Jeremiah 8:4-17

Judah's Unnatural Conduct and its Punishment. There is something unnatural in the persistency of the people's misconduct; they show no inclination to return to Yahweh, but pursue a headstrong course away from Him (Jeremiah 8:6 mg.). They put themselves below the level of the very birds of heaven, the stork, the turtle-dove, the swift, and the swallow (so in Jeremiah 8:7), who know the time of their return in spring (after their winter migration; cf. Isaiah 1:3). Their alleged knowledge of Yahweh's teaching (law, Jeremiah 8:8) is delusive; they have been misled by insincere teachers, whose punishment awaits them. (Jeremiah 8:10 b - Jeremiah 8:12 should be omitted, with LXX; they have been repeated from Jeremiah 6:13.) They shall perish like a fruitless and withering tree (Jeremiah 8:13; contrast that of Jeremiah 17:8; cf. Psalms 13 ff.). The stricken people urge each other to gather into the cities, but they cannot escape the bitterness of their fate (Jeremiah 8:14). The invader approaches from the north (cf. Jeremiah 4:15), nor can his venomous assault be avoided as a snake-charmer avoids the bite of an adder (Jeremiah 8:17 mg.; the basilisk of RV is a reptile of fable).

Jeremiah 8:5. The emphasis should fall on perpetual. Omit of Jerusalem, with LXX.

Jeremiah 8:8. The reference is apparently to the Book of Deuteronomy, published some dozen years before. With its prophetic attack on heathen modes of worship, etc. Jeremiah was in full sympathy; but its priestly emphasis on the sanctuary and its ritual, and the resultant externalisation of religion, were quite alien to his teaching. [This view is taken by several of the best authorities, and may be correct. But a strong case can be made out for the view that Jeremiah's attitude to the law-book was more sympathetic, in which case the reference will be to regulations made by the scribes, which we do not possess. A. S. P.].

Jeremiah 8:13 f. Read mgg. gall or bile here stands figuratively for some bitter, if not poisonous, plant, which has not been identified; it is rendered hemlock in Hosea 10:4.