9:1 (8:23) I wish that my head were a well full of water and my eyes were a fountain full of tears! If they were, I could cry day and night for those of my dear people who have been killed.
Jeremiah wished that his eyes were a great fountain so that he could cry day and night for his people who would be killed in the future Babylonian invasion.
9:2 (9:1) I wish I had a lodging place in the desert where I could spend some time like a weary traveler. Then I would desert my people and walk away from them because they are all unfaithful to God, a congregation of people that has been disloyal to him.
Jeremiah wanted to go into the desert and separate from his people. They were a nation of adulterers and they had been treacherous against God.
9:3 The Lord says, “These people are like soldiers who have readied their bows. Their tongues are always ready to shoot out lies. They have become powerful in the land, but they have not done so by honest means. Indeed, they do one evil thing after another and do not pay attention to me.
The people of Judah were a bunch of liars. They had become wealthy and powerful, but not by keeping the Mosaic Law. They had become wealthy and powerful by dishonest and violent means.
9:4 Everyone must be on his guard around his friends. He must not even trust any of his relatives. For every one of them will find some way to cheat him. And all of his friends will tell lies about him.
Not even one’s friend was to be trusted. In Hebrew, this verse states that the people of Judah attempted to “out Jacob” Jacob.
9:5 One friend deceives another and no one tells the truth. These people have trained themselves to tell lies. They do wrong and are unable to repent.
The people of Judah were experts of deceit. They trained their tongues to speak lies.
9:6 They do one act of violence after another, and one deceitful thing after another. They refuse to pay attention to me,” says the Lord.
The people of Judah were violent and deceitful. They refused to pay attention to Jehovah. They lived as though Jehovah did not exist.
9:7 Therefore the Lord who rules over all says, “I will now purify them in the fires of affliction and test them. The wickedness of my dear people has left me no choice.
What else can I do?
Jehovah was about to melt Judah like metal. The melting would separate the impurities from the pure metal. The dross would be scraped off. Jehovah had no choice, because Judah had violated the Mosaic Covenant. They must experience the curses, just as God promised through the Law and the prophets.
9:8 Their tongues are like deadly arrows. They are always telling lies. Friendly words for their neighbors come from their mouths. But their minds are thinking up ways to trap them.
The people of Judah said nice things to their neighbors, but it was all a pretense to do evil to them.
9:9 I will certainly punish them for doing such things!” says the Lord. “I will certainly bring retribution on such a nation as this!”
The Hebrew word for “nation” is גּוֹיִם֙ (goyim), meaning Gentiles. Jehovah was telling Judah that she had deteriorated into a Gentile pagan status. She had become just as evil and foolish as the pagan Gentile nations.
9:10 I said, “I will weep and mourn for the grasslands on the mountains, I will sing a mournful song for the pastures in the wilderness because they are so scorched no one travels through them. The sound of livestock is no longer heard there. Even the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the fields have fled and are gone.”
Jeremiah begins to weep again. He looks into the future and he saw that the land of Judah would become desolate. There were no more travelers. livestock, or birds in Judah.
9:11 The Lord said, “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins. Jackals will make their home there. I will destroy the towns of Judah so that no one will be able to live in them.”
Jerusalem would become a heap of ruins. The other cities of Judah would also be completely destroyed, so that no on would be able to live in these Jewish cities of Judah.
9:12 I said, “Who is wise enough to understand why this has happened? Who has a word from the Lord that can explain it? Why does the land lie in ruins? Why is it as scorched as a desert through which no one travels?”
All of the wise men of Judah would not be able to explain why all of the cities of Judah were destroyed. They had predicted the opposite. They would be too blind to see the causes of their predicament.
9:13 The Lord answered, “This has happened because these people have rejected my laws which I gave them. They have not obeyed me or followed those laws.
Since the wise men of Judah would be too blind to see the causes of the destruction of Judah, then God gave them the reason for Judah’s destruction. Israel had rejected the Mosaic Law, so they must be disciplined.
9:14 Instead they have followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They have paid allegiance to the gods called Baal, as their fathers taught them to do.
Israel was totally depraved and evil, so she was following the inclinations of her sin nature. Also, she learned how to worship Baal and other pagan gods from her fathers. She continued in the sins of their fathers.
9:15 So then, listen to what I, the Lord God of Israel who rules over all, say. ‘I will make these people eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poison water of judgment.
Since Judah had violated the Mosaic Covenant, then she would eat the bitter food of suffering and drink the poisonous water of judgment. Suffering would come through famine. The poison water would come through captivity.
9:16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known anything about. I will send people chasing after them with swords until I have destroyed them.’ ”
The bitterness would be followed by the worldwide Jewish dispersion. This global dispersion would not happen until after the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. by Titus and the Romans. After Israel would be scattered into all of the Gentile nations, then she would be persecuted.
9:17 The Lord who rules over all told me to say to this people, “Take note of what I say. Call for the women who mourn for the dead! Summon those who are the most skilled at it!”
Jehovah asked Judah to call for her very best professional guilds of women mourners.
9:18 I said, “Indeed, let them come quickly and sing a song of mourning for us. Let them wail loudly until tears stream from our own eyes and our eyelids overflow with water.
It was urgent that these skilled mourners come quickly and mourn for the death of Judah.
9:19 For the sound of wailing is soon to be heard in Zion. They will wail, ‘We are utterly ruined! We are completely disgraced! For our houses have been torn down and we must leave our land.’ ”
These professional mourners would sing a funeral song for the future death of Judah.
9:20 I said, “So now, you wailing women, hear what the Lord says. Open your ears to the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters this mournful song, and each of you teach your neighbor this lament.
These professional mourners were to teach the people of Judah the death song of God. They were also to teach this song to their daughters who would follow them in their trade.
9:21 ‘Death has climbed in through our windows. It has entered into our fortified houses. It has taken away our children who play in the streets. It has taken away our young men who gather in the city squares.’
God was using satire in this verse by bringing up the details of Baal mythology. Baal wanted to build a palace without windows. However, the other gods convinced him to build one window in his palace. Mot, the god of death, came in through the one window and killed Baal. Baal was later resurrected from the dead. Since Judah enjoyed the worship of Baal, then God would send death through their windows to take their lives.
9:22 Tell your daughters and neighbors, ‘The Lord says, “The dead bodies of people will lie scattered everywhere like manure scattered on a field. They will lie scattered on the ground like grain that has been cut down but has not been gathered.” ’ ”
When Babylon would arrive, then the bodies of Judah’s dead soldiers would be scattered upon the open fields like dung fertilizer.
9:23 The Lord says, “Wise people should not boast that they are wise. Powerful people should not boast that they are powerful.
Wise people should not boast about their wisdom or their power.
9:24 If people want to boast, they should boast about this: They should boast that they understand and know me. They should boast that they know and understand that I, the Lord, act out of faithfulness, fairness, and justice in the earth and that I desire people to do these things,” says the Lord.
If people want to boast, then they should boast about their knowledge of God (Bible doctrine), their faith in God’s justice, and their faith in God’s desire for His people to do what is right. The only way to know these there things is through the study and application of the entire counsel of the Word of God at the deepest level.
9:25 The Lord says, “Watch out! The time is soon coming when I will punish all those who are circumcised only in the flesh.
“The time is soon coming” is the prophetic future. God is going to punish all of those who are circumcised in only the flesh. These are the nations who are circumcised into the satanic world system, but they do not know or apply the things of God.
9:26 That is, I will punish the Egyptians, the Judeans, the Edomites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, and all the desert people who cut their hair short at the temples. I will do so because none of the people of those nations are really circumcised in the Lord’s sight. Moreover, none of the people of Israel are circumcised when it comes to their hearts.”
The Egyptians. Judeans, Edomites, Ammonites, and Moabites were circumcised physically, but not spiritually. They were not circumcised in the heart. Those who cut their hair short at the temple were the Arabians in the desert. According to the Mosaic Law, the cutting the hair at the temple was forbidden to the Jews. The Arabians were also physically circumcised, but not spiritually circumcised. They would also be judged by Jehovah. Since Judah was on this list, this meant that the Jews had deteriorated to the status of pagan Gentile nations.