Jeremiah 8:1

CHAPTER VIII

The judgments threatened in the last chapter are here declared

to extend to the very dead, whose tombs should be opened, and

the carcasses treated with every mark of indignity, 1-3.

From this the prophet returns to reprove them for their

perseverance in transgression, 4-6;

and for their thoughtless stupidity, which even the instinct of

the brute creation, by a beautiful contrast, is made to

upbraid, 7-9.

This leads to farther threatening expressed in a variety of

striking terms, 10-13.

Upon which a chorus of Jews is introduced, expressing their

terror on the news of the invasion, 14, 15;

which is greatly heightened in the next verse by the prophet's

hearing the snorting of Nebuchadnezzar's horses even from Dan,

and then seeing the devastation made by his army, 16,

whose cruelties God himself declares no entreaties will soften,

17.

On this declaration the prophet laments most bitterly the fate

of the daughter of his people, changing the scene unawares to

the place of her captivity, where she is introduced answering

in mournful responses to the prophet's dirge, 18-22.

The variety of images and figures used to diversify the same

subject is equally pleasing and astonishing. The dress is

generally new, always elegant.

NOTES ON CHAP. VIII

Verse Jeremiah 8:1. They shall bring out the bones] This and the two following verses are a continuation of the preceding prophecy, and should not have been separated from the foregoing chapter.

In order to pour the utmost contempt upon the land, the victorious enemies dragged out of their graves, caves, and sepulchres, the bones of kings, princes, prophets, priests, and the principal inhabitants, and exposed them in the open air; so that they became, in the order of God's judgments, a reproach to them in the vain confidence they had in the sun, moon, and the host of heaven-all the planets and stars, whose worship they had set up in opposition to that of Jehovah. This custom of raising the bodies of the dead, and scattering their bones about, seems to have been general. It was the highest expression of hatred and contempt. Horace refers to it: -

Barbarus, heu, cineres insistet victor, et urbem

Eques sonante verberabit ungula:

Quaeque carent ventis et solibus ossa Quirini

(Nefas videre) dissipabit insolens.

Epod. xvi. 11.

"Barbarians fell shall wanton with success,

Scatter the city's flaming ruins wide;

Or through her streets in vengeful triumph ride,

And her great founder's hallowed ashes spurn,

That slept uninjured in the sacred urn."

FRANCIS.

See this judgment referred to, Baruch 2:24, 25.