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Jeremiah 8:17

in Jeremiah 8

“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV

ASV

For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, saith Jehovah.

KJV

For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord.

This verse in Jeremiah 8

Commentary

5 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

(Verse 17) Behold, I will send you serpents, rulers (or as the Septuagint translated, deadly ones) with whom there is no enchantment. And they will bite you, says the Lord, incurably, and you will fail with the pain of your heart. Those who come from Dan, whose noise has been heard and who have turned the whole land into a wilderness, are the same ones that the prophetic word indicates under a different figure, calling them deadly serpents or rulers as the Hebrew word Saphphonim ().

This site's exposition

We looked for peace, but no good came

on Jeremiah 8:15-17

We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble! answers the false prophets of 6:14 and 8:11 directly, the peace they promised failing to arrive on schedule. The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan announces the invasion from the north by its sound before its sight, Dan marking Israel's northernmost point and the direction every threat in the book approaches from. Serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed pictures an enemy immune to the usual remedies, the snake charmer's art itself defeated, which the bench reads as judgment beyond any human counter-measure.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you,.... The Chaldeans, comparable to these noxious and hurtful creatures, because of the mischief they should do unto them. The Targum is, "for, lo, I will raise up against you people that kill as the destroying serpents.'' These were raised up by the Lord, and sent by him, just as he sent fiery serpents among the Israelites in the wilderness, when they sinned against him; there literally, here metaphorically.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
I will send - Or, am sending. No prophet changes his metaphors so suddenly as Jeremiah. The invading army is now compared to snakes, whom no charming can soothe, and whose bite is fatal. Compare Num 21:5-6. Cockatrices - “Vipers.” See Isa 11:8 note.

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

I--Jehovah. cockatrices--basilisks (Isa 11:8), that is, enemies whose destructive power no means, by persuasion or otherwise, can counteract. Serpent-charmers in the East entice serpents by music, and by a particular pressure on the neck render them incapable of darting (Ps 58:4, 5).

The words behind it

14 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • כִּי֩for

    kiH35884482 times

  • הִנְנִ֨יhere I

    hiniH2005316 times

  • מְשַׁלֵּ֜חַ[am] about to send

    meshaleachH7971845 times

  • בָּכֶ֗םamong <the> you

    bakhem

  • נְחָשִׁים֙snakes

    nechashimH5175

  • צִפְעֹנִ֔יםvipers

    tzifonimH6848

  • אֲשֶׁ֥רwhich

    ʾasherH8345497 times

  • אֵין־there not

    ʾein-H369789 times

  • לָהֶ֖םfor <the> them

    lahem

  • לָ֑חַשׁ[is] a charm

    lachashH3908

  • וְנִשְּׁכ֥וּand they will bite

    venishekhuH5391

  • אֶתְכֶ֖ם<obj.> you

    ʾetkhemH85310935 times

  • נְאֻם־[the] utterance of

    neum-H5002376 times

  • יְהוָֽה׃ סYahweh

    yahwehH30686520 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Numbers 21:6

    So the LORD sent venomous snakes among the people, and many of the Israelites were bitten and died.

    it leads to

    • 1 Corinthians 10:9

      We should not test Christ, as some of them did, and were killed by snakes.

    • Deuteronomy 8:15

      He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint.

    • Amos 9:3–4

      Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite…

  • Through

    Isaiah 14:29

    Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying serpent from its egg.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 30:6

      This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of…

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Isaiah 11:8

      The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest.

    • 2 Chronicles 26:6

      Uzziah went out to wage war against the Philistines, and he tore down the walls of Gath, Jabneh, and Ashdod. Then he built cities near Ashdod and among the Philistines.

  • Through

    Ecclesiastes 10:11

    If the snake bites before it is charmed, there is no profit for the charmer.

    it leads to

    • Psalms 58:4–5

      Their venom is like the venom of a snake, like a cobra that shuts its ears,

  • Through

    Deuteronomy 32:24

    They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust.

    it leads to

    • Leviticus 26:22

      I will send wild animals against you to rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and reduce your numbers, until your roads lie desolate.

About Jeremiah

The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
The Prophet Jeremiah — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.