Jeremiah Chapter 9
Jeremiah 9
What to Take Glory In
Jeremiah 9:1-2, Not Enough Tears
Jeremiah 9:1-2, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain the daughter my people! Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place wayfaring men, that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they be all adulterers, an assembly treacherous men.”
Jeremiah 9 continues the sorrowful burden from the end of Jeremiah 8. Jeremiah had seen prophetically the devastation of Judah, the exile of his people, and the tragic confession, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” Now he says that his head needs to be waters and his eyes a fountain of tears. Ordinary weeping is not enough for the grief he feels.
Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet for good reason. His sorrow was not shallow emotionalism. It was the grief of a faithful man who loved God, loved truth, and loved his people enough to mourn over their judgment. He did not preach judgment with a cold heart. He saw the slain daughter of his people and wept.
Yet Jeremiah’s sorrow is mixed with holy disgust. He says he wishes he had a lodging place in the wilderness so he could leave his people and go away from them. He is torn between compassion and revulsion. He grieves their coming destruction, but he also sees the corruption that made judgment righteous. The wilderness seems preferable to the moral filth of Jerusalem.
The people are described as adulterers and “an assembly treacherous men.” This includes both literal immorality and spiritual adultery through idolatry. Judah’s religious gatherings had become treacherous assemblies. They still had national identity and religious form, but their hearts had betrayed the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:3-6, Judah Given Over to Deception and Lies
Jeremiah 9:3-6, “And they bend their tongues like their bow for lies, but they are not valiant for the truth upon the earth, for they proceed from evil to evil, and they know not me, saith the LORD. Take ye heed every one his neighbour, and trust ye not in any brother, for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbour will walk with slanders. And they will deceive every one his neighbour, and will not speak the truth, they have taught their tongue to speak lies, and weary themselves to commit iniquity. Thine habitation is in the midst deceit, through deceit they refuse to know me, saith the LORD.”
Judah’s corruption is now described through the sin of deception. “They bend their tongues like their bow for lies.” Their tongues are weapons. They do not merely slip into occasional falsehood. They prepare lies with intention, aim them with skill, and launch them like arrows. Speech had become a weapon of destruction.
They were “not valiant for the truth upon the earth.” This is a powerful phrase. Judah had men who were bold for sin, bold for lies, bold for self interest, bold for idolatry, and bold for corruption, but not bold for truth. A people can be courageous in the wrong direction. God calls for men who are valiant for truth, men who will stand for what is right when deception dominates the culture.
They “proceed from evil to evil.” Sin becomes progressive in the wrong direction. When a people reject God, they do not remain morally neutral. They move from one evil to another. The root is stated plainly, “they know not me.” Their deception flowed from their lack of true knowledge of God. To know God is not merely to possess information about Him. It is to be rightly related to Him in reverence, faith, obedience, and love.
The social order had collapsed. Neighbor could not trust neighbor. Brother could not trust brother. Every brother would supplant, meaning deceive or overreach like Jacob before his conversion. Every neighbor walked with slanderers. A culture of lies destroys trust, and when trust dies, families, communities, courts, churches, and nations begin to unravel.
“They have taught their tongue to speak lies.” Lying had become disciplined behavior. They trained themselves in falsehood. They were not merely weak. They were practiced. “They weary themselves to commit iniquity.” Sin became labor. Men often think rebellion is freedom, but Jeremiah shows it as slavery and exhaustion. It takes work to maintain lies, hide sin, manipulate others, and resist truth.
The final statement is the heart of the matter, “through deceit they refuse to know me.” Deception keeps men from God because God is truth. A man cannot love lies and walk closely with the God of truth. Falsehood is not merely a social problem. It is a spiritual barrier.
Jeremiah 9:7-11, The Fact, Reason, and Result of Coming Judgment
Jeremiah 9:7-11, “Therefore thus saith the LORD hosts, Behold, I will melt them, and try them, for how shall I do for the daughter my people? Their tongue is as an arrow shot out, it speaketh deceit, one speaketh peaceably to his neighbour with his mouth, but in heart he layeth his wait. Shall I not visit them for these things? saith the LORD, shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this? For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for the habitations the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned up, so that none can pass through them, neither can men hear the voice the cattle, both the fowl the heavens and the beast are fled, they are gone. And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den dragons, and I will make the cities Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”
Because Judah is full of deception, God says, “I will melt them, and try them.” This continues the refining imagery from Jeremiah 6. The heat of judgment will expose what is truly in the people. God asks, “for how shall I do for the daughter my people?” The question shows that judgment is not arbitrary. God is dealing with a people who are corrupt, but still called “my people.” The discipline is severe because the corruption is severe.
Their tongue is again described as an arrow. They speak peaceably with the mouth while laying wait in the heart. This is hypocrisy. Their words promise peace, friendship, and loyalty, but their hearts plan harm. Such speech is especially evil because it uses trust as a weapon.
God asks, “Shall I not visit them for these things?” The answer is obvious. A holy God must respond to a nation built on deception, betrayal, idolatry, and injustice. “Shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?” Judah had become like the pagan nations in behavior. Covenant privilege did not excuse covenant treachery.
Jeremiah then mourns over the coming destruction. The mountains and wilderness habitations will be burned. No one will pass through. The voice of cattle will be gone. Birds and beasts will flee. The land will become lifeless and desolate. Jerusalem will become heaps, a den of dragons, and the cities of Judah will be without inhabitant.
This judgment reverses the blessing of the land. The land that should have been filled with worship, justice, families, harvests, flocks, and covenant joy becomes empty because the people rejected the LORD.
Jeremiah 9:12-16, The Cause and Result of Judgment Summarized
Jeremiah 9:12-16, “Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who is he to whom the mouth the LORD hath spoken, that he may declare it, for what the land perisheth and is burned up like a wilderness, that none passeth through? And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein, But have walked after the imagination their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them, Therefore thus saith the LORD hosts, the God Israel, Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water gall to drink. I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.”
The question is asked, who is wise enough to understand why the land perishes? The answer does not come from political analysis, military strategy, economics, or geography. The LORD Himself explains the cause, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein.”
Judah’s destruction had a theological cause. They forsook God’s law, disobeyed His voice, and refused to walk in His ways. The problem was not that God failed to speak. He had set His law before them. The problem was that they rejected what He said.
Instead of walking according to God’s law, they walked after the imagination of their own heart. This is a repeated theme in Jeremiah. The natural heart is not a trustworthy guide.
Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?”
Judah followed the inner imagination of the heart and the Baals taught by their fathers. Sin became generational. Fathers taught idolatry to their children, and the children continued the rebellion. Tradition is not automatically righteous. A family, church, or nation can pass down corruption just as easily as truth if it departs from the word of God.
Because they chose the bitterness of sin, God would feed them with wormwood and give them water of gall to drink. Judgment fits the rebellion. They chose spiritual poison, and now they would taste bitterness. God would scatter them among the heathen, among nations unknown to them and their fathers. Exile would be the consequence of covenant disobedience.
Deuteronomy 28:64, “And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end the earth even unto the other, and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.”
Jeremiah is not inventing a new doctrine of judgment. He is applying the covenant warnings already given in the law.
Jeremiah 9:17-21, Calling for the Mourning Women
Jeremiah 9:17-21, “Thus saith the LORD hosts, Consider ye, and call for the mourning women, that they may come, and send for cunning women, that they may come, And let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters. For a voice wailing is heard out Zion, How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because our dwellings have cast us out. Yet hear the word the LORD, O ye women, and let your ear receive the word his mouth, and teach your daughters wailing, and every one her neighbour lamentation. For death is come up into our windows, and is entered into our palaces, to cut off the children from without, and the young men from the streets.”
The LORD commands them to call for the mourning women. In that culture, professional mourners were often called to lead lamentation after death. Here, the coming devastation will be so severe that ordinary mourning will not be enough. Skilled wailing women must come, and even they must teach their daughters and neighbors to lament. The grief will be too widespread for a few mourners.
The wailing from Zion says, “How are we spoiled! we are greatly confounded.” Judah will be plundered and ashamed. The people will lose the land and their dwellings. The land God gave them will be forsaken, not because God’s promise failed, but because that generation forfeited blessing through rebellion.
The women are commanded to hear the word of the LORD. Even the mourners must receive God’s word. Their lamentation is not merely emotional. It is theological. They must understand why the grief has come.
“Death is come up into our windows.” Death is pictured as an intruder entering homes and palaces. No place is safe. Not the poor man’s house, not the royal palace. Children will be cut off from outside, and young men from the streets. This means the normal life of the city will collapse. Children will no longer play outside. Young men will no longer gather in public places. Death will invade every level of society.
Jeremiah 9:22, A Vivid Description of Judgment
Jeremiah 9:22, “Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.”
The LORD gives Jeremiah a brutal image. Human bodies will fall like refuse in an open field and like cut grain after the harvestman. The picture is one of mass death. Bodies will be everywhere.
The phrase, “none shall gather them,” adds another layer of horror. The dead will remain unburied. In Hebrew thought, this was a deep disgrace. The bodies of men made in the image of God would be left like waste because the slaughter would be so great and survivors so few.
This judgment is not presented for shock value alone. It shows the end of rebellion. A people that refused to hear God’s word would face the collapse of all dignity, security, and order. Sin dehumanizes, and judgment exposes what sin has done.
Jeremiah 9:23-24, What to Take Glory In
Jeremiah 9:23-24, “Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches, But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth, for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.”
These verses stand at the heart of Jeremiah 9. In the face of coming calamity, God tells Judah what not to glory in. The wise man must not glory in his wisdom. Human wisdom cannot save a nation under judgment. The mighty man must not glory in his might. Military strength, personal power, and political force cannot stop the LORD’s sentence. The rich man must not glory in his riches. Wealth cannot purchase deliverance from God’s wrath.
To glory in something means to boast in it, celebrate it, trust it, and treat it as the source of confidence and satisfaction. Men naturally glory in wisdom, strength, riches, status, fame, beauty, family name, nationality, achievement, and power. God says these are not worthy of ultimate glory.
The proper object of glory is this, “that he understandeth and knoweth me.” The highest blessing of man is to know the LORD. This is not mere religious information. It is true knowledge of God in covenant relationship, reverence, faith, and obedience. To understand and know God is greater than all human wisdom, might, and wealth.
The apostle Paul later quotes this principle.
1 Corinthians 1:26-31, “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called, But God hath chosen the foolish things the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things the world to confound the things which are mighty, And base things the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are, That no flesh should glory in his presence. But him are ye in Christ Jesus, who God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”
God then identifies what must be known about Him. He is the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. Lovingkindness refers to His covenant mercy, steadfast love, and faithful goodness. Judgment refers to His righteous discernment and justice. Righteousness refers to His moral purity and right ordering of all things.
These attributes are not theoretical. God exercises them “in the earth.” He acts in history. He judges nations. He shows mercy. He does righteousness. He is not distant or passive. He governs the world according to His character.
“For in these things I delight.” God delights in lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness. Therefore, the man who truly knows God will learn to delight in what God delights in. He will not boast in human strength while ignoring divine character. He will not claim spiritual knowledge while despising justice, mercy, and righteousness.
Jeremiah 9:25-26, A Warning to Those Who Reject the Knowledge of the LORD
Jeremiah 9:25-26, “Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will punish all them which are circumcised with the uncircumcised, Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children Ammon, and Moab, and all that are in the utmost corners, that dwell in the wilderness, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”
The chapter ends by warning that outward covenant signs will not protect an inwardly rebellious people. God says He will punish the circumcised with the uncircumcised. Judah possessed the sign of circumcision, but that outward sign could not save them while their hearts remained uncircumcised.
Judah is listed among Egypt, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and wilderness peoples. This is shocking. The covenant people are placed in the same judgment category as pagan nations because they are inwardly no different. They had external religion, but not heart obedience.
The final statement explains it, “all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.” Physical circumcision mattered as a covenant sign, but it was never meant to replace inward devotion to God. Israel had the outward sign, but lacked the inward reality.
This theme appears throughout Scripture.
Deuteronomy 10:16, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin your heart, and be no more stiffnecked.”
Romans 2:28-29, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh, But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly, and circumcision is that the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is not men, but God.”
The warning is clear. Religious marks, ceremonies, traditions, and identity cannot substitute for a heart that truly knows the LORD.
Doctrinal and Practical Notes
Jeremiah 9 teaches that faithful sorrow is compatible with faithful judgment. Jeremiah wept over Judah while still affirming that Judah deserved judgment. Compassion must not deny truth, and truth must not eliminate compassion.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that deception destroys a people from within. Judah bent the tongue like a bow for lies. A culture that loses truth loses trust, and a people without trust cannot stand.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that sin is exhausting. The people wearied themselves to commit iniquity. Sin promises freedom but produces bondage, labor, and spiritual fatigue.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that knowing God is more than knowing facts about God. Judah did not know Him because they refused truth, loved lies, and walked in idolatry. True knowledge of God includes relationship, reverence, obedience, and faithfulness.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that judgment can have a refining purpose. God said He would melt and try them. The fire was severe, but God’s covenant purpose remained.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that following the imagination of the heart leads to ruin. Judah rejected God’s law and followed her own heart and the Baals. The natural heart must be governed by God’s word, not trusted as final authority.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that mourning should be theological. The mourning women were not merely to cry. They were to hear the word of the LORD and teach lamentation because the grief came from covenant judgment.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that the things men commonly glory in cannot save. Wisdom, might, and riches all fail before God. The only worthy boast is understanding and knowing the LORD.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that the character of God is the foundation of true glory. He exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. These are not abstractions. They are the active expressions of His rule.
Jeremiah 9 teaches that outward religion without inward reality is worthless. Circumcision without a circumcised heart placed Judah in the same category as the nations. God looks upon the heart.
Summary
Jeremiah 9 continues Jeremiah’s lament over Judah. He does not have enough tears to mourn the slain daughter of his people, yet he also longs to flee from their treachery. Judah has become a people of deception, bending their tongues like bows for lies, refusing to be valiant for truth, proceeding from evil to evil, and refusing to know the LORD.
God announces that He will melt and try them because their tongues are arrows of deceit. Jerusalem will become heaps, and the cities of Judah will become desolate. The reason is plain, they forsook God’s law, disobeyed His voice, followed the imagination of their own hearts, and went after the Baals taught by their fathers. Therefore God will feed them with wormwood, give them water of gall, scatter them among the heathen, and send the sword after them.
Jeremiah calls for mourning women because the coming judgment will be so severe that widespread lamentation will be needed. Death will enter windows and palaces, children and young men will be cut off, and bodies will fall like refuse in the field.
The chapter reaches its great theological center in Jeremiah 9:23-24, where God commands men not to glory in wisdom, might, or riches, but to glory in understanding and knowing Him as the LORD who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. The chapter ends by warning that outward circumcision cannot protect an uncircumcised heart.
