JEREMIAH CHAPTER 9 The prophet's lamentation continueth over their adultery, deceit, idolatry, which God would certainly punish, and they should be laid waste, when they should sufficiently lament, JEREMIAH 9:1. No trust in ourselves, but in God, who will punish all nations, JEREMIAH 9:23. OH THAT M... [ Continue Reading ]
He proceeds in his lamentation, which in the former verse he did, by way of compassion, in this in a way of indignation, Wishing for some retiring place, or sorry shed, or night cottage; SEE POOLE ON "ISAIAH 24:20"; though it were but some mean and sorry lint in the wilderness, as David, PSALMS 55:6... [ Continue Reading ]
BEND, Heb. _tread_, because bows are usually kneeled or trod upon when they are bent, JER 1 14 51:3. LIKE THEIR BOW; their tongues are here compared to a bow, and lies to arrows, because as a bow shoots out arrows, so doth the tongue words, PSALMS 64:3. FOR LIES, i.e. all reproachful, false, and nox... [ Continue Reading ]
TAKE YE HEED EVERY ONE OF HIS NEIGHBOUR; better rendered friend, or companion, as 2 SAMUEL 16:17, and in the next verse; showing the general corruption will be so malignant, that one friend will betray another; no faith in friends. WILL UTTERLY SUPPLANT; wholly given to it; Heb. _supplanting will su... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY WILL DECEIVE, Heb. _mock_, or _deride_; they are scoffers. _They have taught their tongue to speak lies_; they have so framed their tongues to it by custom and constant use, that lying is become so familiar to them that they cannot leave it. The same word is applied to the wild ass, used or tau... [ Continue Reading ]
This God speaks to the prophet, either to inform him that there is no hope of this people's reformation, JEREMIAH 8:5; therefore he expresseth a deceitful people by the abstract, DECEIT, i.e. nothing among them but deceit one to another, and hypocrisy towards me, as PSALMS 109:2, and vanity for vain... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL MELT THEM, AND TRY THEM; the same metaphor used JEREMIAH 6:29; try them by melting them, i.e. either I will try what lesser afflictions will do before I do utterly destroy them; or rather, I will bring judgment upon them, the fire and fury of the Chaldean war, that shall clear away their dros... [ Continue Reading ]
THEIR TONGUE IS AS AN ARROW: before, JEREMIAH 9:3, it was compared to a bow, i.e. ready prepared, and furnished with materials contriving their wickedness, PSALMS 11:2; and here to an arrow shot out, actually executing what they have designed. Some translate it _a murdering arrow. It speaketh deceit... [ Continue Reading ]
See JEREMIAH 5:9,29.... [ Continue Reading ]
The prophet having, JEREMIAH 9:1, taken up a lamentation for the slaughter of the people, he now reassumes it for the desolation of the whole land, every part of it being to be laid waste: see JEREMIAH 4:23,26. And it either sets forth the greatness of his grief, that shall reach to he very mountain... [ Continue Reading ]
HEAPS, viz. of stones and rubbish. A DEN OF DRAGONS; noting a desolate place, not any longer fit for fine habitation of mankind, as the next words do speak; but for hideous beasts; as they had made use of the temple for a _den of thieves_, JEREMIAH 7:11. The same also he afterwards threatens on Baby... [ Continue Reading ]
WHO IS THE WISE MAN, THAT MAY UNDERSTAND THIS, viz. the ground of all these evils? q.d. Is there not a wise man among you, that will concern himself and search into the cause of all these threatened judgments, which hath provoked God to so great displeasure? See HOSEA 14:9. It is a question that imp... [ Continue Reading ]
Either this and the next verse refer to the former, viz. because there are none can give the reason why the land perisheth, therefore God will; or else they refer to JEREMIAH 9:15,16, as showing the causes of those judgments threatened; for either of the references do not alter the sense: see JEREMI... [ Continue Reading ]
IMAGINATION, or stubbornness and obstinacy: see JEREMIAH 7:24. BAALIM: see JEREMIAH 2:23. The prophet doth not charge them with new crimes, but with their tenacious sticking to their idolatry. WHICH THEIR FATHERS TAUGHT THEM: see JEREMIAH 7:18. It seems they might partly thank their education for it... [ Continue Reading ]
EVEN THIS PEOPLE: this supplement _even_ shows that it is spoken emphatically, though they be a people that presume to be my peculiar. _Wormwood; worms_, Dutch Annotations. A plant to purify and cleanse them, say some; but this doth not seem to be spoken in favour to them; therefore rather some pois... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL SCATTER THEM ALSO AMONG THE HEATHEN; either you shall wander up and down among strangers, like Cain's curse; or rather, you shall have no friend abroad, but be sold as so many slaves from person to person. WHOM NEITHER THEY NOR THEIR FATHERS HAVE KNOWN; part of the curse threatened DEUTERONOM... [ Continue Reading ]
CONSIDER YE; either in how sad a condition you are, what circumstances you are under; or rather, bethink yourselves what course to take: and therefore he puts them upon mourning and bewailing their condition, intimated by the following expression. THE MOURNING WOMEN; a sort of persons, and principal... [ Continue Reading ]
LET THEM MAKE HASTE: as by the calling for their artificial mourners he did intimate the greatness of the misery that was coming upon them, that with all, their art they could not sufficiently bewail it; so here, by making haste, he intimates the near approach of it, that it was even at the doors. T... [ Continue Reading ]
IS HEARD OUT OF ZION, i.e. Jerusalem, spoken in the present tense, after the prophetical style, being a frequent way of the prophet's expressing the certainty of a thing. _How are we spoiled_ ! how great is our misery! or, how come we to be in such a desolate condition? possibly expressions of the a... [ Continue Reading ]
YET, or _therefore, hear the word of the Lord_, i.e. do not think I speak words out of my own mind or fancy, but what I speak is from the Lord. O YE WOMEN; either those hired women mentioned before, or rather the women of the land; for God would have it not a mercenary, but a real mourning; and he m... [ Continue Reading ]
DEATH IS COME UP; the unavoidableness of the ruin is expressed metaphorically, EZEKIEL 21:14 JEREMIAH 6:5, most likely alluding to the violent and universal storming of a city, JEREMIAH 5:10, wherein there is no respect had to sex, youth, or age. Several other allusions. See English Annotations. The... [ Continue Reading ]
SPEAK, THUS SAITH THE LORD; lest they should think these things would never be, cease not to tell them from me that they shall certainly come to pass, viz. what was said before, and what is said now in this verse (these words, _Speak, Thus saith the Lord_, being best read in a parenthesis). THE CARC... [ Continue Reading ]
The Jews did glory in the counsel of their _wise men_, the strength of the _soldiers_, and the wealth of their cities; but here God takes them off from their vain confidences, that neither their _counsels_ and _policy_, ECCLESIASTES 9:11, nor their _forces and arms_, PSALMS 33:16,17, nor their _weal... [ Continue Reading ]
UNDERSTANDETH AND KNOWETH ME: whether we make any curious distinction between _understanding_ God, as if that be more speculative, whereby we rightly apprehend his nature; and _knowing_ God, as if that be more practical, as directing the conversation; we need not here inquire; yet certainly both cen... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL PUNISH, viz. by the Babylonians, all them which are circumcised: q.d. Do not think to insist upon your external privilege of _circumcision_, that you are Abraham's natural seed, and thereby distinguished from other nations, as you sometimes were wont to do of the _temple_, that you had God in... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE UTMOST CORNERS: some refer this to the place of their habitation, as in corners, and remote parts of the wilderness, as it were separated from other nations, and therefore might think themselves furthest remote from danger; but some rather choose to refer it to their manners, as in cutting th... [ Continue Reading ]