Jeremiah 9, Death Has Climbed Through Our Windows

Jeremiah gets the nickname “weeping prophet” because of this and other passages (including Lamentations) where he bares his soul and describes his anguish over his people. But sorrow isn’t the only emotion he is feeling.

^9:1 Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people. ² Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.

“Two strong emotions gripped Jeremiah: great sympathy for his people and utter revulsion against their many sins…At the same time as Jeremiah was in anguish over the people’s sufferings, he was appalled at the depth of their departure from the Lord.” (Expositor’s Bible Commentary)

³ “They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me,” declares Yahweh. ⁴ “Beware of your friends; do not trust anyone in your clan. For every one of them is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer. ⁵ Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning. ⁶ You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares Yahweh.

⁷ Therefore this is what Yahweh Almighty says: “See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people? ⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully. With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors, but in their hearts they set traps for them. ⁹ Should I not punish them for this?” declares Yahweh. “Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?”

While Jeremiah is bemoaning the judgment coming against his people, Yahweh explains that the sins of the people, especially their deceptiveness, have caused them to refuse to acknowledge Yahweh and is the basis for their judgment.

¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds have all fled and the animals are gone. ¹¹ “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.” ¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by Yahweh and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

¹³ Yahweh said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. ¹⁴ Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.” ¹⁵ Therefore this is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. ¹⁶ I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”

Jeremiah weeps for the destruction of the land which, devoid of people and cattle, birds and animals, leaves nothing but scroungers like jackals. The reason again, Yahweh explains, is because the people have worshiped Baal instead of Him. They will therefore eat “the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment. (New English Translation). The survivors will be exiled to another land.

¹⁷ This is what Yahweh Almighty says: “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them. ¹⁸ Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids. ¹⁹ The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.’”

²⁰ Now, you women, hear the word of Yahweh; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament. ²¹ Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has removed the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares. ²² Say, “This is what Yahweh declares: “‘Dead bodies will lie like dung on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.’”

It is not just Jeremiah who should be weeping. Yahweh urges Judah to call her professional weepers/mourners to lead the people in mourning, even to teach the daughters to wail. Death is everywhere, bodies lying everywhere like grain cut by the (grim) reaper but not picked up.

²³ This is what Yahweh says: “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom or the strong boast of their strength or the rich boast of their riches, ²⁴ but let the one who boasts boast about this: that they have the understanding to know me, that I am Yahweh, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,” declares Yahweh.

What sinful humans take pride in, wisdom, strength, and wealth, will not save them. What they need to “boast in” is Yahweh, who Himself exercises kindness, justice and righteousness, and delights in those who also practice the same.

²⁵ “The days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.” (Jeremiah 9)

Israel’s pride in their males being circumcised is misplaced. Like the Egyptians, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites, who also circumcise, it is only a circumcision of the flesh, not of the heart, and they will all be judged for their rebellion.

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Discussion Questions:

1. What has made you weep?
2. Why do you think Yahweh is so concerned to explain why He must judge His people?
3. How would you evaluate your own dependence on wisdom, strength and riches?
4. The apostle Paul speaks of Israel’s dependence on circumcision,

^{Romans 2:25} Circumcision has value if you observe the law, but if you break the law, you have become as though you had not been circumcised. ²⁶ So then, if those who are not circumcised keep the law’s requirements, will they not be regarded as though they were circumcised? ²⁷ The one who is not circumcised physically and yet obeys the law will condemn you who, even though you have the written code and circumcision, are a lawbreaker.

What might be something like circumcision that we depend on but that has no value without true spirituality?