifies him for becoming the conqueror of the nations and deliverer of God's people, is a strong argument why they should trust in Him. The future is here prophetically represented as present or past.
**the righteous man--**Cyrus; as Is 44:28; 45:1-4, 13; 46:11, "from the East," prove. Called "righteous," not so much on account...
Read full commentary →Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 23-26** In this world of sin and sorrow, ending soon in death and judgement, how foolish for men to glory in their knowledge, health, strength, riches, or in any thing which leaves them under the dominion of sin and the wrath of God! and of which an account must hereafter be rendered; it will but increase their misery. Those are the true Israel who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Ch...
Read full commentary →But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse provides the positive corollary to verse 23's negatives: 'But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me.' The Hebrew yithalel (יִתְהַלֵּל, glory, boast) should focus on sakal (שָׂכַל, understanding, acting wisely) and yada (יָדַע, knowing intimately). Knowledge of God combines intellectual understanding with personal relationship. 'That I am the LORD whic...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(24) **Let him that glorieth glory in this . . .**—The passage is interesting as having clearly been present to the mind of St. Paul in writing 1Corinthians 1:31; 2Corinthians 10:17. He had learnt from it to estimate the wisdom and the greatness on which the Corinthians prided themselves at their true value. We may find a parallel even in the higher words which teach us that “eternal life is to kn...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
3. Cyrus had not visited the regions of the Euphrates and westward until he visited them for conquest. So the gospel conquests penetrated regions where the name of God was unknown before.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 23-26** In this world of sin and sorrow, ending soon in death and judgement, how foolish for men to glory in their knowledge, health, strength, riches, or in any thing which leaves them under the dominion of sin and the wrath of God! and of which an account must hereafter be rendered; it will but increase their misery. Those are the true Israel who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Ch...
Read full commentary →Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised; punish: Heb. visit upon
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse announces judgment on physical circumcision without spiritual reality: 'Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised.' The Hebrew mul (מוּל, circumcised) is combined with arelim (עֲרֵלִים, uncircumcised)—the phrase suggests 'circumcised in foreskin' or those physically circumcised but spiritually uncircumcised. God will ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(25) **I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised.**—The passage is difficult, but the English verse is misleading. Better, *I will punish all those that are circumcised in uncircumcision—*all, *i.e., *who have the outward sign, but not the inward purity of which it was the symbol. In the day of God’s judgments (this being the connecting link with the preceding verse) ther...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. Who--**else but God?
**calling ... generations from ... beginning--**The origin and position of all nations are from God (De 32:8; Ac 17:26); what is true of Cyrus and his conquests is true of all the movements of history from the first; all are from God.
**with the last--**that is, the last (Is 44:6; 48:12).
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 23-26** In this world of sin and sorrow, ending soon in death and judgement, how foolish for men to glory in their knowledge, health, strength, riches, or in any thing which leaves them under the dominion of sin and the wrath of God! and of which an account must hereafter be rendered; it will but increase their misery. Those are the true Israel who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Ch...
Read full commentary →Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart. in the utmost: Heb. cut off into corners, or, having the corners of their hair polled
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KJV Study Commentary
This verse lists nations facing judgment: 'Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness.' The Hebrew list includes Israel's major neighbors and trading partners. 'For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.' The climactic indictment equates Israel's hear...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(26) **Egypt, and Judah . . .**—The nations enumerated were all alike, the Egyptians certainly (Herod. ii. 36, 37), and the others, as belonging to the same race as Judah, probably, in the fact of circumcision, and are apparently brought together not without some touch of scornful humour. How could Israel pride itself in that which it had in common with some of the nations that it most abhorred. T...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. feared--**that they would be subdued.
**drew near, and came--**together, for mutual defense.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
**Verses 23-26** In this world of sin and sorrow, ending soon in death and judgement, how foolish for men to glory in their knowledge, health, strength, riches, or in any thing which leaves them under the dominion of sin and the wrath of God! and of which an account must hereafter be rendered; it will but increase their misery. Those are the true Israel who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Ch...
Read full commentary →