Jeremiah 8

At that time, says the LORD, people will dig up the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of its officials. They will also dig up the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the people who lived in Jerusalem.

1At 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:

NoteBurial was a duty owed to the dead, and to be left unburied was the worst disgrace imaginable in ancient Judah. Conquering armies did break open royal tombs, both to loot the valuables buried there and to humiliate the defeated. The list (kings, officials, priests, prophets) names the leading classes of the city, so the whole ruling order is being dragged out of the ground.

2They will spread the bones out under the sun, the moon, and all the stars of the sky, which these people loved, served, followed, asked for guidance, and worshiped. The bones will not be gathered up or buried. They will lie on the ground like manure.

2And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have 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.

NoteThe host of heaven means the sun, moon and stars, worshiped as gods. This was widespread in Judah's last century, largely borrowed from Assyrian and Babylonian practice; "asked for guidance" refers to reading the heavens for omens. The five verbs (loved, served, followed, consulted, worshiped) are the standard vocabulary of loyalty to a god.

3And everyone still left of this evil family, in every place where I have driven them, will choose death instead of life, says the LORD of Armies.

3And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

Note"LORD of Armies" translates a title usually printed as "LORD of hosts": the LORD who commands the armies of heaven. "Family" here does not mean a household but the whole nation, thought of as one extended clan descended from a common ancestor.

4You are also to say to them, This is what the LORD says: When people fall down, don't they get up again? When someone turns away, doesn't he turn back?

4Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

5Why then have these people of Jerusalem turned away, and gone on turning away and never coming back? They hold on tightly to lies. They refuse to return.

5Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

NoteVerses 4 and 5 turn on a single Hebrew verb, shuv, which means both "turn away" and "turn back." It is also the ordinary word for repenting. The argument is a pun: people who fall get up, people who turn away turn back, but this people has turned away and will not turn back.

6I listened carefully, but they do not say what is right. No one is sorry for the evil he has done. No one asks, What have I done? Each one runs off on his own path, like a horse charging into battle.

6I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

7Even the stork up in the sky knows the seasons set for her. The turtledove, the swift, and the thrush keep to the time when they are due to arrive. But my people do not know what the LORD requires.

7Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

NoteMigratory birds arriving on schedule were a proverbial example of creatures that keep to a fixed order. The exact species behind three of the four Hebrew names are uncertain; older translations guessed "turtle, crane and swallow," and any list of small migrating birds gives the sense.

8How can you say, We are wise, and we have the law of the LORD? Look, the pen of the scribes has worked falsely and turned that law into a lie.

8How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

NoteScribes were the professional copyists and teachers who wrote out the law and taught what it meant, the nearest thing Judah had to a class of lawyers. The Hebrew charge is open to two readings that ancient hearers could take either way: that the scribes falsified the written text as they copied it, or that their handling and teaching of a true text turned it into a lie.

9The wise men will be put to shame. They will be badly shaken and caught. They have rejected the word of the LORD, so what wisdom do they really have?

9The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

10So I will give their wives to other men, and their fields to new owners. From the least important to the greatest, every one of them is greedy for gain. From prophet to priest, every one of them cheats.

10Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

11They treat the deep wound of my dear people as if it were nothing. They say, Peace, peace, when there is no peace at all.

11For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Note"My dear people" renders a Hebrew phrase, "the daughter of my people," which speaks of the nation as a woman, a standard way of personifying a city or a people. The image in the verse is medical: binding up a serious wound carelessly, as if a scratch. "Peace" is Hebrew shalom, meaning safety and wholeness generally, not only the absence of war.

12Were they ashamed when they did these disgusting things? No, they were not ashamed at all. They did not even know how to blush. So they will fall along with everyone else who falls. When the time comes for me to punish them, they will be brought down, says the LORD.

12Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Note"These disgusting things" translates a word normally used for idol worship and the practices that went with it, the standard term for what was intolerable in Israel's religion.

13I will surely take everything away from them, says the LORD. There will be no grapes on the vine and no figs on the fig tree, and the leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.

13I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

NoteThe vine and the fig tree were the two ordinary signs of a settled, prosperous household in Judah; their failure was shorthand for ruin. The opening line is obscure in Hebrew: it can be read as "I will gather them in", as at harvest, or as "I will make an end of them," and the wordplay may be deliberate.

14Why are we sitting still? Gather together, and let us go into the walled cities, and let us be silent there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence and has given us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

14Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

NoteThe walled cities were the fortified towns where country people took shelter when an army came through. "Be silent" translates a Hebrew verb that also means "perish"; both senses are live here, which is why some translations read "let us perish there." "Poisoned water" is literally water of a bitter, poisonous plant, probably hemlock or something like it, the standard image for a draft forced on someone as punishment.

15We hoped for peace, but nothing good came. We hoped for a time of healing, and instead there is terror.

15We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

16The snorting of the enemy's horses is heard from Dan. The whole land shakes at the sound of his strong horses neighing. They have come and eaten up the land and everything in it, the city and everyone who lives there.

16The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

NoteDan was the northernmost town of the land, so an invading army coming down from the north was heard there first. To say a sound is heard "from Dan" is to say the alarm has reached the whole country from one end to the other.

17Look, I am sending snakes among you, poisonous vipers that no snake charmer can control, and they will bite you, says the LORD.

17For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the LORD.

NoteSnake charming was a familiar trade in the ancient Near East, and the point is that these snakes are immune to it. The KJV's "cockatrice" was a legendary serpent whose look could kill; the Hebrew word names a real venomous snake, though which species is unknown.

18When I try to comfort myself in my sorrow, my heart goes weak inside me.

18When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19Listen to the cry of my dear people from a land far away: Is the LORD not in Zion anymore? Is her king not there anymore? And the LORD answers, Why have they made me angry with their carved images and their worthless foreign idols?

19Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

NoteZion is the hill Jerusalem stood on, and by extension the city and its temple. "From a land far away" is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean the cry comes from a people already carried off into exile, or that it rises because of an enemy from far off. "Her king" is likewise open: it may mean the LORD as Zion's king, or the human king of David's line.

20The harvest time has gone by, the summer is over, and we have not been saved.

20The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

NoteA proverb about the farming year. Grain was cut in late spring, summer fruit gathered before autumn; once both are in, nothing more will come from the fields until the following year. To have passed both without rescue is to have run out of chances.

21Because my dear people are broken, I am broken too. I am in mourning and my face is dark, and horror has taken hold of me.

21For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

NoteThe Hebrew says literally "I am darkened." It can mean wearing the dark, coarse clothing of a mourner, or the darkening of the face that goes with grief; ancient readers heard both.

22Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no doctor there? Why then has the health of my dear people not come back?

22Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

NoteGilead was the highland region east of the Jordan, known for an aromatic resin tapped from local trees and traded as an ointment for wounds, the region's most famous export and a byword for reliable medicine. The questions are rhetorical: the medicine exists, and the patient is still not healed.