UNROLL
Night over the Judean hills: dark terraced slopes, one village with a single lit window, a sky full of stars over a faint line of first dawn.

The temple gate

Jeremiah 9

The book doesn’t date this oracle. What do you boast in when no one is listening?

26 verses≈ 6 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

  1. 1The callJosiah’s thirteenth year (about 627 BC): a prophet to the nations
  2. 2–6Return to MeBroken cisterns, faithless Judah, disaster from the north
  3. 7–10The temple gateThe temple sermon, a weeping prophet, the living GodChapter 9
  4. 11–20Covenant and complaintThe broken covenant, the potter, Jeremiah’s confessions
  5. 21–29Shepherds and prophetsKings judged, the Branch, seventy years, the yoke, the letter
  6. 30–33The Book of ComfortRestoration, the new covenant, a field bought in a siege
  7. 34–39The last days of JudahThe scroll burned, the cistern, Jerusalem falls (586 BC)
  8. 40–45After the fallGedaliah at Mizpah, the flight to Egypt, a word for Baruch
  9. 46–51The nationsEgypt to Babylon: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
  10. 52Jerusalem fallsThe record of 586 BC, and a king released

A Lament over Zion

Jeremiah
Dusk in a dry rocky wadi: a thin spring seeps from a crack in a dark rock face, running down the stone in wet streaks into a small pool among a few ferns.

Oh, that my head were a spring of water,

and my eyes a fountain of tears!

I would weep day and night

over the slain daughter of my people.

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Jeremiah
Jeremiah

If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness,

I would abandon my people and depart from them,

for they are all adulterers,

a crowd of faithless people.

God

“They bend their tongues like bows;

lies prevail over truth in the land.

For they proceed from evil to evil,

and they do not take Me into account,”

declares the LORD.

“Let everyone guard against his neighbor;

do not trust any brother,

for every brother deals craftily,

and every friend spreads slander.

God

Each one betrays his friend;

no one tells the truth.

They have taught their tongues to lie;

they wear themselves out committing iniquity.

You dwell in the midst of deception;

in their deceit they refuse to know Me,”

declares the LORD.

God
Lamplight on a stone bench: a leather quiver spilling a sheaf of reed arrows with bronze heads, a strung bow lying beside it, and a clay saucer oil lamp; no one there.

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Behold, I will refine them and test them,

for what else can I do

because of the daughter of My people?

Their tongues are deadly arrows;

they speak deception.

With his mouth a man speaks peace to his neighbor,

but in his heart he sets a trap for him.

Should I not punish them for these things?

declares the LORD.

Should I not avenge Myself

on such a nation as this?”

Jeremiah
High upland pasture after fire: blackened grass and scorched scrub across the slopes, an empty stone sheepfold with its gate open, no cattle, no birds, ash drifting.

I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,

a dirge over the wilderness pasture,

for they have been scorched so no one passes through,

and the lowing of cattle is not heard.

Both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled;

they have gone away.

God
God

“And I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,

a haunt for jackals;

and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,

without inhabitant.”

Jeremiah

Who is the man wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a desert, so no one can pass through it?

God

And the LORD answered, “It is because they have forsaken My law, which I set before them; they have not walked in it or obeyed My voice. Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts and gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them.”

God
God

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”

Question

Quick question

Jeremiah asks who is wise enough to explain the ruin of the land. Then the LORD answers him plainly.

Why does the LORD say the land will be ruined?

God
Late afternoon in a stone courtyard: a group of Judean women in long dark mourning robes and head coverings sit close together on the ground, some with hands raised, one with her head covering drawn over her face, wailing.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Take note, and summon the wailing women;

send for the most skillful among them.

Let them come quickly

and take up a lament over us,

that our eyes may overflow with tears,

and our eyelids may gush with water.

For the sound of wailing

is heard from Zion:

‘How devastated we are!

How great is our shame!

For we have abandoned the land

because our dwellings have been torn down.’”

0:26

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Jeremiah

Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD.

Open your ears to the word of His mouth.

Teach your daughters to wail,

and one another to lament.

For death has climbed in through our windows;

it has entered our fortresses

to cut off the children from the streets,

the young men from the town squares.

God

Declare that this is what the LORD says:

“The corpses of men will fall like dung

upon the open field,

like newly cut grain behind the reaper,

with no one to gather it.”

God

This is what the LORD says:

“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom,

nor the strong man in his strength,

nor the wealthy man in his riches.

But let him who boasts boast in this,

that he understands and knows Me,

that I am the LORD,

who exercises loving devotion,

justice and righteousness on the earth—

for I delight in these things,”

declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 9:23–24

God

“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair of their temples. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

EgyptJudahSeir (Edom)AmmonMoabKedar

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Circumcised only in the flesh

Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and the desert tribes all kept the outward sign. God looks at the heart.

Pray

Pray

LORD, I will not boast in my wisdom, my strength or my money. Let my boast be that I know You, who exercise loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth. Give me a heart that delights in what You delight in. Amen.

You’ve experienced

Jeremiah 9

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A verse to carry with you

“Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, nor the strong man in his strength, nor the wealthy man in his riches. But let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD, who exercises loving devotion, justice and righteousness on the earth—for I delight in these things,” declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 9:23–24

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