Jeremiah 9 - Bible Study, Explanation, and Application
Jeremiah 9 Bible Study
INTRO AND TIMELINE:
Jeremiah was a priest who lived in Anathoth (3 miles from Jerusalem). His ministry was directed towards the people of Judah, immediately before and during their exile in Babylon. His work as a prophet dates from 627 BC through the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians in 586 BC.
Jeremiah is the longest book in the English Bible by word count. The book has 52 chapters.
Jeremiah prophesied under the following Kings of Judah:
Josiah (640-609 BC)
Jehoahaz (also known as Shallum, 609 BC)
Jehoiakim (also known as Jeconiah or Coniah, 609-598 BC)
Jehoiachin (598-597 BC)
Zedekiah (His reign ended when Babylon conquered Judah, (597-586 BC)
CUTTING THE CORNERS OF THE HAIR:
In Jeremiah 9:26, God said He would punish those who “cut the corners of their hair” (9:26).
Cutting the corners of one’s hair or beard was forbidden in the law God gave to the people of Israel. This was evidently because it was practiced by the surrounding nations and God wanted His people to be distinct.
Lev 19:27 – You shall not round off the hair on your temples or mar the edges of your beard.
Lev 21:5 – They shall not make bald patches on their heads, nor shave off the edges of their beards, nor make any cuts on their body.
Jeremiah mentions those who cut their hair in at least two other passages in His book, see Jer 25:23 and 49:32.
OUTLINE:
THE DEPRAVITY OF JUDAH DESCRIBED IN FURTHER DETAIL (9:1-8):
Jeremiah continued to mourn over the state of Judah’s people.
Judah’s men were treacherous, adulterers, and liars, so much so that Jeremiah said, “falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land” (9:3).
They went from one evil to the next without considering God. They wearied themselves committing sins (9:5).
They heaped oppression on oppression and deceit upon deceit (9:6).
There was no trust between neighbors, no one could trust anyone else because everyone was a slanderer and everyone lied for personal gain.
The only solution to this invasive wickedness was God’s refining fire.
They would be punished, not to the point of extermination, but for discipline, because the nation would not correct itself otherwise.
THE MOURNING WOMEN WEEP OVER JERUSALEM’S JUDGEMENT (9:9-26):
God’s refining was going to be harsh.
Jeremiah said he would weep and wail over the desolation that awaited Judah. The mountains, pastures, wilderness, and animals, nothing would be unaffected.
Jerusalem would be left a “heap of ruins.”
God said He would feed the people bitter food and give them poisonous water. It could be that this referred to the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem when food and water were scarce.
Judah would be scattered amongst the nations, to places they never dreamed they’d inhabit, and their lives would not be easy in those places. God said He would send the sword after them until many of them were killed (9:16, see also Lev 26:33).
Men would be cut down in the open country like sheaves after the reaping and their bodies would be spread like dung across the country (9:22).
Jeremiah was told to call their wailing women (the professional mourners who were hired for funerals) to wail over Judah’s fate.
God would punish all the foreign nations who spread evil across the earth, but especially the people from Judah because they were “circumcised merely in the flesh” (but not in the heart, Jer 4:4).
APPLICATION:
Every few generations, men fall for the trap of thinking they could create a utopia if they could only remove the restraints and archaic thinking of God from their societies.
They think that as human beings they are suited to create the best system for humans.
But they are always wrong!
This chapter reminds me of the days before the flood. The condition in Judah sounds like a place no decent person would want to live.
Several leaders, local and national, have attempted to set up societies that expel God and His values, but generation after generation they fall apart.
A place without truth, without law, and without God will always end up being a place where sin runs rampant and the worst of human nature is put on display.
