Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 8

Verse 1

8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring 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 {a} graves:

(a) The enemy for greediness will rifle your graves and lay you before those idols, who in your life you worshipped, to see if they can help you.

Verse 3

8:3 And death shall be chosen {b} rather than life by all the remnant of them that remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

(b) Because of the afflictions that they will feel through God’s judgments.

Verse 4

8:4 Moreover thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they {c} fall, and not rise? shall he turn away, and not return?

(c) Is there no hope that they will return?

Verse 6

8:6 I hearkened and heard, [but] they spoke not aright: no man repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every {d} one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth to the battle.

(d) They are full of hypocrisy, and everyone follows his own fantasy without any consideration.

Verse 7

8:7 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 {e} judgment of the LORD.

(e) He accuses them in that they are more ignorant of God’s judgments, than these birds are of their appointed seasons to discern the cold and heat.

Verse 8

8:8 How do ye say, We [are] wise, and the law of the LORD [is] with us? Lo, certainly in vain he hath made [it]; {f} the pen of the scribes [is] in vain.

(f) The law does not profit you neither need it to have been written for all that you have learned by it.

Verse 9

8:9 The {g} wise [men] are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom [is] in them?

(g) They who seem wise may be ashamed of their ignorance for all wisdom consists in God’s word.

Verse 11

8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, {h} Peace, peace; when [there is] no peace.

(h) See Geneva "Jeremiah 6:14"

Verse 14

8:14 Why do we sit still? {i} assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of {k} gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

(i) He speaks in the person of the people, who when the enemy comes will turn about to hide themselves and acknowledge that it is God’s hand.

(k) That is, has brought us into extreme affliction, and thus they will not attribute this plague to fortune, but to God’s just judgment, Jeremiah 9:15; Jeremiah 23:15 .

Verse 16

8:16 The snorting of his horses was heard from {l} Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell in it.

(l) Read Geneva "Jeremiah 4:15"

Verse 17

8:17 For, behold, I will {m} send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which [will] not [be] charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

(m) God threatens to send the Babylonians among them who will utterly destroy them in such sort, as by no means they will escape.

Verse 18

8:18 [When] I would {n} comfort myself against sorrow, my heart [is] faint in me.

(n) Read Jeremiah 4:19 .

Verse 19

8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a distant country: [Is] not the LORD in Zion? [is] not her king in her? Why {o} have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, [and] with foreign vanities?

(o) Thus the Lord speaks.

Verse 20

8:20 The {p} harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

(p) The people wonder that they have for so long a time looked for comfort in vain.

Verse 21

8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I {q} hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

(q) The prophet speaks this.

Verse 22

8:22 [Is there] no balm {r} in Gilead; [is there] no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

(r) Meaning,that no man’s help or means could save them: for in Gilead was precious balm, Jeremiah 46:11 or else deriding the vain confidence of the people, who looked to their priests for help, who would have been the physicians of their soul, and dwelt at Gilead, Hosea 6:8 .