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Jeremiah 9

Jeremiah 9 joins grief over Judah’s ruin with God’s judgment on deceit and his call to know his character.

A voice longs to weep for the slain and to escape a people steeped in betrayal. Jeremiah’s lament and YHWH’s speech run together, with some speaker changes left unmarked. YHWH exposes Judah’s deceit and explains the coming devastation: the people have abandoned his law and followed the Baals. Mourning women are summoned to teach lament as death fills the land. The closing words confront boasting and warn that circumcision cannot shield an unfaithful people from judgment.

griefinjustice and angersermon or Bible study notes
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1Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!
2Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men, that I might leave my people and go from them! For they are all adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
3“They bend their tongue, as their bow, for falsehood. They have grown strong in the land, but not for truth; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don’t know me,” says the LORD.
4“Everyone beware of his neighbor, and don’t trust in any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every neighbor will go around like a slanderer.
5Friends deceive each other, and will not speak the truth. They have taught their tongue to speak lies. They weary themselves committing iniquity.
6Your habitation is in the middle of deceit. Through deceit, they refuse to know me,” says the LORD.
7Therefore the LORD of Armies says, “Behold, I will melt them and test them; for how should I deal with the daughter of my people?
8Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.
9Shouldn’t I punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shouldn’t my soul be avenged on a nation such as this?
10I will weep and wail for the mountains, and lament for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are burned up, so that no one passes through; Men can’t hear the voice of the livestock. Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled. They are gone.
11“I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”
12Who is wise enough to understand this? Who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why has the land perished and burned up like a wilderness, so that no one passes through?
13The LORD says, “Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in my ways,
14but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”
15Therefore the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood and give them poisoned water to drink.
16I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.”
17The LORD of Armies says, “Consider, and call for the mourning women, that they may come. Send for the skillful women, that they may come.
18Let them make haste and take up a wailing for us, that our eyes may run down with tears and our eyelids gush out with waters.
19For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, ‘How we are ruined! We are greatly confounded because we have forsaken the land, because they have cast down our dwellings.’”
20Yet hear the LORD’s word, you women. Let your ear receive the word of his mouth. Teach your daughters wailing. Everyone teach her neighbor a lamentation.
21For death has come up into our windows. It has entered into our palaces to cut off the children from outside, and the young men from the streets.
22Speak, “The LORD says, “‘The dead bodies of men will fall as dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester. No one will gather them.’”
23The LORD says, “Don’t let the wise man glory in his wisdom. Don’t let the mighty man glory in his might. Don’t let the rich man glory in his riches.
24But let him who glories glory in this, that he has understanding, and knows me, that I am the LORD who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth, for I delight in these things,” says the LORD.
25“Behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that I will punish all those who are circumcised only in their flesh:
26Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness, for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.”
World English BibleRead in NIV in Psalmlog →Highlighted verses are the most connected.
Key verses
Jeremiah 9:23The warning against boasting strips away sources of confidence that offer no protection from the judgment announced throughout the chapter.
Jeremiah 9:3The image of a tongue bent like a bow connects public falsehood with the people’s failure to know YHWH.
Jeremiah 9:24Knowing YHWH means knowing his loving kindness, justice, and righteousness, the very things Judah’s conduct has contradicted.
Where this chapter reaches

1 Corinthians takes up Jeremiah’s teaching about boasting in the Lord, while Romans shares the distinction between outward circumcision and the condition of the heart. Proverbs shares the concern with deceitful speech, and Micah likewise names justice and kindness as central to life before God.

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Notice

After reading the whole chapter

How does the chapter’s grief shape your reading of its warnings about deceit and judgment?

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What does knowing YHWH in verse 24 mean alongside the conduct described in verses 3–8?

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Questions people ask about Jeremiah 9

What does Jeremiah 9:23–24 mean about boasting?

YHWH forbids making wisdom, might, or riches the ground of boasting. He identifies understanding and knowing him as the proper ground, then names his loving kindness, justice, and righteousness. Within a chapter about Judah’s judgment, these verses challenge confidence in human advantages and direct attention to God’s character.

What does “uncircumcised in heart” mean in Jeremiah 9?

The phrase describes Israel’s inward resistance to God despite bearing circumcision as an outward sign. Earlier verses identify that resistance through deceit, abandonment of God’s law, and worship of the Baals. By naming Judah among nations facing punishment, the closing warning denies that the physical sign grants immunity from judgment.

Who are the mourning women in Jeremiah 9?

They are women skilled in leading public lament, summoned as Judah faces ruin and death. The text then tells women to teach their daughters and neighbors to mourn. Their role makes the coming loss a shared public grief; the chapter does not identify these women by name.

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Jeremiah · 52 chapters
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What the Bible says about grief →What the Bible says about anger →

Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).