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Jeremiah 9:2

in Jeremiah 9

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.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging-place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

KJV

Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.

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This verse in Jeremiah 9

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Jeremiah · Written before 420.

(Verse 2.) Who will give me lodging in the solitude of travelers, and I will leave my people and depart from them? LXX: Who will give me a final dwelling place in the solitude, so that I may leave my people and depart from them? It is better, he says, to dwell in extreme solitude than to dwell among such great crimes of men. Hence the Savior spoke in the Gospel: How long shall I bear with you?

This site's exposition

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears

on Jeremiah 9:1-3

Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears opens the chapter with the prophet's own extremity, a wish for tear ducts equal to the grief coming rather than the theme of some other speaker's oracle. Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men states the same wish from its other side, escape rather than more weeping, and the bench reads both together as the honest limit of a man told repeatedly not to intercede yet unable to stop grieving. The charge that follows, they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth, names the specific sin driving the tears, deceit chosen over courage.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

Now, to justify his willingness to leave them, he shows, 1. What he himself had observed among them. (1.) He would not think of leaving them because they were poor and in distress, but because they were wicked. [1.] They were filthy: They are all adulterers, that is, the generality of them are, ch.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

O that I had in the wilderness - In the eastern countries there are no such inns or houses of entertainment as those in Europe. There are in different places public buildings called caravanserais, where travelers may lodge: but they are without furniture of any kind, and without food. Indeed they are often without a root being mere walls for a protection against the wild beasts of the desert.

The words behind it

15 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.

  • מִֽי־who?

    mi-H4310 →423 times

  • יִתְּנֵ֣נִיwill he give me

    yiteneniH5414 →2011 times

  • בַמִּדְבָּ֗רin the wilderness

    vamidbarH4057 →270 times

  • מְלוֹן֙a lodging place of

    melonH4411 →

  • אֹֽרְחִ֔יםtravelers

    ʾorechimH732 →

  • וְאֶֽעֶזְבָה֙and I will leave

    veeezvahH5800 →215 times

  • אֶת־<obj.>

    ʾet-H853 →10935 times

  • עַמִּ֔יpeople my

    ʾamiH5971 →1873 times

  • וְאֵלְכָ֖הand I will go

    veelekhahH1980 →1546 times

  • מֵֽאִתָּ֑םfrom with <the> them

    meitamH854 →929 times

  • כִּ֤יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • כֻלָּם֙all of them

    khulamH3605 →5413 times

  • מְנָ֣אֲפִ֔ים[are] adulterers

    menaafimH5003 →31 times

  • עֲצֶ֖רֶתan assembly of

    ʾatzeretH6116 →

  • בֹּגְדִֽים׃treacherous [people]

    bogedimH898 →49 times

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

Related verses

18 in all, six open

The number beside each verse is how many compiled reference works tie it to this one. The strongest six stand open.

Psalms 55:7How far away I would flee! In the wilderness I would remain. Selah9 worksJeremiah 23:10For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is evil and their power is misused.5 worksJeremiah 5:7–8“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.5 worksHosea 7:4They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.5 worksHosea 4:2Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.4 worksJeremiah 12:1Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease?3 works
The other 12 cross-references, with their words ▾
Jeremiah 12:6Even your brothers—your own father’s household—even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.3 worksProverbs 21:19Better to live in the desert than with a contentious and ill-tempered wife.3 worksJames 4:4You adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever chooses to be a friend of the world renders himself an enemy of God.3 worksHosea 5:7They have been unfaithful to the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the New Moon will devour them along with their land.2 worksHosea 6:7But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.2 worksZephaniah 3:4Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law.2 worksPsalms 120:5–7Woe to me that I dwell in Meshech, that I live among the tents of Kedar!2 worksPsalms 55:6–8I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and find rest.2 worksMicah 7:1–7Woe is me! For I am like one gathering summer fruit at the gleaning of the vineyard; there is no cluster to eat, no early fig that I crave.2 worksEzekiel 22:10–11In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity.2 worksMalachi 2:11Judah has broken faith; an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem. For Judah has profaned the LORD’s beloved sanctuary by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.2 worksRomans 2:22You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?2 works

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

    Jeremiah 12:1

    Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead before You. Yet about Your judgments I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why do all the faithless live…

    it leads to

    • Malachi 3:15

      So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”

    • Psalms 92:7

      that though the wicked sprout like grass, and all evildoers flourish, they will be forever destroyed.

    • Psalms 37:1

      Do not fret over those who do evil; do not envy those who do wrong.

    • Psalms 51:4

      Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You may be proved right when You speak and blameless when You judge.

  • Through

    Jeremiah 12:6

    Even your brothers—your own father’s household—even they have betrayed you; even they have cried aloud against you. Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.

    it leads to

    • Proverbs 26:25

      When he speaks graciously, do not believe him, for seven abominations fill his heart.

    • Jeremiah 9:4

      “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

    • Psalms 12:2

      They lie to one another; they speak with flattering lips and a double heart.

    • Micah 7:5–6

      Do not rely on a friend; do not trust in a companion. Seal the doors of your mouth from her who lies in your arms.

Where this verse is studied

1 study on this verse

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
Jeremiah: the study guide →Read Jeremiah 9 →

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Prophecies of Jeremiah; Jerome, Commentary on Jeremiah and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Jeremiah 9 →