Chapter Eight

1–3. Continuation of the pronouncement concerning the punishment of idolaters. 4–6. The Judeans are stubborn in their apostasy from Jehovah. 7–12. Their calculations will not come to pass. 13–17. The avenger draws near. 18–22. The prophet’s sorrow.

Jer 8:1-3. The dead idolaters will be disturbed in their grave rest, while the surviving Judeans will be led into captivity.

Jeremiah 8:1. At that time, says the Lord, they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves; The conquerors desecrated the tombs of kings and nobles because they sought precious ornaments buried with the dead, and perhaps also from a desire for revenge.

Jeremiah 8:2. and they shall scatter them before the sun and the moon and before all the host of heaven, whom they loved and whom they served and after whom they went, whom they sought and to whom they bowed down; they shall not be gathered up and not be buried: they shall become dung upon the earth. “Before the sun and the moon.” The Judeans when dead served these heavenly bodies, and now neither the sun nor the moon are able to protect the remains of those who worshiped them from desecration.

Jeremiah 8:4. And say to them: Thus says the Lord: Do those who have fallen not rise again, and those who have turned from the way not return? Jeremiah 8:5. Why does this people, Jerusalem, remain in stubborn apostasy? They cling firmly to deception and do not wish to turn back. Jeremiah 8:6. I have observed and listened: they do not speak the truth; no one repents of his wickedness; no one says: “What have I done?”; each turns to his own way, like a horse rushing into battle. The Judeans in no way wish to understand the necessity of repentance and continue to walk the path of iniquity. Jer 8:7-12. Being less wise than simple birds, the Judeans nevertheless consider themselves wise and boast that they possess the Law of the Lord. They have corrupted this law and do not keep it, and the priests and prophets comfort the people with false hopes. For this the Lord condemns them to destruction.

Jeremiah 8:7. The stork in the heavens knows its appointed times, and the turtledove, and the swallow, and the crane observe the time for their coming; but my people do not know the ordinance of the Lord. Birds have instinct, by which they know where they must fly; men have religion, religious feeling that draws them to God. But to the Hebrews this feeling is as if completely foreign. This is the thought of the verse.

Jeremiah 8:8. How can you say: “We are wise, and we have the Law of the Lord”? But behold, the false pen of the scribes has turned it into a lie. “The Law of the Lord” is not only the Torah, but all revelations from God in general, including the oracles of the prophets transmitted orally. “The scribes” are those educated people of the time, who took it upon themselves to be teachers of the people, but who misinterpreted the revelation. An example of their interpretations is given in verse 11. However, the opinion of Cornill and Marti that Jeremiah here points to insertions made by the scribes at the request of the priests into Deuteronomy is based on a misunderstanding of the expression “Law of the Lord,” supposedly meaning Deuteronomy.

Jeremiah 8:10. Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to new masters; because all of them, from the least to the greatest, are given to covetousness; from prophet to priest all act deceitfully. Jeremiah 8:11. And they treat the wound of the daughter of my people with carelessness, saying: “Peace, peace!” but there is no peace. Jeremiah 8:12. Are they ashamed of their abominations? No, they are not at all ashamed and do not blush. Therefore they will fall among the fallen; in the time of their visitation they will be brought down, says the Lord. See the explanation of Jer 6:12-14. Jer 8:13-17. The Lord will lay waste Judah, and the inhabitants themselves, foreseeing this, fall into complete despair.

Jeremiah 8:14. “Why do we sit? Let us gather together, let us go into the fortified cities, and there we shall perish; for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish and gives us water with gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord. The Judeans from the cities in the plains gathered to flee to the mountain cities, but they do not hope to be saved even there. They feel that the Lord Himself is against them. “Water with gall” means poison, or according to some interpreters, opium.

Jeremiah 8:15. We hoped for peace, but nothing good came, for a time of healing, but behold, terrors. The enemies of the Judeans are compared to serpents, from whose bite it is impossible to heal. “Basilisk” see Ps 90:13, Ps 57; Eccl 10:11. Jer 8:18-23. The prophet grieves over the fate of his people, all the more because he fully understands their guilt before Jehovah, whom the Judeans have forsaken.

Jeremiah 8:19. Behold, I hear the cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land: Is the Lord not in Zion? Is not her King in her? Why have they provoked me with their idols, with foreign, worthless things? The people appear to the prophet as already brought into captivity. He asks in perplexity: has the Lord ceased to regard Zion as his royal capital if he leaves this holy city in desolation, while its inhabitants are in a distant land? The Lord responds that the Judeans themselves are guilty for all that has occurred.

Jeremiah 8:20. The harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved. The people speak of how all their hopes for deliverance from captivity have been dashed. Like a farmer who has gathered nothing into his barns in spring hopes for a harvest in autumn. But sometimes this last hope also deceives him, and a hungry year awaits.

Jeremiah 8:22. Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the daughter of my people? Gilead balm was the best remedy for treating wounds. It was actually the resin of the mastic tree, exported from Palestine abroad (Gen 37:25). “There” most likely, the prophet speaks of Zion, where the Great Physician dwelt invisibly, in whose hands were all the means to heal the sickness of the Judean people, that is, once again Jehovah Himself. * * * Before the stars.