Jeremiah 8

The Harvest Is Past

The threat of chapter 7 reaches the graves, then the prophet asks why a people who could once turn back will not, and weeps that no balm has been laid on the wound.

No date is given in the chapter. The Bible Dictionary places chapters 7–20 under Jehoiakim (608–597 B.C.), and verse 1 (“At that time”) continues the sermon of chapter 7 Read with footnotes in Gospel Library

Background

Jeremiah 8 has no heading verse of its own. It carries on from the temple sermon of chapter 7, which ends with the threat that the dead of Jerusalem will be buried in Topheth…

Jeremiah 8 has no heading verse of its own. It carries on from the temple sermon of chapter 7, which ends with the threat that the dead of Jerusalem will be buried in Topheth “till there be no place,” and that their bodies will be food for birds and beasts (Jer. 7:32–33). The Bible Dictionary groups chapters 7–20 under Jehoiakim's reign (608–597 B.C.).

The Church's chapter heading names the turn the chapter takes: “Calamities will befall the inhabitants of Jerusalem—For them the harvest is past, the summer is ended, and they are not saved.” In four movements the chapter moves from the unburied dead (verses 1–3), to the question of why the living will not turn back (verses 4–7), to the false wisdom and false comfort of the scribes, priests, and prophets (verses 8–13), to a closing lament in which the enemy, the people, the prophet, and the Lord seem to speak in turn (verses 14–22). Verses 10–12 are nearly word for word Jer. 6:13–15; the note at verse 11 points back to them.

Restoration scripture takes up verse 20: in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord turns the people's lament into a warning to the Saints (D&C 45:2; D&C 56:16).

The thread through the chapter

The chapter keeps asking why. Why will a people that falls not rise, and turns away not return (verses 4–5)?

The chapter keeps asking why. Why will a people that falls not rise, and turns away not return (verses 4–5)? Why do the wise, who have the law, know less than a stork (verses 7–9)? Why is a wound dressed over, when there is “no peace” (verse 11)? And at the end, why is there no cure when there is balm and a physician (verse 22)? The Hebrew verb shuv, “turn, return,” sits in the middle of all of it. Judah turns away and will not turn back; the one thing the chapter never says is that return is impossible. It says only that the people “refuse to return” (Jer. 8:5).

The people's complaint in verse 20 (“we are not saved”) and the prophet's in verse 22 point to the same remedy. Salvation does not come by the wise, the scribes, or the fortified cities; it comes from the Lord whom Judah turned from. The Lord's own invitation is already on record: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22).

Tap any highlighted phrase to open a note beneath its versein the margin.

Verses 1–3

The graves opened

In plain words

At that time, says the Lord, the bones of the kings, princes, priests, prophets, and people of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves and spread out before the sun, moon, and stars that they loved, served, followed, sought, and worshipped. They will not be gathered or buried but lie like dung on the ground. All who remain of this evil family, wherever I have driven them, will choose death over life.

1 At that time, saith the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves:

Context #

Bones brought out of the graves

Verse 1 describes an enemy's contempt for the dead, and it carries on the threat of chapter 7, where there will be “no place” left to bury and corpses will lie unburied (Jer. 7:32–33).

Verse 1 describes an enemy's contempt for the dead, and it carries on the threat of chapter 7, where there will be “no place” left to bury and corpses will lie unburied (Jer. 7:32–33). Victorious enemies “dragged out of their graves, caves, and sepulchers, the bones of kings, princes, prophets, priests, and the principal inhabitants, and exposed them in the open air.” The custom “seems to have been general,” and it was “the highest expression of hatred and contempt.”

The verse leaves out no rank: kings, princes, priests, prophets, and the ordinary inhabitants of Jerusalem. The Lord says what will happen, and the actors are not named. The Church edition's footnote sends the reader to Jer. 25:33, where the slain “shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground.”

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

2 And they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all the host of heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and after whom they have walked, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.

Imagery #

Loved, served, walked after, sought, worshipped

The verse lists five verbs of devotion, “loved,” “served,” “walked,” “sought,” “worshipped,” and the bones are laid out before the very sun, moon, and stars they were given to.

The verse lists five verbs of devotion, “loved,” “served,” “walked,” “sought,” “worshipped,” and the bones are laid out before the very sun, moon, and stars they were given to. The enemies expose them “in the vain confidence they had in the sun, moon, and the host of heaven—all the planets and stars, whose worship they had set up in opposition to that of Jehovah.” The reproach is exact: what the dead trusted in is made to look on.

3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, saith the LORD of hosts.

Related Scriptures #

Death chosen rather than life

Even those who live will not find life worth choosing. The survivors “remain in all the places whither I have driven them,” and they will prefer death.

Even those who live will not find life worth choosing. The survivors “remain in all the places whither I have driven them,” and they will prefer death. The Church edition links the verse to Rev. 9:6, where men “seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.” The two passages share the same bleak picture of a people wanting to die more than they want to live. The point for Jeremiah is that the Lord Himself has driven them out; their scattering is the judgment, not an accident of war.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 4–7

Why will they not return?

In plain words

Tell them: Does someone fall and not get up? Does someone turn away and not turn back? Why then has Jerusalem turned away and kept turning away? They cling to deceit and refuse to return. I listened, and no one repented or said, “What have I done?” Each goes his own way like a horse charging into battle. The stork knows her season, and so do the turtledove, swallow, and crane. My people do not know the Lord's judgment.

4 Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?

5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.

Language #

Turn, turn back, turn away

“Turn away,” “return,” and “backsliding” in verses 4–6 all come from one Hebrew root, shuv, “turn back, return,” which, used on its own, can also mean “repent.”

“Turn away,” “return,” and “backsliding” in verses 4–6 all come from one Hebrew root, shuv, “turn back, return,” which, used on its own, can also mean “repent.” In these three verses it appears six times: “shall he turn away, and not return?” (verse 4, twice); “slidden back” and “backsliding” (verse 5, in the forms shovevah and meshuvah); “refuse to return” (verse 5, lashuv); and “every one turned to his course” (verse 6). The English hides it. The Hebrew is one repeated word, and the argument rests on it: if falling means getting up again and turning away means turning back, why does Jerusalem turn away “by a perpetual” turning and never back?

Verse 6 gives the answer, and it is the missing step: “no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done?” (Here “repented” is a different verb, nicham, “be sorry.”) The Lord has listened for the one sentence that would begin return. Compare His open invitation in Jer. 3:22: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

6 I hearkened and heard, but they spake not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.

7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.

Imagery #

The stork knows her seasons

The birds keep their appointed times, and Judah does not know what the Lord has appointed.

The birds keep their appointed times, and Judah does not know what the Lord has appointed. The verse names four birds. The Hebrew for “stork” is chasidah, and the Church edition's footnote reads “turtle” as “turtle-dove” (the bird heard in the spring in Song 2:12). Each bird “knoweth her appointed times” and “observe[s] the time of their coming”; “my people know not the judgment of the LORD.”

The comparison is a reproach, not a nature note: creatures with no law keep what they were given, and the people who have the law do not. The next verse turns that charge on those who claim to know it.

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Verses 8–12

The wise who are not wise

In plain words

How can you say, “We are wise; we have the law of the Lord”? The scribes' lying pen has turned it into a lie. The wise will be put to shame, having rejected the Lord's word. So I will give their wives and fields to others, for everyone, from prophet to priest, is greedy and false. They dress the wound of my people lightly, saying “Peace, peace” when there is no peace. They were not ashamed of their abominations, and could not even blush, so they will fall with the fallen.

8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.

Related Scriptures #

“We are wise”

The people's claim to wisdom is the claim that they have the law, and Jeremiah says that it has not made them wise.

The people's claim to wisdom is the claim that they have the law, and Jeremiah says that it has not made them wise. The Church edition links the verse to 1 Cor. 1:20 and 2 Ne. 9:28. Jacob describes the same failure: “When they are learned they think they are wise, and they hearken not unto the counsel of God, for they set it aside, supposing they know of themselves.” Having the word and obeying the word are different things, and verse 9 draws the conclusion: those who “have rejected the word of the LORD” have no wisdom left, whatever they hold.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Language #

The pen of the scribes

The KJV's “in vain” hides a sharper Hebrew charge: the scribes' pen is a lying pen.

The KJV's “in vain” hides a sharper Hebrew charge: the scribes' pen is a lying pen. The Hebrew uses sheqer (“falsehood”) twice: “certainly for falsehood has [the] lying pen of the scribes made it,” that is, made the law. A Greek translation of the same verse renders it “In vain have the scribes used a false pen.” On one reading the target is not only people who copied or wrote: it takes in the priests, “whose duty it was to train the people in the law,” and who, by false teaching, “led the people astray.”

Sources: Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint. Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?

10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.

Related Scriptures #

“Peace, peace”

Verses 10–12 are the same words as Jer. 6:13–15, with small changes; the false comfort of the prophets and priests is explained there.

Verses 10–12 are the same words as Jer. 6:13–15, with small changes; the false comfort of the prophets and priests is explained there. The Greek translation does not repeat them in full: Brenton's English of it leaves out verses 11–12, marking them “omitted text.”

Calling for peace was easy, and the danger was exactly that nobody was disturbed enough to turn back, which is the problem of verses 4–6.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.

12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation they shall be cast down, saith the LORD.

Verses 13–17

No grapes, no figs, and an enemy from Dan

In plain words

I will surely consume them, says the Lord: no grapes on the vine, no figs on the tree, the leaf withered. The people say: Why sit here? Let us run to the fortified cities and be silent there, for the Lord has given us water of gall to drink because we sinned. We hoped for peace and healing, and terror came. From Dan the snorting of the enemy's horses is heard; the land shakes. The Lord says: I will send snakes that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you.

13 I will surely consume them, saith the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.

14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.

Literary Structure #

Who is speaking

The voices in verses 14–22 change without being marked, and the chapter reads more clearly once they are separated.

The voices in verses 14–22 change without being marked, and the chapter reads more clearly once they are separated. On one reading: verse 14 is the citizens of Judah, calling on one another to flee into fortified cities; verse 15 their disappointment; verse 16 the sound of the invader; verse 17 the Lord's warning of serpents; verse 18, the prophet, whose “heart is faint in me,” and who is cut “to the very heart” by the ruin of his people; verse 19, the people crying from the far country, and the Lord answering with the question “Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images?”; verse 20, the exiles again (“we are not saved”); and verses 21–22 the prophet.

Sources: Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.

15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!

16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.

Context #

From Dan

Dan lay at the northern edge of the land, and the enemy is heard first there.

Dan lay at the northern edge of the land, and the enemy is heard first there. The town was “well known as the northern limit of Palestine, which extended ‘from Dan even to Beer-sheba.’” The alarm came from Dan before (Jer. 4:15: “a voice declareth from Dan”), and it fits the direction the Lord gave Jeremiah in his first vision, when He showed a boiling pot facing from the north (Jer. 1:13–14). Verse 17 adds a second image of the same enemy: not horses but snakes that “will not be charmed.”

Sources: “Dan”, Bible Dictionary. The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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

Verses 18–22

The prophet's lament

In plain words

My heart is sick within me. I hear the cry of my people from a faraway land: “Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not there?” The Lord answers: Why did they provoke me with their idols? The people cry: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” For the wound of my people I am wounded; I mourn, and horror has seized me. Is there no balm in Gilead, no physician there? Why then has my people not been healed?

18 When I would comfort myself against sorrow, my heart is faint in me.

19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?

Context #

“Is not the LORD in Zion?”

The cry comes from “a far country”: the people, already in exile on one reading, ask whether the Lord is no longer King in Zion, “that He may release His people from captivity and…

The cry comes from “a far country”: the people, already in exile on one reading, ask whether the Lord is no longer King in Zion, “that He may release His people from captivity and bring them back to Zion.” “Her king” is the Lord Himself, not a king of Judah.

The Lord's answer in the verse is another question: “Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images, and with strange vanities?” The people ask where the Lord is; He asks what they have done. Their idols, not His absence, put them in the far country.

20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.

Related Scriptures #

“The harvest is past”

The saying is the people's despair, and in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord uses it as a warning to be heeded in time.

The saying is the people's despair, and in the Doctrine and Covenants the Lord uses it as a warning to be heeded in time. The Church's chapter heading quotes it, and the Church edition's footnotes link it to D&C 45:2 and D&C 56:16. In D&C 45:2 the Lord says, “hearken unto my voice, lest death shall overtake you; in an hour when ye think not the summer shall be past, and the harvest ended, and your souls not saved.” In D&C 56:16 it is the lamentation of rich men who “will not give your substance to the poor,” in “the day of visitation”: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and my soul is not saved!”

In Jeremiah the people say it of themselves, after the season has gone. D&C 45:2 turns it into a warning given before the season ends, and D&C 56:16 gives it back to those who refused the warning, as their cry on the day of visitation.

Sources: The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black; astonishment hath taken hold on me.

Language #

“Am I hurt”

The prophet does not stand apart from the wound: the Hebrew is a pun, “for the shever (breaking) of the daughter of my people I am broken (hashbarti).”

The prophet does not stand apart from the wound: the Hebrew is a pun, “for the shever (breaking) of the daughter of my people I am broken (hashbarti).” His own body takes the injury. “I am black” is a “Hebrew idiom meaning ‘gloomy,’” and “astonishment hath taken hold on me.” The next chapter opens with the same grief: “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears” (Jer. 9:1).

22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?

Witness of Christ #

Balm in Gilead

The balm of Gilead was a real remedy that could not heal this wound, and the one who can is Jehovah.

The balm of Gilead was a real remedy that could not heal this wound, and the one who can is Jehovah. Gilead was “famous for its healing ointment”; Ishmaelites carried “balm” from there down to Egypt (Gen. 37:25), and in Jer. 46:11 Egypt is told to go up to Gilead for balm and use “many medicines” in vain. “No healing ointment, or medication, was available for rebellious Israel. The balm of salvation could be administered only through Israel's Savior, Jehovah, whom they had rejected.”

The question is half rhetorical: there is a physician, and the Lord's own invitation is “I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22). The Hebrew behind “health” (arukah) means “healing of a wound, restoration,” properly “the new flesh that grows at the wounded spot.” The prophet's question points past the balm: the Savior is the one the people have rejected.

Sources: Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003). The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.

Seeing Christ in Jeremiah 8

The chapter's two cries, “we are not saved” (verse 20) and “is there no physician there?” (verse 22), have one answer: “The balm of salvation could be administered only through Israel's Savior, Jehovah.” His invitation is already in the book (“Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings,” Jer. 3:22). In the Book of Mormon the Lord's voice asks it of those who were spared: “will ye not now return unto me, and repent of your sins, and be converted, that I may heal you?” (3 Ne. 9:13). The word the Lord waits for in Jeremiah 8 is the one the people will not say, “What have I done?” (verse 6), and the Hebrew behind “Return” in Jer. 3:22 is the shuv the chapter repeats.

Worth exploring next

Jer. 6:13–15 and Jer. 7:1–34: the first appearance of verses 10–12, and the temple sermon this chapter continues.
Jer. 9:1–26: the prophet's lament, which follows without a break from verses 18–22.
D&C 45:2 and D&C 56:16: the Lord's use of verse 20.
3 Ne. 9:13 and Jer. 3:22: the invitation to return and be healed.

Sources & further reading

“Jeremiah”, Bible Dictionary.
The Holy Scriptures (Latter-day Saint editions), text and chapter headings, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Chapter 23: As Ye Sow, So Shall Ye Reap (Jeremiah 1–19), Old Testament Student Manual: 1 Kings–Malachi (2003).
Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible … with a Commentary and Critical Notes, Online at Bible Hub (Clarke's Commentary).
Carl Friedrich Keil, Biblical Commentary on the Prophecies of Jeremiah, Trans. David Patrick and James Kennedy. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1874–1880; in Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament, online at Bible Hub.
Westminster Leningrad Codex, with morphology, Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB), openscriptures/morphhb.
Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1906.
The Septuagint (Rahlfs Greek text, with Brenton’s English translation), Elpenor Bilingual Septuagint.
“Dan”, Bible Dictionary.

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