8:1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring 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 a
graves:
(a) The enemy for greediness will rifle your graves and lay
you before those idols, who in your life you worshipped,
to see if they can help you.
8:3 And death shall be chosen b rather than life by all the
remnant of them that remain of this evil family, who remain
in all the places where I have driven them, saith the LORD
of hosts.
(b) Because of the afflictions that they will feel through
God's judgments.
8:4 Moreover thou shalt say to them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall
they c fall, and not rise? shall he turn away, and not
return?
(c) Is there no hope that they will return?
8:6 I hearkened and heard, [but] they spoke not aright: no man
repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every
d one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth to the
battle.
(d) They are full of hypocrisy, and everyone follows his own
fantasy without any consideration.
8:7 Yea, 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 e
judgment of the LORD.
(e) He accuses them in that they are more ignorant of God's
judgments, than these birds are of their appointed
seasons to discern the cold and heat.
8:8 How do ye say, We [are] wise, and the law of the LORD [is]
with us? Lo, certainly in vain he hath made [it]; f the
pen of the scribes [is] in vain.
(f) The law does not profit you neither need it to have been
written for all that you have learned by it.
8:9 The g wise [men] are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken:
lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom
[is] in them?
(g) They who seem wise may be ashamed of their ignorance for
all wisdom consists in God's word.
8:11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people
slightly, saying, h Peace, peace; when [there is] no
peace.
(h) )See Geneva "Jer 6:14")
8:14 Why do we sit still? i assemble yourselves, and let us
enter into the fortified cities, and let us be silent
there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and
given us water of k gall to drink, because we have sinned
against the LORD.
(i) He speaks in the person of the people, who when the
enemy comes will turn about to hide themselves and
acknowledge that it is God's hand.
(k) That is, has brought us into extreme affliction, and
thus they will not attribute this plague to fortune,
but to God's just judgment, (Jer 9:15,23:15).
8:16 The snorting of his horses was heard from l Dan: the
whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his
strong ones; for they have come, and have devoured the
land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell
in it.
(l) )Read Geneva "Jer 4:15")
8:17 For, behold, I will m send serpents, cockatrices, among
you, which [will] not [be] charmed, and they shall bite
you, saith the LORD.
(m) God threatens to send the Babylonians among them who
will utterly destroy them in such sort, as by no means
they will escape.
8:18 [When] I would n comfort myself against sorrow, my heart
[is] faint in me.
8:19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people
because of them that dwell in a distant country: [Is] not
the LORD in Zion? [is] not her king in her? Why o have
they provoked me to anger with their graven images, [and]
with foreign vanities?
(o) Thus the Lord speaks.
8:20 The p harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are
not saved.
(p) The people wonder that they have for so long a time
looked for comfort in vain.
8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I q hurt; I
am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.
(q) The prophet speaks this.
8:22 [Is there] no balm r in Gilead; [is there] no physician
there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my
people recovered?
(r) Meaning,that no man's help or means could save them:
for in Gilead was precious balm, (Jer 46:11) or
else deriding the vain confidence of the people, who
looked to their priests for help, who would have been
the physicians of their soul, and dwelt at Gilead,
(Ho 6:8).
