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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
9:10-26 Judah Grieves Jeremiah. Once again Jeremiah mourns Judah's future, which includes terrible devastation. This devastation will be thorough, yet just (vv. 10-22). Knowing God is all that will matter when judgment comes (vv. 23-26).
9:10-11 Ancient laments often included depictions of defeated cities becoming wastelands populated only by animals (10:22; 49:33; 51:37; Isa. 13:21-22; Lam. 5:18).
9:12 man so wise. See 4:22 and 8:8-9, where Judah's only "wisdom" is in doing evil. Here the wise man (i.e., with the proper kind of wisdom) is whoever understands why Judah will fall.
9:13-14 The wise man knows the people of Judah have forsaken God's law, followed their own hearts, and followed their fathers in worshiping Baal (cf. 2:23).
9:15 Bitter food . . . poisonous water refer to both bitter hearts that prefer disobedience (Deut. 29:18; Heb. 12:12-17) and bitter experiences related to defeat (Lam. 3:15, 19).
9:16 scatter them. See Deut. 28:64-68.
9:17-18 The mourning women are professional mourners able to chant funeral songs. They will join Jeremiah's wailing (vv. 1, 10-11).
9:20-22 The women teach others to mourn. Death enters homes like an assassin and cuts down children in the streets (cf. Lam. 2:21-22; 4:1-2). Unburied bodies lie everywhere. See note on Jer. 7:33.
9:23-24 The truly wise man (4:22; 8:8-9; 9:12-14) learns what God teaches; he knows why Judah will fall and is grieved and humbled by that knowledge; thus he will not boast in his wisdom. Knowing God means knowing his steadfast love (covenant faithfulness), justice (right judgment), and righteousness (right behavior, esp. in keeping his promises). See Ex. 34:6-7; Ps. 103:8; Joel 2:12-14; Jonah 3:9-4:2. Paul applied the admonition "let him who boasts boast in the Lord," based on this text, to the Corinthian Christians (1 Cor. 1:31; 2 Cor. 10:17).
