Jeremiah 9:13

And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; BECAUSE THEY HAVE FORSAKEN MY LAW - answer to the "for what the land perisheth" ()....

Jeremiah now confirms what I have stated, and more fully explains it, — that though no teacher or a disciple was found in the land, yet there was sufficient power in God’s word alone, and that his judgment depended not on the will or the perceptions of men. After having then complained that all were foolish, and that there were no prophets to reprove their security and indifference, he adds, _Thus saith Jehovah _Here he sets God in opposition to all men, to the king and his courtiers, as well as to the common people. Who then is a wise man? as though He looked around him; and there was no man who considered. he was then in suspense; and afterwards he said, “There is no prophet to rouse them from their usual stupor.” He remained still in suspense; and then he turned to God and said, “But Jehovah has spoken;” that is, “Be it, that they are like brute beasts, though they arrogate to themsel...

12-22 In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and guarded. Nor are those more safe that are abroad; death cuts off even the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Hearken to the word of the Lord, and mourn with godly sorrow. This alone can bring true comfort; and it can turn the heaviest afflictions into precious mercies....

The punishment described in general terms in the preceding three verses is now detailed at great length. Jeremiah 9:10 THE HABITATIONS I. E - the temporary encampments of the shepherds (see Jeremiah 6:3). SO THAT NONE CAN ... - Or, “They are parched up, with no man to pass through them; neither do they hear the voice of cattle; from the birds of the heaven even to the beasts they “are fled, they are gone.” Jeremiah 9:11 DRAGONS - Rather, jackals. Jeremiah 9:12...

EXPOSITION JEREMIAH 9:1 The Hebrew more correctly attaches this verse to Jeremiah 8:1. OH THAT MY HEAD WERE WATERS, etc.! A quaint conceit, it may be said. But "if we have been going on pace for pace with the passion before, this sudden conversion of a strong-felt metaphor into something to be actually realized in nature, is strictly and strikingly natural." So Bishop Dearie, quoting, by way of illustration, Shakespeare's 'Richard II.,' "meditating on his own utter annihilation as to royalty:" "Oh that I were a mockery king of snow, To melt before the sun of Bolingbroke!" The tone of complaint continues in the following verse, though the subject is different....

AND THE LORD SAITH,.... The Septuagint version adds, "to me"; there being no wise and understanding man, nor prophet b, to take up this affair, and open the cause of it, therefore the Lord undertakes it himself: the question was put to them, but they not answering it, the Lord does it, BECAUSE THEY HAVE FORSAKEN MY LAW, WHICH I SET BEFORE THEM; in a plain and easy manner, so as to be readily understood; yet this they attended not unto, but forsook it, neglected it, and cast it behind their backs. Kimchi's note on the phrase, "before them", is, "not in heaven is it, nor beyond the sea is it;'' see Deuteronomy 30:11: AND HAVE NOT OBEYED MY VOICE; in the law, and by the prophets: NEITHER WALKED THEREIN: according to it, as the Lord directed; they neither hearkened to the voice of the Lord, nor did as

Jeremiah 9:1. _Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!_ Jeremiah foresaw that the Chaldeans would come up, and so many would be slain that the nation would be almost destroyed. Jeremiah 9:2. _Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men._ He mourned because of the doom that awaited them; but he equally mourned because of the sin that would bring that doom upon them. He wished that he could get away into one of those refuges, which were provided in lonely places, where travelers might lodge for a night....

CHAPTER 9 _ 1. The prophet's complaint and Jehovah's answer (Jeremiah 9:1) _ 2. The cause of desolation and destruction (Jeremiah 9:10) 3. The call for the mourning and wailing women (Jeremiah 9:17) 4. Glorying in the Lord in view of judgment (Jeremiah 9:23) Jeremiah 9:1. Here again is a deplorable break. The opening verses of this chapter belong to the preceding one. The prophet still speaks. He is overwhelmed with sorrow; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps day and night over the slain. He wish

FAITHLESSNESS AND ITS RETRIBUTION: THE DIRGE OF DEATH. The humblest caravanserai would be preferable to life among these evil men, with their calumnies and the unfaithful use of power by those in authority, their mutual deceit, and their untruthfulness (Jeremiah 9:2)_._ Yahweh will prove them in His furnace (Jeremiah 6:29), because of the wickedness of His people (so read in Jeremiah 9:7, with LXX, which continues preferably, after arrow, in Jeremiah 9:8, the words of their mouth are deceit, and omits with his mouth). Jeremiah 9:9 occurs in...

BECAUSE THEY HAVE FORSAKEN MY LAW. These three verses declared the reasons why these awful judgments shall come upon Israel. They had forsaken God's law; they had turned to the worship of Baalim, or the Baal gods; therefore they should reap the fruit of their sins and eat wormwood and drink gall. The bitterness of wormwood and gall are metaphors to declare the bitterness of the anguish....