Jeremiahchapter 9
26 verses · BSBJeremiah book hub →
Speaks with:Jeremiah 8×3Jeremiah 5×3Hosea 4×3Jeremiah 4×3Jeremiah 13×2Jeremiah 9×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The weeping prophet at full voice: 'Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people' (9:1). And, in the same breath, a longing for a lodging-place in the wilderness away from a nation of adulterers. Their tongue is a bow bent for lies; brother supplants brother. Call for the mourning women, for death is come up into our windows. The chapter's summit is the true ground of boasting: 'let not the wise man glory in his wisdom… but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth me' (9:23-24): Paul quotes it twice.
Context
Prophecy · Jeremiah — Jeremiah overview
- A. 1–9 Oh That My Head Were Waters: a Lodging Place in the Desert
- B. 10–16 Wormwood and Gall; Jerusalem Made a Heap of Ruins
- C. 17–22 Call the Mourning Women: Death Climbs In at the Windows
- D. 23–26 Let Him That Glorieth Glory in Knowing the LORD
The outline
A.Oh That My Head Were Waters: a Lodging Place in the Desertvv. 1 to 9
Read vv. 1 to 9 →B.Wormwood and Gall; Jerusalem Made a Heap of Ruinsvv. 10 to 16
Read vv. 10 to 16 →C.Call the Mourning Women: Death Climbs In at the Windowsvv. 17 to 22
Read vv. 17 to 22 →D.Let Him That Glorieth Glory in Knowing the LORDvv. 23 to 26
Read vv. 23 to 26 →
The world behind this chapter
Jeremiah 9The history
Mourning was a trade. Skilled women were hired to lead the wailing at a funeral — they knew the chants, taught them to their daughters, and set the rhythm the family followed. Their arrival was the public signal that a death had occurred. Summoning the skilled women here is a call to book the funeral before anyone has died.
The chapter's picture of speech is a weapon shop. The tongue is a drawn bow, words are arrows shot from ambush, and a man speaks peace to a neighbour with a trap set behind his back. In a society where deals were sealed by spoken word before witnesses rather than by signature, a lying tongue broke the whole economy.
One line trades on a fact travellers knew. Egypt, Edom, Ammon, Moab and the desert tribes practised circumcision too — Greek writers noted the Egyptian custom with some surprise. So the mark Judah trusted in was not even unique to them. It made them like their neighbours, not different from them.
The closing boast-list would have sounded like a résumé being read aloud: the wise man, the strong man, the rich man. Those were the three ways up in that world, and all three are struck out.
What it meant to them
First hearers were being told to rehearse their own funeral. The mourning women are being called while the city is still standing.
Then the ground shifts under the whole national identity. Being circumcised in the flesh puts them in the same list as Moab. The only boast left standing is knowing the God who practises steadfast love and justice on the earth — and that boast is available to anyone.
Sources cited
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
- Herodotus, The Histories
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Jeremiah 9. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.