---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  Jeremiah 9"
description: "CHAPTER 9   :-. JEREMIAH"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/jeremiah/9"
---

CHAPTER 9

. JEREMIAH'S
LAMENTATION FOR THE JEWS'
SINS AND CONSEQUENT
PUNISHMENT.

**1.** This verse is more fitly
joined to the last chapter, as in the *Hebrew* (compare [Isaiah 22:4](../../../kjv/isaiah/22/4);
[Lamentations 2:11](../../../kjv/lamentations/2/11); [Lamentations 3:48](../../../kjv/lamentations/3/48)).

**2. lodging-place**—a
caravanseral for caravans, or companies travelling in the desert,
remote from towns. It was a square building enclosing an open court.
Though a lonely and often filthy dwelling, Jeremiah would prefer even
it to the comforts of Jerusalem, so as to be removed from the
pollutions of the capital ([Psalms 55:7](../../../kjv/psalms/55/7);
[Psalms 55:8](../../../kjv/psalms/55/8)).

**3. bend . . . tongues . . . for
lies**—that is, with lies as their arrows; they direct lies on
their tongue as their bow ([Psalms 64:3](../../../kjv/psalms/64/3);
[Psalms 64:4](../../../kjv/psalms/64/4)).
**not valiant for . . . truth**—
([Jeremiah 7:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/7/28)). MAURER
translates, "They do not *prevail by* truth" or *faith*
([Psalms 12:4](../../../kjv/psalms/12/4)). Their *tongue,*
not *faith,* is their weapon.
**upon . . . earth**—rather,
"in the land."
**know not me**— ([Psalms 12:4](../../../kjv/psalms/12/4)).

**4. supplant**—literally, "trip
up by the heel" ([Hosea 12:3](../../../kjv/hosea/12/3)).
**walk with slanders**—
([Jeremiah 6:28](../../../kjv/jeremiah/6/28)).

**5. weary themselves**—*are at
laborious pains* to act perversely [MAURER].
Sin is a hard bondage ([Habakkuk 2:13](../../../kjv/habakkuk/2/13)).

**6. Thine**—God addresses
Jeremiah, who dwelt in the midst of deceitful men.
**refuse to know me**—Their
ignorance of God is wilful ([Jeremiah 9:3](../../../kjv/jeremiah/9/3);
[Jeremiah 5:4](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/4); [Jeremiah 5:5](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/5)).

**7. melt . . . try them**—by
sending calamities on them.
**for how shall I do**—"What
*else* can I do for the sake of the daughter of My people?"
[MAURER], ([Isaiah 1:25](../../../kjv/isaiah/1/25);
[Malachi 3:3](../../../kjv/malachi/3/3)).

**8. tongue . . . arrow shot
out**—rather, "a *murdering* arrow" [MAURER]
([Jeremiah 9:3](../../../kjv/jeremiah/9/3)).
**speaketh peaceably . . . in
heart . . . layeth . . . wait**—layeth his ambush [HENDERSON],
([Psalms 55:21](../../../kjv/psalms/55/21)).

**9.** ([Jeremiah 5:9](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/9);
[Jeremiah 5:29](../../../kjv/jeremiah/5/29)).

**10.** Jeremiah breaks in upon
Jehovah's threats of wrath with lamentation for his desolated
country.
**mountains**—once
cultivated and fruitful: the hillsides were cultivated in terraces
between the rocks.
**habitations of . . .
wilderness**—rather, "the pleasant herbage (literally, 'the
choice parts' of any thing) of the pasture plain." The *Hebrew*
for "wilderness" expresses not a barren desert, but an
untilled plain, fit for pasture.
**burned up**—because no
one waters them, the inhabitants being all gone.
**none can pass through
them**—much less *inhabit* them.
**fowl**— ().

**11. And**—omit "And."
Jehovah here resumes His speech from .
**heaps**—(see on ).
**dragons**—jackals.

**12.** Rather, "Who is a wise
man? (that is, *Whosoever* has inspired wisdom, ); let him understand this (weigh well the evils impending,
and the causes of their being sent); and he to whom the mouth of the
Lord hath spoken (that is, *whosoever is prophetically inspired*),
let him declare it to his fellow countrymen," if haply they may
be roused to repentance, the only hope of safety.

**13.** Answer to the "for what
the land perisheth" ().

**14.** ().
**Baalim**—plural of Baal,
to express his supposed manifold powers.
**fathers taught them**—
([Galatians 1:14](../../../kjv/galatians/1/14); [1 Peter 1:18](../../../kjv/1-peter/1/18)).
We are not to follow the errors of the fathers, but the authority of
Scripture and of God [JEROME].

**15. feed**— ([Jeremiah 8:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/8/14);
[Jeremiah 23:15](../../../kjv/jeremiah/23/15); [Psalms 80:5](../../../kjv/psalms/80/5)).

**16. nor their fathers have
known**—alluding to [Jeremiah 9:14](../../../kjv/jeremiah/9/14),
"Their fathers taught them" idolatry; therefore the
children shall be scattered to a land which neither their fathers nor
they have known.
**send a sword after them**—Not
even in flight shall they be safe.

**17. mourning women**—hired to
heighten lamentation by plaintive cries baring the breast, beating
the arms, and suffering the hair to flow dishevelled ([2 Chronicles 35:25](../../../kjv/2-chronicles/35/25);
[Ecclesiastes 12:5](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/12/5); [Matthew 9:23](../../../kjv/matthew/9/23)).
**cunning**—skilled in
wailing.

**18.** ().

**19.** The cry of "the
mourning women."
**spoiled**—laid waste.
**dwellings cast us
out**—fulfilling [Leviticus 18:28](../../../kjv/leviticus/18/28);
[Leviticus 20:22](../../../kjv/leviticus/20/22). CALVIN
translates, "*The enemy* have cast down our habitations."

**20. Yet**—rather, "Only"
[HENDERSON]. This particle
calls attention to what follows.
**teach . . . daughters
wailing**—The deaths will be so many that there will be a lack of
mourning women to bewail them. The mothers, therefore, must teach
their daughters the science to supply the want.

**21. death . . . windows**—The
death-inflicting soldiery, finding the doors closed, burst in by the
windows.
**to cut off . . . children
from . . . streets**—Death cannot be said to enter the *windows*
to cut off the children *in* the streets, but to cut them off,
so as no more to play in the streets without ().

**22. saith the Lord**—continuing
the thread of discourse from .
**dung**— ().
**handful . . . none . . .
gather them**—implying that the handful has been so trodden as to
be not worth even the poor *gleaner's* effort to gather it. Or
the Eastern custom may be referred to: the reaper cuts the grain and
is followed by another who *gathers it.* This grain shall not be
worth gathering. How galling to the pride of the Jews to hear that so
shall their carcasses be trodden contemptuously under foot!

**23. wisdom**—political sagacity;
as if *it* could rescue from the impending calamities.
**might**—military prowess.

**24.** Nothing but an experimental
knowledge of God will save the nation.
**understandeth**—*theoretically;*
in the intellect.
**knoweth**—*practically:*
so as to walk in My ways ([Jeremiah 22:16](../../../kjv/jeremiah/22/16);
[Job 22:21](../../../kjv/job/22/21); [1 Corinthians 1:31](../../../kjv/1-corinthians/1/31)).
**loving kindness**—God's
mercy is put in the first and highest place, because without it we
should flee from God in fear and despair.
**judgment . . .
righteousness**—*loving-kindness* towards the godly;
*judgment* towards the ungodly; *righteousness* the most
perfect fairness in all cases [GROTIUS].
*Faithfulness to His promises* to preserve the godly, as well as
stern execution of judgment on the ungodly, is included in
"righteousness."
**in the earth**—contrary
to the dogma of some philosophers, that God does not interfere in
terrestrial concerns ([Psalms 58:11](../../../kjv/psalms/58/11)).
**in these . . . I delight**—as
well in doing them as in seeing them done by others ([Micah 6:8](../../../kjv/micah/6/8);
[Micah 7:18](../../../kjv/micah/7/18)).

**25. with the uncircumcised**—rather,
"all that are circumcised *in uncircumcision*"
[HENDERSON]. The *Hebrew*
is an *abstract* term, not a *concrete,* as *English
Version* translates, and as the pious "circumcised" is.
The nations specified, Egypt, Judah, c., were *outwardly*
"circumcised," but *in heart* were "uncircumcised."
The heathen nations were defiled, in spite of their literal
circumcision, by idolatry. The Jews, with all their glorying in their
spiritual privileges, were no better ([Jeremiah 4:4](../../../kjv/jeremiah/4/4)
[Deuteronomy 10:16](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/10/16); [Deuteronomy 30:6](../../../kjv/deuteronomy/30/6);
[Romans 2:28](../../../kjv/romans/2/28); [Romans 2:29](../../../kjv/romans/2/29);
[Colossians 2:11](../../../kjv/colossians/2/11)). However, [Ezekiel 31:18](../../../kjv/ezekiel/31/18);
[Ezekiel 32:19](../../../kjv/ezekiel/32/19), may imply that the
Egyptians were uncircumcised; and it is uncertain as to the other
nations specified whether they were at that early time circumcised.
HERODOTUS says the
Egyptians were so; but others think this applies only to the priests
and others having a sacred character, not to the mass of the nation;
so *English Version* may be right ([Romans 2:28](../../../kjv/romans/2/28);
[Romans 2:29](../../../kjv/romans/2/29)).

**26. Egypt**—put first to degrade
Judah, who, though in privileges above the Gentiles, by
unfaithfulness sank below them. Egypt, too, was the power in which
the Jews were so prone to trust, and by whose instigation they, as
well as the other peoples specified, revolted from Babylon.
**in the utmost corners**—rather,
"having the hair shaven (or *clipped*) in angles,"
that is, having the beard on the cheek narrowed or *cut:* a
Canaanitish custom, forbidden to the Israelites ([Leviticus 19:27](../../../kjv/leviticus/19/27);
[Leviticus 21:5](../../../kjv/leviticus/21/5)). The Arabs are hereby
referred to (compare [Jeremiah 25:23](../../../kjv/jeremiah/25/23);
[Jeremiah 49:32](../../../kjv/jeremiah/49/32)), as the words in
apposition show, "that dwell in the wilderness."
**uncircumcised . . .
uncircumcised in the heart**—The addition of "in the heart"
in *Israel's* case marks *its* greater guilt in proportion
to its greater privileges, as compared with the rest.

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