Jeremiah 8:17

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD. I - Yahweh. COCKATRICES - basilisks (), i:e., enemies whose destructive power no means, by persuasion or otherwise, can counteract. Serpent charmers in the East entice serpents by music, and by a particular pressure on the neck render them incapable of darting (Psalms 58:4)....

He increases their terror by another comparison, — that not only enemies would violently attack them, but that their bitings would be venomous. He had spoken of horses, and mentioned their violent onsets; but he now expresses another thing, — that the Jews would have to carry on war with _vipers _and _basilisks _The Prophet no doubt only meant to shew that they could not possibly escape; for as from serpents men can hardly escape, especially when they are numerous, and assail them on every side, so he intimates, that the war would be fatal to the Jews, when attacked by serpents and vipers. _They shall bite you, _he says, _and for them _there will be _no incantation; _that is, by no means can they be driven away from you. If one asks, Can serpents be driven away by incantations? the answer is, — that the Prophet here does not refer to what is true, but speaks according to the common opini...

14-22 At length they begin to see the hand of God lifted up. And when God appears against us, every thing that is against us appears formidable. As salvation only can be found in the Lord, so the present moment should be seized. Is there no medicine proper for a sick and dying kingdom? Is there no skilful, faithful hand to apply the medicine? Yes, God is able to help and to heal them. If sinners die of their wounds, their blood is upon their own heads. The blood of Christ is balm in Gilead, his Spirit is the Physician there, all-sufficient; so that the people may be healed, but will not. Thus men die unpardoned and unchanged, for they will not come to Christ to be saved....

Verse Jeremiah 8:17. _I WILL SEND SERPENTS_] These were symbols of the enemies that were coming against them; a foe that would rather slay them and destroy the land than get booty and ransom....

I WILL SEND - Or, am sending. No prophet changes his metaphors so suddenly as Jeremiah. The invading army is now compared to snakes, whom no charming can soothe, and whose bite is fatal. Compare Numbers 21:5. COCKATRICES - “Vipers.” See Isaiah 11:8 note....

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 8:1 Punishment will even overtake the sinners who have long since been deceased. JEREMIAH 8:1 THEY SHALL BRING OUT THE BONES. Not only shall many of the dead bodies remain unburied, but the sepulchers of those who have till now "lain in honor, each one in his house" (Isaiah 14:18), shall be violated. THE INHABITANTS OF JERUSALEM meant are evidently those of the upper class, for the others were buried, with but little regard to the security of the corpses, in the valley of Kedron (2 Kings 23:6). According to some, the mot

FOR, BEHOLD, I WILL SEND SERPENTS, COCKATRICES, AMONG YOU,.... The Chaldeans, comparable to these noxious and hurtful creatures, because of the mischief they should do unto them. The Targum is, "for, lo, I will raise up against you people that kill as the destroying serpents.'' These were raised up by the Lord, and sent by him, just as he sent fiery serpents among the Israelites in the wilderness, when they sinned against him; there literally, here metaphorically. WHICH WILL NOT BE CHARMED: Jarchi says, at the end of seventy years a serpent becomes a cockatrice, and stops its ear, that it will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, according to Psalms 58:4, the meaning is, that these Chaldeans would not be diverted from their purposes in destroying of the Jews by any arts or methods whatever; as not by force of arms, so not by good words and entre

Jeremiah 8:1. _At that time, saith the LORD, they shall 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, out of their graves: and they shall spread them before the sun and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth._ This is an awful picture. Here is a nation that would worship the sun, and the moon, and the stars, instead of worshipping God. Here they are, and their bones lie exposed to the sun and moon and stars which they had worshipped, dead people before lifeless gods. This is all that idolatry produces for the ruined people wh

CHAPTER 8 _ 1. The horrors of the invasion (Jeremiah 8:1) _ 2. Hardened hearts and retribution (Jeremiah 8:4) 3. Utter destruction threatened (Jeremiah 8:13) 4. The prophet's lamentation (Jeremiah 8:18) Jeremiah 8:1. These verses must not be detached from the preceding chapter. The division of Chapter s is often unfortunate in this book. The invaders from the north would even have digged out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people who had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars shoul

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. ...