Jer. 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, Jer. 9:1–22. No trust in ourselves, but in God, who will punish all nations, Jer. 9:23–26.

Oh that my head were waters! Heb. Who will give, &c.? by way of inquiry, because the Hebrews do want the imperative mood. The prophet in this chapter principally bewailing his poor countrymen’s calamity, whom Its therefore calls the daughter of his people, he expresseth the greatness and excess of…

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 “Isa. 24:20”; though it were but some mean and sorry lint in the wilderness, as David, Ps.

Bend, Heb. tread, because bows are usually kneeled or trod upon when they are bent, Jer. 1:14, Jer. 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, Ps. 64:3. For lies, i.e.

Take ye heed every one of his neighbour; better rendered friend, or companion, as 2 Sam. 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.

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.

This God speaks to the prophet, either to inform him that there is no hope of this people’s reformation, Jer. 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 Ps.

I will melt them, and try them; the same metaphor used Jer. 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 dross…

Their tongue is as an arrow: before, Jer. 9:3, it was compared to a bow, i.e. ready prepared, and furnished with materials contriving their wickedness, Ps. 11:2; and here to an arrow shot out, actually executing what they have designed. Some translate it a murdering arrow.

See Jer. 5:9, Jer. 5:29.

The prophet having, Jer. 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 Jer. 4:23, Jer. 4:26.

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, Jer. 7:11.

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 Hos. 14:9.

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 Jer. 9:15–16, as showing the causes of those judgments threatened; for either of the references do not alter the sense: see Jer.

Imagination, or stubbornness and obstinacy: see Jer. 7:24. Baalim: see Jer. 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 Jer. 7:18.

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.

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 Deut.

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.

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.

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.

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…

Death is come up; the unavoidableness of the ruin is expressed metaphorically, Ezek. 21:14, Jer. 6:5, most likely alluding to the violent and universal storming of a city, Jer. 5:10, wherein there is no respect had to sex, youth, or age. Several other allusions. See English Annotations.

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 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, Eccles. 9:11, nor their forces and arms, Ps.

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 centre…

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…

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…