Jeremiah 9:11

9:1-11 Jeremiah wept much, yet wished he could weep more, that he might rouse the people to a due sense of the hand of God. But even the desert, without communion with God, through Christ Jesus, and the influences of the Holy Spirit, must be a place for temptation and evil; while, with these blessings, we may live in holiness in crowded cities. The people accustomed their tongues to lies. So false were they, that a brother could not be trusted. In trading and bargaining they said any thing for their own advantage, though they knew it to be false. But God marked their sin. Where no knowledge of God is, what good can be expected? He has many ways of turning a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of those that dwell therein.

And I will make Jerusalem heaps,.... That is, the walls and houses of it shall be thrown down, and become heaps of stones and rubbish: and a den of dragons; only inhabited by wild beasts: and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without inhabitant; so that the calamity would be universal; not only Jerusalem, but all the cities of the land, would be destroyed, forsaken, and uninhabited.

Verse 11. - I will make , etc. Notice how the utterances of the prophets stand side by side with those of Jehovah. A true prophet has no personal views; so that whether his revelations are expressed in the one form or the other makes no difference. Dragons ; rather, jackals . Jeremiah 9:11

(11) A den of dragons. —Better, here and in Jeremiah 10:22 ; Isaiah 13:22 , jackals. The word means, literally, a howler. The English version follows the LXX. and Vulgate versions; but even taking “dragons” in its non-mythical sense as applied to some species of serpent, there is nothing in the word to lead us to assign this meaning. The mistake has probably arisen from the likeness of the word to those translated “serpent” in Exodus 7:9-10 ; Exodus 7:12 , “whale” in Genesis 1:21 and Job 7:12 , and “dragons” in Psalm 74:13 ; Psalm 91:13 .

Heaps, viz. of stones and rubbish. A den of dragons; noting a desolate place, not any longer fit for fine habitation of mankind, as the next words do speak; but for hideous beasts; as they had made use of the temple for a den of thieves , Jeremiah 7:11 . The same also he afterwards threatens on Babylon herself, Jeremiah 51:37 .

Jerusalem is to become stone-heaps, where only jackals dwell. תּנּים is jackals (canis aureus), in Isaiah 13:22 called איּים from their cry; see on Isa. l.c., and Gesen. thes. s. v. מבּלי יושׁב as in Jeremiah 2:15 ; Jeremiah 4:7 . - That such a judgment will pass over Judah every wise man must see well, and every one enlightened by God is to declare it; for universal apostasy from God and His law cannot but bring down punishment. But such wisdom and such spiritual enlightenment is not found in the infatuated people. This is the idea of Jeremiah 9:11-13 . The question: Who is the wise man? etc., reminds us of Hosea 14:9 , and is used with a negative force: unhappily there is none so wise as to see this. "This" is explained by the clause, Wherefore doth the land, etc.: this, i.e., the reason why the land is going to destruction. The second clause, "and to whom," etc., is dependent on the מי, which is to be repeated in thought: and who is he that, etc. Jeremiah has the false prophets here in view, who, if they were really illumined by God, if they had the word of God, could not but declare to the people their corruptness, and the consequences which must flow from it. But since none is so wise...Jeremiah proposes to them the question in Jeremiah 9:11 , and in Jeremiah 9:12 tells the answer as given by God Himself.

Because they have forsaken my law, etc. נתן לפני, to set before; as in Deuteronomy 4:8 , so here, of the oral inculcation of the law by the prophets. "Walketh therein" refers to the law. The stubbornness of their heart, as in Jeremiah 3:17 ; Jeremiah 7:24 . After the Baals, Jeremiah 2:23 . The relative clause, "which their fathers," etc., refers to both clauses of the verse; אשׁר with a neuter sense: which their fathers have taught them.

Where are your medicines, your arms , your counsels , your confederates ? And where are your physicians , your princes and priests , that promised you relief? Without God you see no help in any means. But the former more natural, and agrees best with the beginning of the next chapter. ## Jeremiah 9:1 JEREMIAH CHAPTER 9 The prophet’s lamentation continueth over their adultery, deceit, idolatry, which God would certainly punish, and they should be laid waste, when they should sufficiently lament, Jer_9:1-22. No trust in ourselves, but in God, who will punish all nations, Jer_9:23-26. ## Oh that my head were waters! Heb. Who will give , &c.? by way of inquiry, because the Hebrews do want the imperative mood. The prophet in this chapter principally bewailing his poor countrymen’s calamity, whom Its therefore calls ## the daughter of his people, he expresseth the greatness and excess of his sorrows, by wishing that his brains were as it were dissolved into water, (for the word is singular,) as if he wished it were all one water, signifying plenty, and that his eyes might distil tears like a fountain; the same word in the Hebrew for eye signifies a fountain; noting the continuance of it, as not to be drawn dry, expressed by day and night , apprehending it a misery so great, as never sufficiently to be bewailed. See Luk_19:41. ## The slain; or that are to be slain, viz. by the Babylonians; a prophetical style; as sure to be slain as if they were slain already.