At that time, saith Jehovah, they shall bring forth 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;
Jeremiah 8 opens at the graves of Judah, torn open long after the burials. Judah had worshipped the sun and moon, and now their bones would lie under those same lights — so why does God's judgment reach past death itself?
These opening verses are not a new subject. They finish what God had begun to say in the chapter before.
These verses must not be detached from the preceding chapter. The division of chapters is often unfortunate in this book. The invaders from the north would even have dug out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars. Now they would lie exposed and spread out before the sun and moon. They would stay unburied and become dung. We have no doubt that all this really happened during the Chaldean invasion.
The chapter before had already spelled out the sentence.
The Lord had rejected the generation of His wrath. So the valley of slaughter would take the place of the high places of Tophet, in the valley of Hinnom's son. Tophet would have no more space for burial. The dead bodies of Judah would be food for birds and beasts, all joy would cease, and the land would be left desolate.
The bones are exposed to the sun, moon and stars because those were the objects Judah had served. Commentators point to what made that idolatry so serious.
What made this idolatry so offensive was the joining of the idols of the nations with Jehovah. Think of a plain, outright idolater. He was not nearly so evil as someone who shows that he knows the true God and still puts false gods on a level with Him.
The list in the verse runs from the throne down to the street.
The worst part of the national evil was that not just some of the people were guilty. The prophet says: "An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule at their direction; my people love to have it so, but what will you do when the end comes?"
The Hebrew word behind "their tombs" is qeber. It is the plain word for a burial plot — one a person owns and names.
Qeber appears as "grave of Abner" (2 Sam. 3:32); "his own grave" (1 Kings 13:30); "your grave" (2 Chron. 34:28); "their graves" (Jer. 8:1), and so on.
That is why the threat cuts so deep. In Judah, losing your burial meant losing your honour, and even a king could be denied it.
The prophet Jeremiah spoke about Jehoiakim, King of Judah: "With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem" (Jer. 22:19). Why was the king to be buried without any ceremony, just like a dead donkey? … No one thinks of mourning over a dead donkey. Why, then, was this king not to be mourned, and given a royal burial? Because he was so wicked.
Judah had seen idols and graves brought together before, when Josiah moved against idol worship.
Josiah burned the image at the brook Kidron and threw the ashes on graves. This showed that the idolatry was worthy only of the corruption of death.
- Loved. The sun, moon and stars in this passage are not scenery. They are what Judah had served and worshipped alongside the true God.
- Mixed. Judah kept the true God's name and set false gods beside Him. Commentators call that worse than plain, open idolatry.
- Shared. The verse names kings, officials, priests, prophets and citizens. The guilt ran through every class, and the people liked it that way.
- Exposed. The judgment matches the sin. The bones of sun-worshippers lie exposed before the sun and moon, with no burial — and in Judah, burial marked an honoured person.
- Literal. Writers take this as real history, not a picture. The invaders from the north did it. Josiah had already shown what idolatry earns: only the corruption of death.
and they shall spread them out to the sun and to the moon and to all the host of the heavens, which they have loved, and which they have served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought, and which they have worshipped they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the ground.
Jeremiah 7 ends with judgment falling on a city full of idols, and chapter 8 follows that judgment into the graveyard. Enemies drag out the bones of kings, priests and prophets, and lay them under the sun, moon and stars these people had served.
The chapter number in our Bibles marks a break the prophet never made. One writer reads these verses as the end of the sermon before them, and takes the scene as real history.
Verses 1–3. These verses must not be detached from the preceding chapter. The division of chapters in this book is often unfortunate. The invaders from the north would even have dug out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars. Now they would be exposed and spread out before the sun and moon, left unburied, and become dung. We have no doubt that all this was literally done during the Chaldean invasion.
Judah did not invent this. One writer traces the worship of sun and moon back to the earliest idolatry on record, and shows that Israel had already joined it to the idol Baal.
God's charge against the Northern Kingdom, when Assyria carried the people away captive, says that they "worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal" (2 Kings 17:16). Note how "all the host of heaven" is here linked with Baal. In Jeremiah 7:18 Ashtoreth is called "the queen of heaven." From Job 31:26–27 we gather that homage to the sun and moon was the earliest form of idolatry.
The verse piles up five verbs: loved, served, gone after, sought, worshipped. Writing on the same sin in Zephaniah, one commentator explains why God finds this kind of idolatry so offensive.
What made this idolatry so offensive was that they joined the idols of the nations to Jehovah. Being a plain, outright idolater was not nearly so evil. It is far worse to show that you know the true God and yet put false gods on a level with Him. This is the very outrage against God described here.
King Josiah had already acted out this judgment on a smaller scale. One writer describes his clean-up of the same star worship, and where he put the ashes.
Josiah removed the idolatrous priests from the high places in the cities of Judah. He also removed all who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon and to the constellations of stars in the whole heaven (v. 5). Judah had multiplied her gods beyond measure. They had even put a wooden image in the house of the Lord, just as many churches bring in images that look nice but insult the Lord Jesus. Josiah burned the image at the brook Kidron and threw the ashes on graves (v. 6). This showed that the idolatry was worthy only of the corruption of death.
Judgment on this scale still left the people unmoved. One writer follows the scene to its end, where the prophet looks for a cure and finds none.
"This evil family" would spread out the bones of the departed before the host of heaven, and even desire death themselves. Yet they knew no shame, "neither could they blush"; and no one repented of his wickedness. The prophet, feeling all this, cries, "Astonishment has taken hold of me! Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?" (Jeremiah 8:21–22). None could be found. There was no man. The coming of Christ is the only hope.
This cult did not stay in the ancient world. Another writer cites Jeremiah 8:2 and gives the practice its modern name.
They worshipped the hosts of the heavens from housetops. They worshipped the stars, and studied their movements as if they could give them help and a revelation. Astrology, so widely practised among civilised nations today, is an old cult (2 Kings 21:3, 5; Jeremiah 8:2; 19:13).
- Continuity. Verse 2 belongs with chapter 7. The chapter break splits one sermon, and the invaders carried out this desecration literally.
- Creation. "The host of heaven" means the sun, moon and stars. Worshipping them is the oldest idolatry, and in Israel it arrived alongside Baal.
- Confusion. The offence was not plain paganism but mixture. People who knew the true God set false gods beside Him.
- Corruption. Josiah had already thrown idol ashes on graves. That marked star worship as fit only for death, and the same verdict now falls on these bones.
- Callous. The bones lay exposed, and still no one blushed or repented. Judah had no balm and no physician, so the only hope left was the coming of Christ.
And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that remain of this evil family, in all the places whither I have driven those that remain, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Jeremiah 8 opens with the graves of Judah torn open, and verse 3 gives the verdict on the survivors: death will look better than life. Two questions follow — what judgment makes life unbearable, and who is "this evil family"?
This verse ends a long sentence of judgment that began in the chapter before. Just before it come Tophet and the valley of slaughter, where the dead of Judah lay unburied.
Obedience was what the Lord claimed, not burnt offerings to cover up their wrongdoing and stubborn wickedness... The Lord had rejected the generation of His wrath, and so the high places of Tophet in the valley of Hinnom's son would be replaced by the valley of slaughter. Tophet would have no more room for burial. The bodies of Judah would be food for birds and beasts. All joy would cease, and the land would be left desolate.
The horror of verses 1–3 was not poetry. One writer takes it as history waiting to happen:
Do not separate these verses from the previous chapter. The division of chapters is often unfortunate in this book. The invaders from the north would even dig out the bones of the dead. Kings, priests, prophets and people had worshipped the sun, the moon and the stars. The invaders would expose their bones and spread them out before the sun and moon, left unburied and turned into dung. We have no doubt that all this really happened during the Babylonian invasion.
The bones would lie before the very objects Judah had served. One writer traces that worship, and the astrology that still lives on from it:
They worshipped the host of heaven from their rooftops. They worshipped the stars. They studied their movements as if the stars could give them help and a revelation. Astrology, so widely practised among civilised nations today, is an old cult (2 Kings 21:3, 5; Jer. 8:2; 19:13). Others used the holy name of the LORD, and at the same time they used the name of the idol Malcham. All of it was a turning back from the LORD and a dishonouring of His name.
The sentence falls on survivors, not on the fallen. Nothing in them has changed. The prophet, not the people, feels the horror of it:
"This evil family" would spread out the bones of the dead before the host of heaven. They would even long for death themselves. Yet they knew no shame, "nor did they know how to blush," and no one repented of his wickedness. Feeling all this, the prophet cries out. "Dismay has taken hold on me! Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" (Jer. 8:21-22). None could be found. There was no man. The coming of Christ is the only hope.
The wording matters. One writer sets this verse beside the Lord's earlier words about "the generation of His wrath":
Again, "the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, declares the LORD" (Jer. 7:29-30). "Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family" (Jer. 8:3). Here the word is properly translated "family," with no limit of time.
That reading has a long reach. When Jesus said "this generation will not pass away," some take Him to mean the same thing Jeremiah meant:
So from all this it is clear that the term "this generation" was not meant to mean only the people alive in the Lord's day. It was meant, we believe, to refer to the Jewish race. That race shall not pass away till all is fulfilled. The word "generation" is used in that sense in the Septuagint, the old Greek translation of the Old Testament (Deut. 32:5, 20; Jer. 7:28; 8:3)... Israel remains still distinct, not counted among the nations, as Balaam predicted (Num. 23:9).
- Sin. Judah worshipped the sun, moon and stars, studying them for help and revelation. They mixed the holy name of the Lord in with the name of an idol. All of it was a turning away from Him.
- Sentence. The judgment reached past death itself. Invaders would drag the bones from the tombs and spread them, unburied, before the very lights Judah had honoured. One writer holds that this really happened when Babylon came.
- Survivors. The worst portion falls on those left alive. They long for death, yet feel no shame. No one repents. Misery without repentance is the deepest part of the sentence.
- Scope. "This evil family" is not one span of years but a race, marked out by its character. The same word lies behind "this generation" in the Gospels.
- Hope. Jeremiah looked for a balm and a physician in Judah and found none. "There was no man." Only the coming of Christ answers a family like this.