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9. Sin and Punishment

¹ In Hebrew texts 9:1 is numbered 8:23, and 9:2-26 is numbered 9:1-25. Oh, that my head were a spring of water
   and my eyes a fountain of tears!
I would weep day and night
   for the slain of my people.
² Oh, that I had in the desert
   a lodging place for travelers,
so that I might leave my people
   and go away from them;
for they are all adulterers,
   a crowd of unfaithful people.

    ³ “They make ready their tongue
   like a bow, to shoot lies;
it is not by truth
   that they triumph Or lies; / they are not valiant for truth in the land.
They go from one sin to another;
   they do not acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.
⁴ “Beware of your friends;
   do not trust anyone in your clan.
For every one of them is a deceiver, Or a deceiving Jacob
   and every friend a slanderer.
⁵ Friend deceives friend,
   and no one speaks the truth.
They have taught their tongues to lie;
   they weary themselves with sinning.
⁶ You That is, Jeremiah (the Hebrew is singular) live in the midst of deception;
   in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me,” declares the LORD.

⁷ Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “See, I will refine and test them,
   for what else can I do
   because of the sin of my people?
⁸ Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
   it speaks deceitfully.
With their mouths they all speak cordially to their neighbors,
   but in their hearts they set traps for them.
⁹ Should I not punish them for this?”
   declares the LORD.
“Should I not avenge myself
   on such a nation as this?”

    ¹⁰ I will weep and wail for the mountains
   and take up a lament concerning the wilderness grasslands.
They are desolate and untraveled,
   and the lowing of cattle is not heard.
The birds have all fled
   and the animals are gone.

    ¹¹ “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
   a haunt of jackals;
and I will lay waste the towns of Judah
   so no one can live there.”

¹² Who is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?

¹³ The LORD said, “It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law. ¹⁴ Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.” ¹⁵ Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water. ¹⁶ I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have made an end of them.”

¹⁷ This is what the LORD Almighty says:

   “Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come;
   send for the most skillful of them.
¹⁸ Let them come quickly
   and wail over us
till our eyes overflow with tears
   and water streams from our eyelids.
¹⁹ The sound of wailing is heard from Zion:
   ‘How ruined we are!
   How great is our shame!
We must leave our land
   because our houses are in ruins.’”

    ²⁰ Now, you women, hear the word of the LORD;
   open your ears to the words of his mouth.
Teach your daughters how to wail;
   teach one another a lament.
²¹ Death has climbed in through our windows
   and has entered our fortresses;
it has removed the children from the streets
   and the young men from the public squares.

²² Say, “This is what the LORD declares:

   “‘Dead bodies will lie
   like dung on the open field,
like cut grain behind the reaper,
   with no one to gather them.’”

²³ This is what the LORD says:

   “Let not the wise boast of their wisdom
   or the strong boast of their strength
   or the rich boast of their riches,
²⁴ but let the one who boasts boast about this:
   that they have the understanding to know me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness,
   justice and righteousness on earth,
   for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

²⁵ “The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh— ²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the wilderness in distant places. Or wilderness and who clip the hair by their foreheads For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.”

And by way of explanation he adds, For death has ascended into our windows There is here a kind of derision; for the Jews, as it has been said, had falsely promised to themselves a perpetual impunity; and therefore the Prophet adopts here a most suitable comparison. For as they sleep securely, who with closed doors seem to themselves to be beyond the reach of danger; so the Jews at that time despised God and all his judgments, as though the doors of their houses were closed. Hence the Prophet says, that death had entered in through the windows; and he thus derides their folly for thinking that they could escape the hand of God, because their gates were shut, as though. God’s power could not ascend above the clouds nor enter through their windows, when the doors were closed. In short, he intimates that the doors would not be opened by God; for though he might not be disposed to break them, he could yet immediately ascend into the windows. We now apprehend the Prophet’s design in saying, that death had entered through the windows.

And what he adds respecting palaces bears the same import; as though he had said, “Were our houses even fortified, and were they not. only commodious habitations, but made like citadels, yet God could not be excluded; for his power can penetrate through the highest and the thickest walls, so that a palace is to him like the weakest and frailest cottage.” We hence see that by this comparison he checks that foolisll confidence by which the Jews had deceived themselves, and by which they were as yet inebriated. Death then has ascended into our windows, etc.

He then adds, To cut off the young, or children, from the public ways, and the youths from the streets ²⁵³²⁵³     The objection, that there is an inconsisteney in saying that death entered through the windows to cut off children from the street, disappears, when we consider that the Jews thought themselves safe because their gates were closed and their city fortified. Be it so, says the Prophet, yet death will enter, if not through the gates, yet through the windows, and through our towers, and it will destroy the children who play in our streets, and our young men assembled in the squares and the wide places of our city. That those collected at Jerusalem are here meant, is evident from the nineteenth verse. Then, in the next verse, he refers to those who still continued in the country. And this accounts for the change made in the sentence, which has puzzled some expounders, and induced them to propose emendations. The verse may be thus rendered, —
   For climbed has death through our windows, It has come through our towers,
To cut off the child from the street, The young men from the broad streets.
   Though the gates were closed, yet death came in, not only through windows, or any openings there might have been, but also through strong towers. — Ed. By these words he sets forth the dreadfulness of the calamity; for the youths would not be able to defend themselves by their own strength; for by בחורים, bechurim, he means the most robust. Even these would not be able to repel the onset of their enemies; though in the flower of their age, yet their rigor, however strong, would not protect them, nor would children and infants be spared. We see that two things are here set forth by the Prophet, — that the assaults of their enemies would be so violent, that young men would in vain resist them, as their vigor would avail them nothing, — and then that such would be the cruelty of their enemies, that no regard would be shewn for age, for they would put to death even infants newly born. It follows —