Shall I not visit them for these [things]? saith Jehovah; shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
God has just spent eight verses listing what He sees in Jerusalem. Now He asks a question that is not really a question, and the rest of the chapter answers it.
The question follows a list of what the Lord had watched among His own people. His own answer names what He will do to the city.
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wrongdoing, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." He asks, "Who is the wise man, that he may understand this?" Wormwood and poisoned water should be theirs. Call for the mourning women; let them teach their daughters to wail; desolation and death are coming (vv. 9-22).
Everything before this verse is the prophet's sorrow. Everything after it is the Lord's sentence.
The rest of the chapter (v. 18 to the end) and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 set out the prophet's grief over the deceitful malice of the people of the Lord. That malice kept them from knowing Him. Then, from verse 9, follows their judgment under the Lord's indignant displeasure.
Read in context, the words are God's reply to a weeping man. Jeremiah had poured out his grief; the Lord responds by repeating something He had already said twice earlier in the book.
The Lord answered him and once more asks the question: "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" (See chapter 5:9, 29.)
Because the same sentence had already sounded in chapter 5, its return here is not new information but confirmation. Writers describe the repetition itself as evidence.
They were revolted and gone in heart already. "Shall I not punish them for these things? [recounting their iniquities] declares the LORD, shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?" is the twofold witness of the prophet. People, prophets, priests loved falsehood together.
"Such a nation as this" is the nation God had chosen. That standing did not shield them. It made the reckoning certain.
His holiness in the temple of Dagon made the Philistine idol fall flat before Him. If that same holiness will strike the godless Philistine nation, it is no less intense when it comes to His own people. In fact, as we well know, judgment will begin at the house of God. The prophet reminds the people that they alone as a nation had been known by God. So far from giving them immunity from punishment, this was the pledge that they would get it if needed: "Therefore will I punish you for your iniquities."
The same stroke reaches further out. Vine points to the last verses of the chapter:
The punishment will not be limited to Israel; it will fall on "all nations".
The chapter does not end in judgment. The Lord names the one thing worth boasting in, and it is knowing Him.
As for His people, blessed be His Name, our God is satisfied with nothing less than their heart. And this is not about what they can be to Him, but about what He can be for them. "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD" (Jer. 9).
- Named — Adultery, lying, slander and ignorance of God fill verses 1–8. Verse 9 is God's verdict on that list, not a general complaint.
- Turned — Verse 9 is the hinge. The prophet's tears stop here and the Lord's sentence begins: a ruined Jerusalem, and mourning women teaching their daughters to wail.
- Repeated — The same words had already sounded twice in chapter 5. Kelly calls this "the twofold witness" — a sentence confirmed, not announced for the first time.
- Nearest first — Being the one nation God had known gave no immunity. It was the pledge of reckoning, since judgment begins at the house of God.
- Widened, then answered — The stroke reaches beyond Israel to all nations. The one refuge the chapter offers is not wisdom, might or riches, but knowing the Lord who delights in steadfast love, justice and righteousness.
For the mountains will I take up weeping and wailing, and for the pastures of the wilderness, a lamentation; for they are burnt up, so that none passeth through them; and the voice of the cattle is not heard. Both the fowl of the heavens and the beasts are fled; they are gone.
Two voices run through Jeremiah's ninth chapter. One is a prophet in tears. The other is God, who says He must act. Here the weeping falls on the mountains and the open pasture, not on people. Why should a nation's sin empty the land itself? And who weeps over the silence left behind?
The chapter does not begin with judgment. One writer marks where the prophet's grief ends and the announced judgment begins.
From verse 18 of chapter 8 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he proclaims judgment — a judgment which shall also visit the nations around. And in view of these judgments he exhorts every man not to glory in man, but in the knowledge of the LORD.
The man who delivers this sentence is not detached from it. One writer points out how heavily the message weighed on the prophet himself.
The prophet feels every word which he says. Was he telling them of the judgment that had fallen on them, was he telling them of their sin? It makes such an awful impression on him that he wished he had never been born, to have to declare such a message. As we tell lost sinners of their condition, do we feel the terror of the message? Would we not then feel something of God's compassion working through us, pleading with them, yes, weeping over them? See how Jeremiah in the ninth chapter looks on the sins of those people, whom he could denounce most sternly... Here is no indifference, but sorrow. It is human sorrow, and it sometimes leads the beloved prophet even to complain of God. Yet the divine pity shows through it.
That pity is not only the prophet's:
It shows the compassion and interest God has in the afflictions of His people, and that these are not lessened even when He Himself has brought the afflictions on them because of their sins. Scripture says of the Lord, "In all their affliction he was afflicted" (Isaiah 63:9). We saw this when the Lord was on earth and wept over Jerusalem.
The verse describes the ruin. The verses that follow give the reason.
Verses 10-16. Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of jackals. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they forsook His law, did not obey His voice, and practised idolatry. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
No cattle are heard, and the birds have gone. One writer, commenting on a similar passage in Hosea, shows what God was saying through that emptiness:
"Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away." God showed what He thought of it all by leaving the lower creation desolate. He reached even the creatures that seem farthest from man's control or influence. Such was the destruction and misery under God's hand because of Israel's sin.
Earlier in the book, Jeremiah sees the same empty land in a vision. One writer explains how far that vision reaches.
The coming disasters are so great that the vision before him reminds us of the world's chaotic state at the very beginning of Genesis. "I looked on the earth, and behold, it was without form and void; and to the heavens, and they had no light. I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking... I looked, and behold, there was no man, and all the birds of the air had fled. I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a desert." All this was a vision of the trouble hanging over the Jews, and in fact over the nations too. This prophecy goes far beyond the damage Nebuchadnezzar did. It also takes in judgments that repay sin, still in the future.
- Cause. The empty hills are not bad luck. The people forsook God's law, refused His voice and turned to idols, so God emptied their land.
- Reach. Sin never stops with the sinner. Cattle, birds and pasture share the loss, because God answers human evil by emptying the creation that depends on man.
- Weeping. The man who announces the ruin is the man who sobs over it. Jeremiah felt every word he had to say, and God's pity worked through his human grief.
- God's own grief. His compassion does not stop when the affliction comes from His own hand. The Lord wept over Jerusalem with that same heart.
- Scale. The ruin reaches past Nebuchadnezzar to judgments still ahead. The one safe boast is knowing the Lord.
And I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling-place of jackals; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
Who is a wise man, that he may understand this? and he to whom the mouth of Jehovah hath spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land perished, burnt up like a wilderness, so that none passeth through?
God is about to leave Jerusalem in heaps and empty the towns of Judah. Then comes a question: is there anyone who can make sense of such a disaster? The verse assumes there is a reason behind it, and that only one kind of person will see it.
The verse asks for two things at once: a wisdom that understands, and a man who has heard God speak and can pass it on. Both belong to the same person.
Jeremiah 9:12; wisdom understands God's dealings with His own people in judgment. The prophet Jeremiah was not only well taught, but he also submitted himself to God's thoughts.
The question sits between a list of the nation's sins and a scene of mourning.
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. The people were marked by adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, sin, double-dealing and not knowing God (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord; "yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." He asks, "Who is the wise man that may understand this?" … Call the mourning women; let them teach their daughters to wail; desolation and death are coming (vv. 9-22).
The question is not left hanging. God Himself names the reason for the desolation.
Verses 10-16. Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a home for wild animals. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they abandoned His law, did not obey His voice, and worshiped idols. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
God says they abandoned the law He set before them. So the law already existed in Jeremiah's day, and he knew it well.
If Jeremiah knew a Divine law, it must be the law Ezekiel knew, and so the law we know. It is certain that he knew such a law. He names it plainly, and often quotes it. For example, in Jer. 9:13 (12) the Lord says, "They have forsaken my law which I set before them."
Older translations read "the land perisheth." That word does not mean the end of a thing.
Our translators used both "destroy" and "perish" for ruin, where the thing stayed in ruins and did not come to an end… And so, though the righteous "perished," he entered into peace. Again we read, "the land perishes," and "the valley also shall perish." Again and again Scripture says Israel was to be "destroyed," and yet afterwards she would be brought back from captivity (Deut. 28, 30)… In none of these cases is the thing destroyed brought to an end.
Later in the chapter God shows where true wisdom rests. It is not in what a man has learned or owns.
Human learning and human resources are never worth boasting in. Real boasting is in understanding and knowing the Lord, who is righteous in all His ways here on earth and delights in goodness.
Why does this matter now?
Because we are living in the closing days of this age, and God is looking for wise men right to the very end. Think of Daniel and his friends. They were wise in days of great change and trial… But now it is for us to learn wisdom in God's school.
- Question — the verse asks who can read a ruined land and understand what God is doing in it.
- Qualification — the wise man is taught by God and submits to God's thoughts, as Jeremiah did.
- Cause — God names it Himself: they abandoned His law, disobeyed His voice, and turned to idols.
- Limit — "the land perishes" means ruin, not the end. Israel was destroyed, and afterwards God brought her back.
- Wisdom — it rests in knowing the Lord, not in human ability or wealth. God still looks for such people today.
And Jehovah saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not hearkened unto my voice, nor walked in it,
The Lord has just announced that Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins. The obvious question follows: why? This verse is God's own answer. It names three failures: a law abandoned, a voice ignored, and a path never walked.
God does not leave that question hanging. He answers it Himself, and the answer names their sin.
Verses 10-16. Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of dragons. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they forsook His law, obeyed not His voice, and practised idolatries. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
"My law that I set before them" points to something God really gave. One writer reads this verse next to others in Jeremiah. Together they show the prophet appealing to a written standard already in the nation's hands, not to a vague ideal.
If Jeremiah knew a divine law, it must be the same law the prophet Ezekiel knew, and so the same law we have. He certainly knew such a law. He names it plainly, and often quotes it. So in Jeremiah 9:13 the Lord says, "they have forsaken my law that I set before them." In Jeremiah 16:11, "They have not kept my law." In Jeremiah 6:19, "They have not paid attention to my words; and as for my law, they have rejected it." And in Jeremiah 32 the prophet says, "They did not obey your voice or walk in your law."
"Have not obeyed my voice" names what God wanted from them. Earlier in this same book He had already turned down their substitute. They brought religious ritual in place of a changed life.
The rest of Jeremiah 7 reminds the people that obedience was Jehovah's claim, not burnt offerings to cover up their transgressions and stubborn wickedness.
The third charge is that they never walked in the law. They still put on a show of wisdom. One writer compares them with birds, which at least keep to their proper seasons.
The prophet was to confront the people of Jerusalem about their constant and unrepentant backsliding. They were less alert than the familiar birds, large or small, which keep to their proper seasons. Yet the people kept up every show of wisdom. But what wisdom is there in those who reject the word of the Lord?
The charge returns again in Jeremiah, and it is personal: they have forsaken Me. One writer shows what fills the space when someone leaves God. The person turns inward, lives by his own ideas, and thinks it pious.
Again the secret of all this sorrow is repeated: "they have forsaken me, declares the LORD." They have followed other gods and walked after the imagination of their own hearts, "that they may not listen to me." This miserable inward turn always follows turning away from the Lord Himself. It caused the great damage then, and it is doing the same now. No doubt the feelings and moods are thought to be good and pious and wise. But it is self-occupation all the same, and contrary to the true knowledge of the blessed God.
Jeremiah does not stop at the diagnosis. The same chapter turns from every human ground of confidence to knowing God Himself. That is where the cure begins.
The path of restoration is a return, not to outward observances, but to Himself, and nothing less. "If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to me you should return." As for His people, our God is satisfied with nothing less than their heart. This is not about what they can be to Him, but about what He can be for them. "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD."
- Cause. The ruin of the land had one stated reason. They forsook His law, did not obey His voice, and turned to idols. The desolation was the harvest, not an accident.
- Given. The law was no vague ideal. Jeremiah quotes it again and again as something God had set before the nation. That is why forsaking it counted as guilt.
- Claimed. God claimed obedience, not offerings brought to cover stubborn wickedness. Sacrifice was never a substitute for a listening heart.
- Hollow. They kept up a show of wisdom while rejecting the word of the Lord. Owning Scripture without walking in it is not wisdom. Even the birds were more alert, keeping to their proper seasons.
- Personal. Behind the abandoned law stands an abandoned Person. Leaving the Lord leaves a man taken up with himself. The way back is a return to Him, and a boast in knowing Him.
but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them;
God is answering a question: why is the land ruined? His answer has two parts. The people let go of His law, then they followed their own hearts. And the path they took was one their parents had already taught them. So self-will and inherited idolatry stand side by side in one verse.
One summary of these verses keeps the cause and the result in order:
Verses 10-16. Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of dragons. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they abandoned His law, did not obey His voice, and practiced idolatries. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
Jeremiah repeats this charge about following your own heart. One writer names what lies underneath it:
Again the secret of all this sorrow is repeated: "They have forsaken ME says the Lord"; they have followed other gods and walked after the imagination of their own hearts, "that they may not listen to ME." This wretched turning inward always follows turning away from the Lord Himself. It caused the great damage then, just as it is doing now. No doubt the feelings and moods seem good and pious and wise, but it is self-occupation all the same, and contrary to the true knowledge of the blessed God.
Older translations read "the imagination of their own hearts" where the ESV has "stubbornly followed their own hearts." Both point the same way: religion shaped by what a person feels can look pious and still be a turn away from God.
The verse ties the heart's own way to the Baals. One writer applies this to everyone, not just to ancient Judah:
You say, how could a people think that was religious worship? Dear friends, it is just what all men do; they turn away from the God who has revealed Himself to us in Christ, they make a god of their own imagination, they give free rein to the lusts of their own hearts. That is why there is so much corruption in the name of religion. And oh, it should make us tremble! If you or I depart from obedience to God and begin to serve a god of our own imagining, God will give us up to the desires of our own corrupt hearts.
The name itself explains the appeal. One writer unpacks it:
They began their descent by serving the Baals. This word means "lords," just as today there are many who will talk about "the Lord" while not at all meaning the Lord Jesus, for "although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth — as indeed there are many 'gods' and many 'lords'" (1 Cor. 8:5). People commonly prefer a substitute that will not try their consciences.
"As their fathers taught them" makes this a family story, not just a personal one. God's command against idols carried a warning about children. One writer explains why:
God knew how terribly infectious such idolatrous practices are; and that if the fathers start them the epidemic rages with tenfold strength in the children, and brings down the judgment on their heads.
If the ruin began by leaving God for the heart's own inventions, the repair cannot be a change of routine. It has to be a return to a Person:
The path of restoration is a return, not to outward observances, but to Himself, and nothing short of that. "If you return, O Israel, declares the LORD, to ME you should return" (Jer. 4:1). When it comes to His people, blessed be His Name, our God is satisfied with nothing less than their heart. And this is not about what they can be to Him, but rather about what He can be for them.
- Forsaking — The ruin had one stated cause: they abandoned God's law and did not obey His voice. Judgment followed as a consequence, not a whim.
- Inward turn — When God Himself is no longer the heart's object, the heart turns in on itself. It feels pious. It is self-occupation.
- Lords — "Baal" means lord. People chose these lords because a god who never troubles the conscience is easier to keep than the true One.
- Inherited — Idolatry spreads down a family line. What parents begin, children carry further.
- Handed over — A god of our own imagining ends with God giving us up to our own desires. The way back is not a tidier religion but a return to Him.
therefore thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will feed this people with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink,
The land lies in ruins, and God here says why. The cause is a broken relationship, and the sentence that follows is a meal of bitterness and a cup of poison.
The bitter food is not random. One writer sets out the case behind it, moving from cause to result.
Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of dragons. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they forsook His law, did not obey His voice, and practised idolatries. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
Older translations call the two images "wormwood" and "water of gall." Neither is a real dish. Both are plants, and Scripture uses them only as pictures.
Wormwood occurs in Scripture only in a figurative sense. Turning to idolatry is compared to being a root that bears gall and wormwood (Deut. 29:18)... Because of the wickedness of His people, God said He would feed them with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink (Jer. 9:15; Jer. 23:15). Jeremiah, lamenting over the condition of Israel, compared it to being drunk with wormwood (Lam. 3:15, 19). When the third trumpet sounds in Revelation, a star named Wormwood falls from heaven. A third of the waters turn to wormwood, and many men die. The moral sources of life will become destructive.
The other word is just as strong. Gall means "some extremely bitter or poisonous plant, not definitely identified," a word that stands for bitterness (Morrish Bible Dictionary).
The image already carried a warning in the law. One writer follows it forward to this verse.
Deuteronomy 29:19-20 speaks of the man who hears the curses of the law and says, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my own heart." Scripture likens him to a root that bears gall and wormwood... In Jeremiah 9:15, wormwood seems to be the bitter results of disobedience, even being scattered among the nations.
One writer walks through the whole chapter, from the prophet's tears to the one boast left standing.
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander and deception marked the people. So did wickedness, double-dealing and ignorance of God (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord... Wormwood and water of gall should be theirs. Let the mourning women be called... And in the two verses between (vv. 23-24), Jeremiah exalts the blessed Lord before the eyes of faith. He says, "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom... but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows ME, that I am the Lord who exercises loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth."
The same word reappears at the cross, where it had a practical use.
Gall was mixed with the sour wine or vinegar that the Roman soldiers drank. Men about to be crucified were given this mixture. People now think the purpose was to make them less sensitive to the torture. It was offered to the Lord, but refused (Ps. 69:21; Matt. 27:34).
He did not push it away untasted, and one writer explains what that deliberate order shows.
He tasted it first before refusing it. Of course He knew what it was before He tasted it. But by tasting it He let His enemies know something. He was not refusing a drink out of defiance. He refused it because of the numbing gall added to it. He would bear His sufferings without this, in full consciousness of all that was involved — not only in what men did to Him, but in the far deeper suffering of being made a curse of God.
Jeremiah later drank what he had announced. In Lamentations 3 he tells what he did with that memory.
From verse 19 he spreads it all out before the Lord and asks Him to remember it. Out of the utter collapse of his soul he begins to gain confidence. "Remembering my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall. My soul still remembers them, and is humbled within me. This I call to mind, therefore I have hope." It is not Christ, but certainly the Spirit of Christ leading on an afflicted and broken heart. Weeping may last for a night, but joy comes in the morning.
- Cause — The bitter portion follows a charge: they left His law, ignored His voice, and turned to idols.
- Picture — Wormwood and gall are never real food. They are bitter, poisonous plants, and Scripture uses them as images of bitterness and of life's sources turned deadly.
- Fruit — They taste the bitter result of their own disobedience, and it ends with them scattered among the nations.
- Contrast — The same chapter leaves one boast standing: knowing the Lord Himself, who exercises loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness.
- Reversal — Christ tasted the gall at the cross and refused it, choosing to suffer with a clear mind. Jeremiah remembered his own wormwood and gall, and in that memory he found hope.
and will scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them.
Verse 15 promised bitter food and poisonous water; verse 16 names where they will drink it — far from home, among strangers, with a sword behind them. Was this just a small nation collapsing, or God's own act, and does "until I have consumed them" mean the end of Israel?
Verse 15 promised bitter food; older translations call it wormwood, a bitter plant. One writer explains what that bitterness points to.
In Jeremiah 9:15, wormwood seems to mean the bitter results of disobedience — even the scattering among the nations.
The sentence does not fall out of nowhere. Chapter 9 opens with the prophet weeping, and the list of what he weeps over explains the verdict that follows.
Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, iniquity, duplicity and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things?" says the Lord. "Yes, I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." Then he asks: who is the wise man that may understand this?
Exile was not God's first move against them. One writer traces the steps that came before it, and what life after it would be like.
So God had to deal with them in judgment. Yet how slow to anger He was! He sent one blow only after the blow before it had failed to bring them to repentance. At last exile had to be their lot. Then, as exiles and captives, they would find the Lord's face, once turned towards them, turned away. The sound of a shaken leaf would chase them. They would run as if from a sword, and fall when no one was chasing them. They would perish among the nations, and the land of their enemies would swallow them up.
Being sent away is not being let off. One writer sets the scattering beside two other judgments falling at the same time.
We see then how God dealt with them. One third would die of plague and famine inside the besieged city. One third would fall by the sword around Jerusalem. The last third God would scatter to every wind, and He would draw a sword after them.
Human armies carried out the exile. Yet God says, "I will scatter them." One writer shows how Daniel prayed about that same scattering.
He lays hold of a deeply important principle. When division and scattering have happened, we must accept these evils as coming from God, acting in His holy discipline. They are not merely the result of particular acts of folly or wickedness by individual men... So Daniel loses sight of the folly and wickedness of individual men. He mentions no names. He does not point to Nebuchadnezzar's ruthless violence. Looking beyond these men, he sees in the scattering the hand of a righteous God.
On their own, the closing words sound like the end of the nation. Later in the same book God speaks to that fear. One writer notes what the people had reason to dread.
The chapter ends with consolation to the chosen people, who might well have dreaded utter extinction now for their folly and self-will. "Fear not, O Jacob my servant, declares the LORD, for I am with you. I will make a full end of all the nations to which I have driven you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will discipline you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished." The Lord is full of compassion and tender mercy.
God made a full end of the nations, but not of His own. One writer draws out the lesson for believers today.
This contrast teaches us something important about discipline. It is not designed to destroy. It is designed to restore and to lead to blessing. God may discipline believers, but He does not condemn them with the world.
- Cause — Chapter 9 lists the reasons: lying, treachery, slander, and under it all, not knowing God.
- Patience — Exile was the last blow after many. God struck again and again, each time hoping for repentance, before He sent them away.
- Hand — The armies were human; the sentence was God's. Daniel's prayer names no man. It sees only the hand of a righteous God.
- Pursuit — Distance was no shelter. God drew a sword after them, so the unknown nations became a place of judgment, not escape.
- Limit — He made a full end of the nations He drove them into, but not of them. Discipline is meant to restore, never to destroy.
Thus saith Jehovah of hosts Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for the skilful women, that they may come;
God tells the prophet to send for the women whose trade is grief. Jerusalem is about to need them. So why does God call for hired weeping? And what use is a wail ordered in advance?
The call for mourners does not stand alone. It comes after the prophet has poured out his own grief and started to announce judgment.
From verse 18 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he announces judgment. That judgment will also reach the nations around them.
The "mourning women" and "skillful women" of the verse held a real job. Grief in Israel was loud and public, and God tested it for what was real.
It was the habit of the Hebrews, as it still is in the East, to make a great demonstration of their mourning. They would beat their breasts, cover their heads, and fast. They put dust and ashes on their heads, neglected their hair, and wore dull-coloured clothes. They tore their clothes, wore sackcloth, and so on... At a death professional mourners were hired, mostly women... God does not want grieving people to be without feeling. The Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus. But He wants what is real in everything. He had to say to His people, "Rend your hearts and not your garments." Joel 2:13.
A few verses later the prophet gives the reason. Death climbs in where a family thought itself safe. One writer also notes something unsettling about these women.
Verses 17-22. The time of wailing and mourning is at hand. "For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares." Pestilence was to sweep over them and enter their homes. So came the call to the professional wailers to sing the mournful songs of death. These wailing women are also called "wise women." They dabbled in magic and the occult, in contacting spirits, and in fortune-telling.
The call is urgent, and the scale of the coming death explains why. By verse 22 the dead lie ungathered.
They had good reason to call (v. 17) for mourning women, and to call in haste. Men will fall like the handful left behind the reaper, and no one will be there to gather them (v. 22).
The same writer shows what happens when deaths come faster than mourning can keep up.
When deaths are few there may be time to mourn with one and another, but when death is in every house it is too late.
The verse calls these women "skillful," and skill is where the danger lies. Weeping that starts as real sympathy can end as a paid performance.
Those examples of mourning were sincere, but real grief, which grows out of sympathy for a neighbour, was twisted into shallow professionalism. Mourning became an art, and some won a reputation for their skill (Amos 5:16). Mourning women held themselves ready to come and take up a wailing for the departed (Jer. 9:17-18), sometimes expressing themselves in elegies (2 Chron. 35:25).
The chapter does not end in the wailing. In the middle of the chapter he lifts the reader's eyes to something that survives the ruin.
In the two verses between (vv. 23-24), Jeremiah, true to his name, lifts up the blessed Lord before the eyes of faith. He says: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the Lord".
- Sentence. The call for mourners follows a sentence already passed. From verse 3 Jeremiah announces judgment, and it reaches the nations around too.
- Summons. The "mourning women" were paid professionals. Hired weeping was normal. God's order to send for them means funerals are coming.
- Scale. The dead will outnumber the mourners. Men fall like grain behind the reaper, and no one gathers them. When death is in every house, it is too late to mourn.
- Sincerity. Skilled mourning can slide from real sympathy into performance. God does not ask grieving people to feel nothing. He asks for torn hearts, not torn clothes.
- Substance. The chapter's answer is not better mourning but a better boast: knowing the God who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth.
and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids pour forth waters.
Jeremiah 9 turns from God's charge against a lying people to the sound of a funeral: hire the wailing women, hurry, and get the whole nation weeping. But can bought tears stand in for a broken heart, and what does God want from grief?
The call for wailing women follows a charge, not a private loss. One writer traces the chapter's order: deceit, then judgment, then the hurried call for mourners.
The rest of the chapter (verses 18 to the end) and the first eight verses of Jeremiah 9 set out the prophet's distress. He grieved over the deceitful malice of the Lord's people, which kept them from knowing Him. Then, from verse 9, follows their judgment under the Lord's angry displeasure. Well might they call (verse 17) for mourning women, and in haste. Men shall fall like the handful left behind the reaper, but in their case with no one to gather them.
These wailing women worked a trade. One writer describes the disaster they were called to sing over, and the other business they were known for.
The time of wailing and mourning is at hand. "For death has come up into our windows, it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares." A plague was to sweep over them and enter their homes. So the call goes out to the professional wailers to sing the mournful songs of death. These wailing women are also called "wise women," for they dabbled in magic and the occult, in familiar spirits and fortune-telling.
Mourning among the Hebrews was loud and visible, and hired mourners were part of it. One writer sets that custom beside what God asks for instead.
It was the habit of the Hebrews, as it still is in the East, to make a great show of their mourning. They would beat their breasts, cover their heads, fast, put dust and ashes on their heads, tear their clothes, wear sackcloth, and so on… At a death people hired professional mourners, mostly women: "Call for the mourning women to come… let them make haste and raise a wailing over us." Jeremiah 9:17-18. God does not want grieving people to be without feeling: the Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, but He would have reality in everything. He had to say to His people, "Rend your hearts and not your garments." Joel 2:13.
Another writer traces where that custom ended up:
Mourning sank into an art, and some grew famous for their skill (Amos 5:16). Mourning women stayed ready to come and take up a wailing for the dead (Jer. 9:17-18), sometimes in the form of poems of grief (2 Chron. 35:25).
Against the paid wailers stands the prophet himself. No one had to hire his tears, and one writer turns that into a question for everyone who carries God's message.
The prophet feels every word he says… As we tell lost sinners of their condition, do we feel the terror of the message? Something like Paul when he says, "knowing the fear of the Lord." Then would not something of the divine compassion work through our soul, pleading, begging, even weeping over them? See how Jeremiah in the ninth chapter looks on the sins of these people, whom he could also condemn most sternly. "Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!" Here is no indifference, but sorrow. It is human sorrow, and it sometimes led the beloved prophet even to complain of God. Yet the divine pity works through it.
God has called His people to weep at other times too. One writer says what He wanted those tears to do.
The Lord was not indifferent to Israel's plight, for He called "for weeping and mourning, for baldness and wearing sackcloth." He wanted His people to feel how serious their departure from Him was. He wanted them to return to Him in true sorrow and repentance.
- Cause — The chapter exposes deceit and malice that kept the people from knowing God. Judgment stands at the door.
- Call — So the order goes out in haste: hire the trained mourners. Death has come up into the windows and reached the houses.
- Counterfeit — Grief you can hire, you can also fake. Mourning sank into an art, and some grew famous for their skill.
- Content — God does not ask for numbness, but He does ask for reality: hearts torn open, not clothes.
- Consequence — Jeremiah's tears show what real sorrow looks like. God still looks for that feeling in those who carry His message.
For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we spoiled, sorely put to shame! For we have forsaken the land, for they have cast down our dwellings.
The chapter moves from Jeremiah's tears to God's sentence. Now Zion itself takes up the lament, and the words admit three things: the ruin, the shame, and the loss of land and home.
This wail does not open the chapter; it closes it. One writer walks through the sins, then the verdict, then the call for mourners:
"Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears," mourns the prophet. Adultery, treachery, lying, slander, deception, wickedness, double-dealing and ignorance of God marked the people (Jer. 9:1-8). "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD; I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins." Then He asks, "Who is the man so wise that he can understand this?" Wormwood and poisoned water would be theirs. Let the mourning women be called; let them teach their daughters wailing; desolation and death come (vv. 9-22).
These mourners were hired professionals. The whole custom of Hebrew mourning came with a warning inside it:
It was the habit of the Hebrews, as it still is in the East, to make a great show of their mourning. They would beat their breasts, fast, put dust and ashes on their heads, tear their clothes, wear sackcloth, and so on... At a death professional mourners were hired, mostly women. "Call for the mourning women... let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids flow with water." Jer. 9:17-18... God does not want grieving people to be without feeling. The Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus. But He wants reality in all things. He had to say to His people, "Rend your hearts and not your garments." Joel 2:13.
This is not one household's funeral. Death was reaching into the windows of the whole city:
The time of wailing and mourning is at hand. "For death has come up into our windows; it has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets and the young men from the squares." Plague would sweep over them and enter their homes. So comes the call to the professional wailers to sing the mournful songs of death. These wailing women are also called "wise women." They were called that because they dabbled in magic and the occult, in familiar spirits and fortune-telling.
The cry names shame, not just damage. A God-fearing Jew knew what had really been broken:
It was an awful thing for a godly Jew to think about: the breaking of Israel's bond with Jehovah. It meant losing their distinctive place as His people on earth.
Why would God do this to His own people? The answer is their own sin:
Their sins were glaring, and in the very places where they were most offensive. If God had not brought His people down to the dust and scattered them to the ends of the earth, He would have had to deny Himself.
Deserved judgment might seem to rule out tears. It does not:
Grief over God's people is no less real because they have dishonoured God and He rightly disciplines them.
One writer turns that sorrow on his own readers:
Oh for hearts to mourn over the ruin that has come in through our own folly! No place suits us except true humbling before Him. He still has, and always will have, regard for the lowly.
- Cause. The dwellings did not fall by accident. Judah's sin was so open that God would have denied Himself by leaving it unjudged.
- Cry. Death had come into the windows, so the call went out for hired mourners. They put the nation's ruin into words.
- Hollowness. Hired grief can be learned and passed to daughters as a skill; God asks for torn hearts, not torn clothes.
- Shame. The sting was not lost property. It was lost standing — the broken bond with the Lord, and the lost place as His people on earth.
- Lesson. Deserved judgment does not cancel sorrow. Grief over the ruin of God's people, joined to self-humbling, is still the right response.
Hear then the word of Jehovah, ye women, and let your ear receive the word of his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and each one her companion lamentation.
God has announced judgment on Judah, and now He tells the women to listen and then teach a funeral song to their daughters. Why must grief be taught, and who is the message for?
One commentator reads the call for mourners as the fitting answer to a slaughter so wide that no one is left to gather the dead.
Then follows their judgment under the Lord's angry displeasure. They might well call for mourning women, and in haste; and men shall fall like the handful left behind the reaper, but in their case with no one to gather them.
The verse speaks to women and daughters because mourning in Israel was a paid job that families passed down. Writers on burial customs describe a healthy root and a diseased growth.
Real mourning grows out of sympathy for a neighbour, but it turned into shallow professionalism. Lamentation sank into an art, in which some became famous for their skill (Amos 5:16). Mourning women kept themselves ready to come and take up a wailing for the dead (Jer. 9:17-18), sometimes putting it into elegies (2 Chron. 35:25).
So the wailing the daughters learn is a trade with customers. Now God tells that trade what to sing, and the song spreads from mother to daughter and from neighbour to neighbour.
The next verse gives the reason for the new lament. Death climbs in where people felt safest.
Verses 17-22. The time of wailing and mourning is near. "For death has come up into our windows, and has entered our palaces, to cut off the children from outside and the young men from the streets." Disease was going to sweep over them and enter their homes. So the call goes out for the professional wailers to sing the mournful songs of death. These wailing women are also called "wise women," because they dabbled in magic and occult things, in familiar spirits and in fortune-telling.
Notice who is addressed. The very women whose reputation rested on skill — and, on this reading, on darker arts — must now take in a word from God's own mouth. Commentators differ on the occult link. Kelly says only that the people had good reason to call for mourning women, and in haste.
Anyone could hire a mourner, so grief could look real without a broken heart. God does not call visible sorrow wrong, but He looks for something real behind it.
At a death the family hired professional mourners, mostly women (Jer. 9:17-18). God does not want those who are bereaved to be without feeling: the Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, but He wanted reality in everything. He had to say to His people, "Rend your heart, and not your garments." Joel 2:13.
A nation can be word-perfect in its lament and still not feel the loss.
The lament is not God's last word. A few verses later the prophet names the only boast that survives such a judgment.
In view of these days of judgment the prophet urges them to stop boasting in wisdom, in might and in riches, for none of it is worth anything. "But let him who glories glory in Me, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the LORD." May we also glory in Him and not in the things of the dust, the temporal, the passing things, which are only for a moment!
- Hear — the verse begins with a command to listen. Even a lament must come from God first: the women are to let their ears take in the word of His mouth.
- Learn — wailing was a taught skill, an "art" in which some became famous. God does not invent a new custom here; He takes the existing trade and gives it His own subject.
- Teach — mothers pass the sorrow on to their daughters, because the coming loss reaches into homes and palaces and cuts off children and young men.
- Mean it — hired grief is grief that can be faked. God wants no bereaved person to be unfeeling, but He asks for torn hearts rather than torn clothes.
- Glory — the chapter that calls for mourning women strips away wisdom, might and riches. One boast is left: knowing the Lord, who delights in loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness.
For death is come up through our windows, is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from the street, the young men from the broadways.
Jeremiah's song of mourning over Judah reaches its darkest line here. Death climbs in like a thief through the windows and takes the young from the streets. Why did God let it in? Could any house keep it out? What should a family do when it reaches their own home?
This judgment is not random misfortune. It answers a charge laid against the nation.
Jerusalem will be heaps, ruins and a den of dragons. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they abandoned His law, did not obey His voice, and worshipped idols. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall.
Death climbing in pictures plague reaching people inside their homes. It also explains the call for hired mourners two verses earlier.
Plague was to sweep over them and enter their homes. So the call went out to the professional mourners to sing the mournful songs of death. These wailing women are also called "wise women," because they dabbled in magic and the occult, in contacting spirits, and in fortune-telling.
The verse names the palaces, not only the poor houses. Death does not check a family's standing at the door.
Death visits alike the homes of the poor and the palaces of the noble. It is no respecter of persons.
Wealth can decorate death, but it cannot delay it. Another writer traces the reason death comes at all back to sin.
Man may try to hide his humiliation in many ways. He covers his retreat through the valley of death as bravely as he can. He gives the last humiliating stage of his life the most honourable titles he can invent. He lights up the deathbed with a false glow. He dresses the funeral procession and the grave with the look of splendour and glory... He may do all these things. But death is still death. He cannot hold it off for a moment, or make it anything other than what it is: "the wages of sin."
The verse names the children and the young men. That sorrow still repeats today.
How terribly sudden! And yet no more sudden than the way some people are cut off. We have known such cases. Men have been cut down in their prime, with heads full of plans and hearts full of ambition. They went with no warning that anyone could see. Time rolls on, and as far as this world goes, nobody sees them again.
The next verse finishes the picture with a scene from harvest.
They had good reason to call for mourning women, and to call in haste. Men will fall like the handful of grain left behind the reaper, and in their case no one will gather them.
Hiring wailers was the normal custom of the day. God does not ask grieving people to feel nothing. He asks that their grief be real.
At a death, families hired professional mourners, mostly women. "Call for the mourning women to come . . . let them make haste and raise a wailing over us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids flow with water" (Jer. 9:17-18)... God does not want grieving people to be without feeling. The Lord wept at the grave of Lazarus, but He wants everything to be real. He had to say to His people, "Rend your hearts and not your garments" (Joel 2:13).
One writer applies Jeremiah's phrase to the home at Bethany, where Jesus' friend Lazarus died. Godly homes are not spared.
Why had death come up "into their windows" and cruelly plunged these devout, God-fearing sisters into grief and mourning?... It was a sorrowful trial to them, and it is one repeated again and again before our eyes, perhaps in our own homes. How often the godly seem to be the ones singled out to be struck down!
In the same account, Christ gives the sisters an answer death cannot overturn.
He showed them that, despite appearances, death cannot touch eternal life. He revealed Himself as the Resurrection and the Life, not only in what He taught but by a practical demonstration at the graveside.
- Cause — Judah's ruin came from abandoning God's law, refusing His voice, and turning to idols. Their portion was wormwood and gall.
- Climb — The picture is plague sweeping into people's homes. Death gets in where walls, wealth and rank promised safety.
- Cost — The verse names the young first, cut down in their prime. The fallen lie like grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.
- Cry — Hired wailers could supply the noise of grief, but God asks for a torn heart, not torn clothes.
- Conqueror — Death still climbs into godly homes, as it did at Bethany. There Christ showed at the graveside that death cannot touch eternal life.
Speak, Thus saith Jehovah Yea, the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the reaper, and there shall be none to gather.
God tells Jeremiah to say it out loud: bodies left lying in the fields, with no one to gather them. The chapter has already named the sins that brought this on, and two verses later it will tell the survivors the one thing worth boasting about.
The picture comes from the grain fields. A reaper cuts and leaves handfuls lying behind him, and a gatherer follows to bind them up. Here the bodies fall the same way, but the gatherer never comes.
They had good reason to call for mourning women, and to call in haste. Men will fall like the handful left behind the reaper, but in their case there will be no one to gather them (v. 22).
The command to speak in verse 22 closes a passage that begins with a call for professional mourners. A second killer was at work, and it did not stay outside the walls.
The time of wailing and mourning is near. "Death has come up into our windows. It has entered our palaces, to cut off the children outside and the young men in the streets." Plague was to sweep over them and enter their homes. So the call goes out to the professional mourners to sing the mournful songs of death.
The verse announces a result, not a cause. The chapter gives the cause a few lines earlier, and it is not bad politics or a stronger enemy.
Jerusalem will be heaps of rubble, ruins and a den of dragons. The cities of Judah will be desolate. But why is it like this? Because they abandoned His law, did not obey His voice, and practiced idolatry. Therefore their portion would be wormwood and gall. They would be scattered among the nations.
The same sentence returns later in Jeremiah's book, where it is spelled out in full. No mourning, no burial, and bodies left in the open — and it falls on parents and children alike.
Children and parents alike were doomed to a sorrowful end. There would be no mourning for them and not even a burial. Sword and famine would consume them, and they would be left as dung on the ground, or food for birds and beasts of prey. And this was the Lord's decree about His people!
The last line is the shock: the decree falls on His own people.
Verse 22 does not stand alone. It is the floor the next verses stand on. After describing what is coming, the prophet points his hearers to where a person should put his confidence.
From verse 18 to verse 2 of chapter 9 the prophet lays open the depth of his grief. From verse 3 of Jeremiah 9 he proclaims judgment. That judgment will also fall on the nations around them. And in view of these judgments he exhorts every man not to glory in man, but in the knowledge of the Lord (vv. 23, 24).
Kelly adds what the right boasting is made of:
Human achievements and resources would never do for a man to glory in. The boast must be in understanding and knowing the Lord, righteous in all His ways here below, and delighting in goodness.
The man ordered to announce these deaths is the man who could not stop weeping over them.
He is overwhelmed with sorrow; his eyes are fountains of tears. He weeps day and night over the slain… Then follows a description of the moral corruption of the people. The Lord answered him and once more asks the question: "Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this?"
- Cause — One thing brought the desolation: they abandoned His law, would not listen to His voice, and turned to idols. The corpses in the field are the end of that road, not bad luck.
- Picture — The dead fall like the handfuls a reaper leaves behind, and no one follows to gather them. Death has already come in at the windows and into the palaces.
- Dishonour — Parents and children alike get no burial and no mourning, and lie as waste on the ground. That decree falls on His own people.
- Tears — The prophet who must speak this verse is the one weeping day and night over the slain. Announcing judgment and grieving over it belong together.
- Turn — Right after this scene comes the only safe ground: not boasting in man, but in knowing the Lord. The field of ungathered dead is what makes that appeal urgent.