Глава 9

1–9. The sins of the Jews and the punishment that awaits them. 10–22. The prophet laments the fate of his people. 23–26. Addition. Jeremiah 9:1–9. The prophet is so exhausted by the failure of his exhortations that he would like to go into the desert like Elijah. His fellow tribesmen are adulterers both in the literal and figurative sense of the word. Having rejected God, they break the natural bonds of brotherly love and betray their friends. Jer.9:1. Oh, who will give my head water and my eyes a source of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain daughters of my people. This verse in Heb. The Bible is assigned to the previous chapter. – The prophet does not have enough tears to mourn the disastrous fate of the kingdom of Judah. Jer.9:2. Oh, who would give me a refuge for travelers in the desert! I would leave my people and go away from them: for they are all adulterers, a congregation of treacherous ones. The “haven for travelers” is the so-called khan - a tent or hut in the desert where travelers stop for the night and where there is nothing but shelter - no supplies necessary for living. The Prophet, however, would have willingly retreated here too, just to avoid seeing his compatriots. Jer.9:5. Everyone deceives his friend, and they do not tell the truth: they have trained their tongue to speak lies, they deceive until they are tired. “Trained your tongue.” The art of lying requires more skill than the desire to tell only the truth. Jer.9:7. Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will melt them and try them; for how else should I deal with the daughter of my people? We are talking about a terrible judgment to which Jehovah will subject His people. Jeremiah 9:10–22. The prophet laments about his country, which he sees already devastated, but explains this fate of the Jews by their bitterness with which they rejected the law of Jehovah. Special mourners will be needed to mourn the great disasters that will fall on Judea, and then the whole people will cry from grief - from the loss of loved ones. Jer.9:21. For death enters our windows, invades our palaces to destroy children from the streets, young men from the squares. Jer.9:22. Say: Thus says the Lord: And the corpses of people will be thrown down like dung on a field and like sheaves behind the reaper, and there will be no one to gather them. The verses are a short, skillfully composed poem in which, apparently, the prophet speaks of the plague, which is a terrible scourge for besieged cities. The plague does not even spare children; and Jeremiah speaks of their destruction first of all, showing his special pity for these innocent victims of the crime of their parents. Jer.9:23. Thus says the Lord: Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty boast in his strength, let not the rich man boast in his riches. Jer.9:24. But he who boasts, boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who works mercy, justice and righteousness on earth; for this is the only thing that pleases Me, says the Lord. At the judgment of God, neither all their wisdom, nor strength, nor wealth will help people. Therefore, one should seek support for oneself not in these advantages, but in the knowledge of the Lord. Anyone who does not want to do the will of God will not benefit from circumcision. Jer.9:25. Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will visit all the circumcised and the uncircumcised: “Circumcised and uncircumcised” – more correctly: circumcised, but (at the same time one can say) – uncircumcised. The prophet predicts the wrath of God for those who are physically circumcised, but at the same time lead an unclean life, for whom, therefore, external circumcision does not constitute a real sign of communion with God and therefore cannot guarantee them from the judgment of God that threatens sinners. Jer.9:26. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, and Moab, and all them that cut the hair of their churches, that dwell in the wilderness; For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart. Since ancient times, the Egyptians performed the ritual of circumcision. In the same way, the Edomites, Ammonites and Moabites, related to the Jews, had the rite of circumcision in the era of Jeremiah. However, later among the Edomites, this ritual fell out of use and only John Hyrcanus forced them to restore it. - “Cutting hair at the churches” are Arabs who performed this ritual in order to please their gods. - “These peoples are uncircumcised,” that is, from your point of view, their circumcision has no meaning and does not make them participants in theocratic life. In the same way, the Jews cannot hope for their circumcision, because their hearts are not circumcised, that is, their hearts are far from God. Special notes on Chapters VII-IX. The church speech, contained in Chapters VII-IX, obviously represents in a detailed presentation the speech that is briefly stated in Jeremiah 26.4 et seq., and this means that for it the prophet suffered the punishments mentioned in Jeremiah 26.4. All this speech is imbued with living prophetic animation and undoubtedly represents the genuine work of Jeremiah. Only Jer 9.23–26 vv., also, of course, belonging to Jeremiah, are not in connection with the speech and they should actually stand separately. Some interpreters (eg Orelli) also believe that Jer 7.16–20, 27, which contains a revelation directed personally to Jeremiah and Jer 8.18 et seq. Jeremiah 9.2 et seq., where the prophet pours out his feelings, represents insertions made by the prophet into the church speech when he dictated it to the scribe. But no, in fact, there is nothing in these passages that could not be conveyed to the ears of all the people in the church. You might be interested in: