What does Jeremias Chapter 9 say, and which statements belong to its speaker?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Tears and wilderness lodging introduce deceit and failed trust. Mourning land and forsaken law precede wormwood and scattering. Glory in knowing the Lord accompanies heart-circumcision warning.

Chapter breakdown

Jeremias 9 asks for water in the head and a fountain of tears to weep day and night for the slain, and for a wayfarers' wilderness lodging away from adulterers and transgressors. Tongues bend like bows for lies, evil advances and the Lord is unknown. Warnings about brother and neighbor trust accompany mockery, practiced lies and deceitful habitation. The Lord declares melting and trying; piercing-arrow speech promises peace while lying in wait, provoking a visitation question.

Mountains and beautiful desert places receive lament for burning, absent travelers and unheard owner. Birds and beasts depart. Jerusalem becomes sand heaps and dragons' dens and Juda's towns lose inhabitants. A question asks who understands and declares the land's loss; the Lord answers forsaken law, unheard voice and fathers' taught Baalim. Wormwood, gall, unfamiliar nations and pursuing sword follow.

Mourning and wise women are summoned to hasten, lead tears and teach daughters and neighbors wailing. Sion laments displaced land and fallen dwellings. Death comes through windows into houses, destroying children from without and young men from streets; carcasses lie like dung or grass behind a mower without gathering. Wisdom, strength and riches are rejected grounds of glory, replaced by understanding and knowing the Lord of mercy, judgment and justice. Visitation concerns circumcised foreskin, Egypt, Juda, Edom, Ammon, Moab and round-polled desert dwellers; the final distinction names nations uncircumcised in flesh and Israel in heart. Jackals, inward children and a guaranteed successful purification through suffering are not substituted.

The story inside

Opening: Tears and wilderness lodging introduce deceit and failed trust. Development: Mourning land and forsaken law precede wormwood and scattering. Conclusion: Glory in knowing the Lord accompanies heart-circumcision warning.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Tears and wilderness lodging introduce deceit and failed trust.
2
Mourning land and forsaken law precede wormwood and scattering.
3
Glory in knowing the Lord accompanies heart-circumcision warning.

Test your recall

Which images and requests does the speaker use, and what does the chapter leave unresolved?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 84923–84934
9:1. Who will give water to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes? and I will weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people. 9:2. Who will give me in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, and I will leave my people, and depart from them? because they are all adulterers, an assembly of transgressors. 9:3. And they have bent their tongue, as a bow, for lies, and not for truth: they have strengthened themselves upon the earth, for they have proceeded from evil to evil, and me they have not known, saith the Lord.
Lines 85009–85024
9:23. Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches: 9:24. But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, for I am the Lord that exercise mercy, and judgment, and justice in the earth: for these things please me, saith the Lord. 9:25. Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will visit upon every one that hath the foreskin circumcised. 9:26. Upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom, and upon the children of Ammon, and upon Moab, and upon all that have their hair polled round, that dwell in the desert: for all the nations are uncircumcised in the flesh, but all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.