Jeremiah 8:4-22

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 8:4-12

The prophet here is instructed to set before this people the folly of their impenitence, which was it that brought this ruin upon them. They are here represented as the most stupid senseless people in the world, that would not be made wise by all the methods that Infinite Wisdom took to bring them to themselves and their right mind, and so to prevent the ruin that was coming upon them. I. They would not attend to the dictates of reason. They would not act in the affairs of their souls with the... read more

Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Jeremiah 8:13-22

In these verses we have, I. God threatening the destruction of a sinful people. He has borne long with them, but they are still more and more provoking, and therefore now their ruin is resolved on: I will surely consume them (Jer. 8:13), consuming I will consume them, not only surely, but utterly, consume them, will follow them with one judgment after another, till they are quite consumed; it is a consumption determined, Isa. 10:23. 1. They shall be quite stripped of all their comforts (Jer.... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:4

Moreover, thou shalt say unto them ,.... The Jews, in Jeremiah's time, in order to leave them inexcusable, though the Lord had before assured that they would not hearken to him, Jeremiah 7:27 , thus saith the Lord, shall they fall, and not rise ? men, when they fall, endeavour to get up again, and generally they do: shall he turn away, and not return ? when a man turns out of the right way into a wrong one, as soon as he is sensible of his mistake, he returns back; this is usually... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:5

Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding ?.... These people fill into sin, and rise not again by repentance; they turn out of the good ways of God and religion, and return not again; they backslide and revolt from the Lord, and they continue in their revolt and rebellion; their backsliding is an everlasting one; there is no hope of their repentance and recovery: it is a vehement and passionate expostulation about the people of the Jews, founded upon the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:6

I hearkened and heard ,.... These are either, the words of the prophet, as Kimchi and Abarbinel think; who listened and attended to, and made his observations upon, the words and actions, conduct and behaviour, of this people, of which he gives an account: or of the Lord himself, as the Targum; who hearkened to the language of their hearts and actions, and heard the words of their mouth; all that they spoke against him, against his prophets, and those that feared his name; all their lying... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:7

Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times ,.... Of going and returning; for this is a bird of passage, as Pliny F4 Nat. Hist. l. 10. c. 23. and other naturalists observe; which goes away as winter approaches, and returns when that is over. The temperature of the air, as to heat and cold, and the natural propensity of such birds of passage to breed their young, are thought to be the incentives to change their habitation; and wonderful thing it is in nature, that they... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:8

How do ye say, we are wise ,.... Which they were continually boasting of, though they were ignorant of the judgment of the Lord, and were more stupid than the stork, turtle, crane, and swallow: and the law of the Lord is with us ? this was the foundation of their boast, because the law was given to them, and not to the nations of the world, which knew not God, and therefore they must be a wise and understanding people; and this law continued with them, they had it in their synagogues,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:9

The wise men are ashamed ,.... Of the wisdom of which they boasted, when it would appear to be folly, and unprofitable to them: they are dismayed and taken ; frightened at the calamities coming upon them, and taken as in a snare, as the wise sometimes are in their own craftiness, Job 5:13 . Lo, they have rejected the word of the Lord ; sent by the prophets, which urged obedience to the law, and is the best explanation of it; but this they despised, and refused it: and what... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:10

Therefore will I give their wives unto others ,.... To strangers, to the Gentiles; than which nothing could be more disagreeable to them, or a sorer punishment, of a temporal one: and their fields to them that shall inherit them ; or, to the heirs F9 ליורשים "haeredibus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus. ; other and new ones; and who should possess them as if they were the true and rightful heirs of them. For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness;... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Jeremiah 8:11-12

For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people ,.... See Gill on Jeremiah 6:14 , Jeremiah 6:15 . read more

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