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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "//www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="//www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" /><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width; initial-scale=1.0;"/><title>Jeremiah 9 Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</title><link rel="canonical" href="https://biblehub.com/commentaries/expositors/jeremiah/9.htm" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/5001com.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="../spec.css" type="text/css" media="Screen" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 4800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 4800px)" href="/4801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1550px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1550px)" href="/1551.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1250px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1250px)" href="/1251.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 1050px), only screen and (max-device-width: 1050px)" href="/1051.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 900px), only screen and (max-device-width: 900px)" href="/901.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 800px), only screen and (max-device-width: 800px)" href="/801.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-width: 575px), only screen and (max-device-width: 575px)" href="/501.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link media="handheld, only screen and (max-height: 450px), only screen and (max-device-height: 450px)" href="/h451.css" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" /><link rel="stylesheet" href="/print.css" type="text/css" media="Print" /><script type="application/javascript" src="https://scripts.webcontentassessor.com/scripts/8a2459b64f9cac8122fc7f2eac4409c8555fac9383016db59c4c26e3d5b8b157"></script><script src='https://qd.admetricspro.com/js/biblehub/biblehub-layout-loader-revcatch.js'></script><script id='HyDgbd_1s' src='https://prebidads.revcatch.com/ads.js' type='text/javascript' async></script><script>(function(w,d,b,s,i){var cts=d.createElement(s);cts.async=true;cts.id='catchscript'; cts.dataset.appid=i;cts.src='https://app.protectsubrev.com/catch_rp.js?cb='+Math.random(); document.head.appendChild(cts); }) (window,document,'head','script','rc-anksrH');</script></head><body><div id="fx"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx2"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="30" scrolling="no" src="../cmenus/jeremiah/9.htm" align="left" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div><div id="blnk"></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable"><tr><td><div id="fx5"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" id="fx6"><tr><td><iframe width="100%" height="245" scrolling="no" src="//biblehu.com/bmcom/jeremiah/9-1.htm" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" class="maintable3"><tr><td><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center" id="announce"><tr><td><div id="l1"><div id="breadcrumbs"><a href="//biblehub.com">Bible</a> > <a href="/commentaries/">Commentary</a> > <a href="../">Ellicott</a> > <a href="../jeremiah/">Jeremiah</a></div><div id="anc"><iframe src="/anc.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></div><div id="anc2"><table width="100%" border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><iframe src="/anc2.htm" width="100%" height="27" scrolling="no" frameborder="0"></iframe></td></tr></table></div></div></td></tr></table><div id="movebox2"><table border="0" align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tr><td><div id="topheading"><a href="../jeremiah/8.htm" title="Jeremiah 8">◄</a> Jeremiah 9 <a href="../jeremiah/10.htm" title="Jeremiah 10">►</a></div></td></tr></table></div><div align="center" class="maintable2"><table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" align="center"><tr><td><div id="leftbox"><div class="padleft"><div class="vheading">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers</div><div class="chap"> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-1.htm">Jeremiah 9:1</a></div><div class="verse">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!</div>IX.</span><p>(1) <span class= "bld">Oh, that my head were waters . . .!</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">Who will give my head waters<span class= "bld"> . . .</span></span>? 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 speaking, there ought to be no break at all, and the discourse should flow on continuously.<p><span class= "bld">A fountain.</span>—Here, as in <a href="/jeremiah/2-13.htm" title="For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.">Jeremiah 2:13</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/17-13.htm" title="O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake you shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.">Jeremiah 17:13</a>, and elsewhere, the Hebrew word <span class= "ital">makor </span>is a tank or <span class= "ital">réservoir </span>rather than a spring.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-2.htm">Jeremiah 9:2</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>be</i> all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.</div>(2) <span class= "bld">Oh, that I had . . .!</span>—Literally, as before, <span class= "ital">Who will give<span class= "bld"> . . .</span></span>?<p><span class= "bld">A lodging place of wayfaring men.</span>—i.e., a place of shelter, a <span class= "ital">khan </span>or <span class= "ital">caravanserai, </span>such as were built for travellers, such, <span class= "ital">e.g., </span>as the “inn” of <a href="/genesis/42-27.htm" title="And as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he espied his money; for, behold, it was in his sack's mouth.">Genesis 42:27</a>, the “habitation” of Chimham (<a href="/jeremiah/41-17.htm" title="And they departed, and dwelled in the habitation of Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,">Jeremiah 41:17</a>), which the son of Barzillai had erected near Bethlehem, as an act of munificent gratitude to his adopted country (<a href="/2_samuel/19-40.htm" title="Then the king went on to Gilgal, and Chimham went on with him: and all the people of Judah conducted the king, and also half the people of Israel.">2Samuel 19:40</a>). In some such shelter, far from the cities of Judah, the prophet, with a feeling like that of the Psalmist (<a href="/context/psalms/55-6.htm" title="And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.">Psalm 55:6-8</a>) would fain find refuge from his treacherous enemies—“adulterers,” alike spiritually and literally (<a href="/jeremiah/5-8.htm" title="They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbor's wife.">Jeremiah 5:8</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-3.htm">Jeremiah 9:3</a></div><div class="verse">And they bend their tongues <i>like</i> their bow <i>for</i> 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.</div>(3) <span class= "bld">Like their bow for lies.</span>—The inserted words turn the boldness of the metaphor into a comparatively tame simile. <span class= "ital">They bend their tongue to be their bow of lies. </span>The same figure meets us in <a href="/psalms/57-4.htm" title="My soul is among lions: and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword.">Psalm 57:4</a>; <a href="/psalms/58-7.htm" title="Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bends his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.">Psalm 58:7</a>; <a href="/psalms/64-3.htm" title="Who whet their tongue like a sword, and bend their bows to shoot their arrows, even bitter words:">Psalm 64:3</a>.<p><span class= "bld">They are not valiant for the truth upon the earth.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">they are not mighty for truth, </span>i.e., <span class= "ital">faithfulness, in the land</span>—<span class= "ital">i.e., </span>they do not rule faithfully. It is not without some regret that we part with a phrase which has gained something of a proverbial character as applied to the champions of speculative truth or abstract right, but the above gives the true meaning of the Hebrew.<p><span class= "bld">They know not me.</span>—“Know” in the sense of acknowledging and obeying (<a href="/1_samuel/2-12.htm" title="Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the LORD.">1Samuel 2:12</a>; <a href="/job/18-21.htm" title="Surely such are the dwellings of the wicked, and this is the place of him that knows not God.">Job 18:21</a>). This was the root evil from which all other evils issued.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-4.htm">Jeremiah 9:4</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(4) <span class= "bld">Take ye heed . . .</span>—The extreme bitterness of the prophet’s words is explained in part by what we read afterwards of his personal history (<a href="/jeremiah/12-6.htm" title="For even your brothers, and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, they have called a multitude after you: believe them not, though they speak fair words to you.">Jeremiah 12:6</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/18-18.htm" title="Then said they, Come and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.">Jeremiah 18:18</a>). Then, as at other times, a man’s foes were those of his own household (<a href="/matthew/10-36.htm" title="And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.">Matthew 10:36</a>).<p><span class= "bld">Every brother will utterly supplant.</span>—The word is that which gave the patriarch his significant name of Jacob, the supplanter (<a href="/genesis/25-26.htm" title="And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob: and Isaac was three score years old when she bore them.">Genesis 25:26</a>; <a href="/genesis/27-36.htm" title="And he said, Is not he rightly named Jacob? for he has supplanted me these two times: he took away my birthright; and, behold, now he has taken away my blessing. And he said, Have you not reserved a blessing for me?">Genesis 27:36</a>). Jeremiah seems to say that the people have forfeited their claims to the name of the true Israel. Every brother Israelite is found to be a thorough-paced Jacob. The adverb “utterly” expresses the force of the Hebrew reduplication of the verb.<p><span class= "bld">Will walk with slanders.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">walketh a slanderer.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-5.htm">Jeremiah 9:5</a></div><div class="verse">And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies, <i>and</i> weary themselves to commit iniquity.</div>(5) <span class= "bld">Deceive.</span>—The word is commonly translated, as in the margin, <span class= "ital">mock. </span>(So in <a href="/1_kings/18-27.htm" title="And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleeps, and must be awaked.">1Kings 18:27</a>; <a href="/judges/16-10.htm" title="And Delilah said to Samson, Behold, you have mocked me, and told me lies: now tell me, I pray you, with which you might be bound.">Judges 16:10</a>; <a href="/judges/16-13.htm" title="And Delilah said to Samson, Till now you have mocked me, and told me lies: tell me with which you might be bound. And he said to her, If you weave the seven locks of my head with the web.">Judges 16:13</a>; <a href="/judges/16-15.htm" title="And she said to him, How can you say, I love you, when your heart is not with me? you have mocked me these three times, and have not told me wherein your great strength lies.">Judges 16:15</a>.) 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.<p><span class= "bld">To commit iniquity.</span>—Literally, <span class= "ital">to go crookedly, </span>or, in the strict sense of the word, <span class= "ital">to do wrong.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-6.htm">Jeremiah 9:6</a></div><div class="verse">Thine habitation <i>is</i> in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.</div>(6) <span class= "bld">Thine habitation . . .</span>—The words may be an individualised, and therefore more emphatic, reproduction of the general warning of <a href="/jeremiah/9-4.htm" title="Take you heed every one of his neighbor, and trust you not in any brother: for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will walk with slanders.">Jeremiah 9:4</a>. 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 adopted by Ewald, among recent commentators.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-7.htm">Jeremiah 9:7</a></div><div class="verse">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?</div>(7) <span class= "bld">I will melt them, and try them.</span>—The prophet, speaking in the name of Jehovah, falls back upon the imagery of <a href="/context/jeremiah/6-28.htm" title="They are all grievous rebels, walking with slanders: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.">Jeremiah 6:28-30</a>; <a href="/isaiah/48-10.htm" title="Behold, I have refined you, but not with silver; I have chosen you in the furnace of affliction.">Isaiah 48:10</a>. 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 <a href="/context/jeremiah/8-21.htm" title="For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment has taken hold on me.">Jeremiah 8:21-22</a>. The balm of Gilead had proved ineffectual. The disease required a severer remedy.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-8.htm">Jeremiah 9:8</a></div><div class="verse">Their tongue <i>is as</i> an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit: <i>one</i> speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait.</div>(8) <span class= "bld">An arrow shot out.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">an arrow that pierceth, </span>or <span class= "ital">slayeth.</span><p><span class= "bld">In heart.</span>—More literally, <span class= "ital">inwardly.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-9.htm">Jeremiah 9:9</a></div><div class="verse">Shall I not visit them for these <i>things</i>? saith the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?</div>(9) <span class= "bld">Shall I not visit . . .?</span>—The previous use of the same warning in <a href="/jeremiah/5-9.htm" title="Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD: and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?">Jeremiah 5:9</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/5-29.htm" title="Shall I not visit for these things? said the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?">Jeremiah 5:29</a> gives these words also the emphasis of iteration.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-10.htm">Jeremiah 9:10</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>them</i>; neither can <i>men</i> hear the voice of the cattle; both the fowl of the heavens and the beast are fled; they are gone.</div>(10) <span class= "bld">For the mountains . . .</span>—The Hebrew preposition means both “upon” and “on account of,” and probably both meanings were implied. The prophet sees himself <span class= "ital">upon </span>the mountains, taking up the lamentation <span class= "ital">for</span> them because they are “burned up.”<p><span class= "bld">The habitations.—</span>Better, as in the margin, <span class= "ital">pastures. </span>The wilderness is simply the wild open country.<p><span class= "bld">So that none can pass . . . neither can men hear.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">with none to pass through them . . .</span> <span class= "ital">neither do men hear.</span><p><span class= "bld">Both the fowl . . .</span>—The Hebrew is more emphatic; <span class= "ital">from the fowl of the heavens to the beast . . .</span> <span class= "ital">they are fled.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-11.htm">Jeremiah 9:11</a></div><div class="verse">And I will make Jerusalem heaps, <i>and</i> a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.</div>(11) <span class= "bld">A den of dragons.</span>—Better, here and in <a href="/jeremiah/10-22.htm" title="Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.">Jeremiah 10:22</a>; <a href="/isaiah/13-22.htm" title="And the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in their pleasant palaces: and her time is near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged.">Isaiah 13:22</a>, <span class= "ital">jackals. </span>The word means, literally, <span class= "ital">a howler. </span>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 word to those translated “serpent” in <a href="/context/exodus/7-9.htm" title="When Pharaoh shall speak to you, saying, Show a miracle for you: then you shall say to Aaron, Take your rod, and cast it before Pharaoh, and it shall become a serpent.">Exodus 7:9-10</a>; <a href="/exodus/7-12.htm" title="For they cast down every man his rod, and they became serpents: but Aaron's rod swallowed up their rods.">Exodus 7:12</a>, “whale” in <a href="/genesis/1-21.htm" title="And God created great whales, and every living creature that moves, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.">Genesis 1:21</a> and <a href="/job/7-12.htm" title="Am I a sea, or a whale, that you set a watch over me?">Job 7:12</a>, and “dragons” in <a href="/psalms/74-13.htm" title="You did divide the sea by your strength: you brake the heads of the dragons in the waters.">Psalm 74:13</a>; <a href="/psalms/91-13.htm" title="You shall tread on the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shall you trample under feet.">Psalm 91:13</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-12.htm">Jeremiah 9:12</a></div><div class="verse">Who <i>is</i> the wise man, that may understand this? and <i>who is he</i> to whom the mouth of the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth <i>and</i> is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through?</div>(12) <span class= "bld">Who is the wise man . . .?</span>—Sage (comp. <a href="/jeremiah/8-9.htm" title="The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: see, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?">Jeremiah 8:9</a>) 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.<p><span class= "bld">That none passeth through.</span>—The English is ambiguous. “That” stands either for a relative with “wilderness” as its antecedent, or as a conjunction equivalent to “so that.” Better, <span class= "ital">and none there is that passeth through.</span><p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-14.htm">Jeremiah 9:14</a></div><div class="verse">But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:</div>(14) <span class= "bld">Imagination.</span>—Stubbornness, as in <a href="/jeremiah/3-17.htm" title="At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the LORD; and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart.">Jeremiah 3:17</a>.<p><span class= "bld">Baalim.</span>—The generic name for false gods of all kinds, and therefore used in the plural. (Comp. <a href="/jeremiah/2-8.htm" title="The priests said not, Where is the LORD? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.">Jeremiah 2:8</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/2-23.htm" title="How can you say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see your way in the valley, know what you have done: you are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;">Jeremiah 2:23</a>.)<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-15.htm">Jeremiah 9:15</a></div><div class="verse">Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, <i>even</i> this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.</div>(15) <span class= "bld">Wormwood.</span>—As a plant, probably a species of <span class= "ital">Artemisia, </span>four species of which are found in Palestine. In <a href="/deuteronomy/29-18.htm" title="Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood;">Deuteronomy 29:18</a> it appears as the symbol of moral evil, here of the bitterness of calamity.<p><span class= "bld">Water of gall.</span>—See Note on <a href="/jeremiah/8-14.htm" title="Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defended cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.">Jeremiah 8:14</a>.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-17.htm">Jeremiah 9:17</a></div><div class="verse">Thus saith the LORD of hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come; and send for cunning <i>women</i>, that they may come:</div>(17) <span class= "bld">Mourning women . . .</span> <span class= "bld">cunning women.</span>—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” (<a href="/ecclesiastes/12-5.htm" title="Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets:">Ecclesiastes 12:5</a>), those that “are skilful of lamentation” (<a href="/amos/5-16.htm" title="Therefore the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD, said thus; Wailing shall be in all streets; and they shall say in all the highways, Alas! alas! and they shall call the farmer to mourning, and such as are skillful of lamentation to wailing.">Amos 5:16</a>), those that mourned for Jehoiakim (<a href="/jeremiah/22-18.htm" title="Therefore thus said the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; They shall not lament for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they shall not lament for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory!">Jeremiah 22:18</a>), those that “wept and wailed greatly” in the house of Jairus (<a href="/mark/5-38.htm" title="And he comes to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and sees the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.">Mark 5:38</a>). They are summoned as to the funeral, not of a friend or neighbour, but of the nation.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-18.htm">Jeremiah 9:18</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(18) <span class= "bld">Take up a wailing for us.</span>—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.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-19.htm">Jeremiah 9:19</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>us</i> out.</div>(19) <span class= "bld">We have forsaken.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">we have left. </span>The English version suggests a voluntary abandonment, which is not involved in the Hebrew.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-20.htm">Jeremiah 9:20</a></div><div class="verse">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.</div>(20) <span class= "bld">Teach your daughters wailing.</span>—The thought of <a href="/jeremiah/9-9.htm" title="Shall I not visit them for these things? said the LORD: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?">Jeremiah 9:9</a> 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 trained to meet it. Looking to the many other coincidences between our Lord’s teaching and that of Jeremiah, it is not too much to see in His words to the daughter of Jerusalem, “Weep for yourselves and for your children” (<a href="/context/luke/23-27.htm" title="And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.">Luke 23:27-28</a>), a parallel to what we read here.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-21.htm">Jeremiah 9:21</a></div><div class="verse">For death is come up into our windows, <i>and</i> is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, <i>and</i> the young men from the streets.</div>(21) <span class= "bld">Death is come up into our windows.</span>—“Death” stands here, as in <a href="/jeremiah/15-2.htm" title="And it shall come to pass, if they say to you, Where shall we go forth? then you shall tell them, Thus said the LORD; Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.">Jeremiah 15:2</a>, 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,” <span class= "ital">sc</span>., in the court-yard of the house, and the “young men” who else would gather, as were their wont, in the streets or the <span class= "ital">open places </span>of the city. The Hebrew word <span class= "ital">rehoboth </span>(comp. <a href="/genesis/26-22.htm" title="And he removed from there, and dig another well; and for that they strove not: and he called the name of it Rehoboth; and he said, For now the LORD has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.">Genesis 26:22</a>) answers to “piazza,” “square,” “market-place,” rather than to our street.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-22.htm">Jeremiah 9:22</a></div><div class="verse">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 <i>them</i>.</div>(22) <span class= "bld">Speak, Thus saith the Lord.</span>—The abrupt opening indicates a new prediction, coming to him unbidden, which he is constrained to utter as a message from Jehovah.<p><span class= "bld">As the handful.</span>—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 field till he returned to gather them up into larger sheaves. So should the bodies of the dead be strewn, the prophet says, on the open field, but there should be none to take them up and bury them.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-23.htm">Jeremiah 9:23</a></div><div class="verse">Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise <i>man</i> glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty <i>man</i> glory in his might, let not the rich <i>man</i> glory in his riches:</div>(23) <span class= "bld">Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom.</span>—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 <a href="/jeremiah/8-9.htm" title="The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: see, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?">Jeremiah 8:9</a>, and <a href="/jeremiah/9-12.htm" title="Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perishes and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passes through?">Jeremiah 9:12</a>, the scribe, or recognised teacher of the people<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-24.htm">Jeremiah 9:24</a></div><div class="verse">But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I <i>am</i> the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these <i>things</i> I delight, saith the LORD.</div>(24) <span class= "bld">Let him that glorieth glory in this . . .</span>—The passage is interesting as having clearly been present to the mind of St. Paul in writing <a href="/1_corinthians/1-31.htm" title="That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord.">1Corinthians 1:31</a>; <a href="/2_corinthians/10-17.htm" title="But he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.">2Corinthians 10:17</a>. 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 know God” (<a href="/john/17-3.htm" title="And this is life eternal, that they might know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.">John 17:3</a>), to understand those attributes, love, judgment, righteousness, which we associate with our thoughts of Him, as indeed they are in their infinite perfection, and which when we know them as we ought to know, we must needs strive to reproduce.<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-25.htm">Jeremiah 9:25</a></div><div class="verse">Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all <i>them which are</i> circumcised with the uncircumcised;</div>(25) <span class= "bld">I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised.</span>—The passage is difficult, but the English verse is misleading. Better, <span class= "ital">I will punish all those that are circumcised in uncircumcision—</span>all, <span class= "ital">i.e., </span>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) there would be no difference between the Jew and other races who like him practised circumcision on the one hand, and the outlying heathen world on the other. Here, again, Jeremiah anticipated St. Paul, “To the Jew first, and also to the Gentile; for there is no respect of persons with God” (<a href="/romans/2-9.htm" title="Tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man that does evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;">Romans 2:9</a>). The true circumcision is that which is “in the spirit, not in the letter” (<a href="/romans/2-29.htm" title="But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.">Romans 2:29</a>).<p> <div class="versenum"><a href="/jeremiah/9-26.htm">Jeremiah 9:26</a></div><div class="verse">Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all <i>that are</i> in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness: for all <i>these</i> nations <i>are</i> uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel <i>are</i> uncircumcised in the heart.</div>(26) <span class= "bld">Egypt, and Judah . . .</span>—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. The later Idumaeans seem to have abandoned the practice till it was forced upon them by John Hyrcanus (Joseph., <span class= "ital">Ant. xi.</span> 9, 15:7). Jerome (<span class= "ital">in loc.</span>) affirms that the nations named practised circumcision in his time, and its adoption by Islam indicates its prevalence among the Arabs in that of Mahomet.<p><span class= "bld">All that are in the utmost corners.</span>—Better, <span class= "ital">all that have the corners </span>(<span class= "ital">of their temples</span>)<span class= "ital"> shorn. </span>The epithet, like our “cross-eared” or “round-head,” was obviously one of scorn, and was applied (as again in <a href="/jeremiah/25-23.htm" title="Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,">Jeremiah 25:23</a>; <a href="/jeremiah/49-32.htm" title="And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil: and I will scatter into all winds them that are in the utmost corners; and I will bring their calamity from all sides thereof, said the LORD.">Jeremiah 49:32</a>) to a wild Arabian tribe who, as described by Herodotus (3:8), shaved their temples and let their hair grow long behind. The “wilderness” is the Arabian desert to the east of Palestine, inhabited by the Ishmaelites and other kindred races. As if to complete the contempt which he pours on circumcision, the prophet speaks of the barbarous people, whose customs were specially forbidden to Israel (<a href="/leviticus/19-27.htm" title="You shall not round the corners of your heads, neither shall you mar the corners of your beard.">Leviticus 19:27</a>), as in this respect standing on the same level with Israel. If circumcision by itself were enough to secure immunity from judgment, they too, as practising a rite analogous though not identical, might claim it.<p><span class= "bld">All these nations are uncircumcised.</span>—The English Version makes the prophet say exactly the opposite of what he really said. <span class= "ital">All the heathen </span>(not “these nations”) are in God’s sight as uncircumcised, whether they practise the outward rite or not—and the state of Israel was not a whit better than theirs, for she too was uncircumcised in heart. Once again Jeremiah is the forerunner of St. Paul’s <a href="/context/romans/2-25.htm" title="For circumcision truly profits, if you keep the law: but if you be a breaker of the law, your circumcision is made uncircumcision.">Romans 2:25-29</a>. It may be noted that the same nations are enumerated afterwards as coming under Nebuchadnezzar’s conquests (<a href="/jeremiah/25-23.htm" title="Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners,">Jeremiah 25:23</a>).<p><span class= "bld"><div id="botbox"><div class="padbot"><div align="center">Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers<br /><br />Text Courtesy of <a href="//biblesupport.com" target="_top">BibleSupport.com</a>. 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