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Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 8:

Jeremiah’s preaching at the Temple continues with promises of death for most people. Due to the dire circumstances, even the remnant who remain alive will wish they were also dead! The reason for this disaster is made clear as Jeremiah recounts in vivid images how the people follow their own course of deceit and greed, the leadership lie and preach falsely, and idolatry is practiced. Even if people want to escape, they will face terror for it is too late to stop the forces that are coming. The chapter closes with a lament over the spiritual sickness of the people, and we learn how this illness wounds the heart of God.

The Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapter 8:

A Lament for Judah

1 “At that time, says the Lord, the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be brought out of their tombs; 2 and they shall be spread before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and served, which they have gone after, and which they have sought and worshiped; and they shall not be gathered or buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. 3 Death shall be preferred to life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family in all the places where I have driven them,
says the Lord of hosts.
4 “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord:
When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?
5 Why then has this people turned away
in perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast to deceit, they refuse to return.
6 I have given heed and listened, but they have not spoken
rightly; no man repents of his wickedness,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Every one turns to his own course,
like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
7 Even the stork in the heavens knows her times;
and the turtledove, swallow, and crane
keep the time of their coming;
but my people know not
the ordinance of the Lord.
8 “How can you say, ‘We are
wise,
and the law of the Lord is with us’?
But, behold, the false pen of the scribes
has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men shall be put to shame,
they shall be dismayed and taken;
behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
and what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others
and their fields to conquerors,
because from the least to the greatest
every one is greedy for unjust gain;
from prophet to priest every one deals falsely.
11 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
No, they were not at all ashamed;
they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among the fallen;
when I punish them, they shall be overthrown,
says the Lord.
13 When I would gather them, says the Lord,
there are no grapes on the vine,
nor figs on the fig tree;
even the leaves are withered, and what I gave them has
passed away from them.” 
14 Why do we sit still?
Gather together, let us go into
the fortified cities and perish there;
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish,
and has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came,
for a time of healing, but behold, terror.
16 “The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the
land and all that fills it,
the city and those who dwell in it.
17 For behold, I am sending among you serpents,
adders which cannot be charmed,
and they shall bite you,”
says the Lord.
18 My grief is beyond healing, my heart is sick within me.
19 Listen, the cry of the daughter of my people
from the length and breadth of the land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not in her?”
“Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images,
and with their foreign idols?”
20 “The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.”
21 For the wound of the daughter of my people my heart is wounded,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there? Why then has the health of the daughter of my people
not been restored?

*Daily Lectio Divina Question

We read in Jeremiah  “You shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return?  Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding?"  (v. 4-5) Lord, please show me if there are some ways in which I have fallen and not risen again, turned away and not returned to you.

Biblical Commentary provided by the Catholic Biblical School of Michigan, an adult faith formation apostolate. Catholic Biblical School of Michigan (cbsmich.org/join). 

Revised Standard Version; Second Catholic Edition. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2006).
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