Jeremiah 8:10

Jer 8:10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, [and] their fields to them that shall inherit [them]: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one dealeth falsely.

Ver. 10. Therefore will I give their wives.] For a punishment of their rejecting my Word, which ought to be received with all reverence and good affection. {a} The Turks do so highly respect the Koran (which is their Bible), that if a Christian do but sit upon it, though unwittingly, they presently put him to death.

For every one, &c.] See Jer 6:13.

{a} Dilher. Elect., lib. i. cap. 2.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

These verses are almost identical with Jer 6:12-15.

Jer 8:10

To them that shall inherit them - Rather, “to those that shall take possession of them, i. e., “to conquerors who shall take them by force.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Jer 8:10-12. Therefore will I give their wives unto others — See on Jer 6:12; and their fields to them, that shall inherit, or possess, them — For the word inherit is sometimes taken for any sort of possession. See Psa 32:8. So Israel is called the Lord’s inheritance, chap. Jer 10:16, and elsewhere. The expression, however, implies that their fields should not only be taken possession of by the victorious Chaldeans, should be ravaged and stripped of their crops and cattle, but that these their enemies should possess their fields as their own, and acquire a property in them which they should transmit to their posterity. For every one is given to covetousness, &c. — For the elucidation of this and the two following verses, see notes on Jer 6:13-15.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

8:10-12 These verses repeat 6:13-15.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Repeated from Jer 6:12-15. See a similar repetition, Jer 8:15; Jer 14:19.

inherit--succeed to the possession of them.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. Therefore will I give their wives] From this to the end of Jer 8:15 is repeated from Jer 6:13-15.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

GOD here threatens punishment, because he found that he effected nothing, and that he had to do with an obstinate people, having before tried whether they were reclaimable. Having seen that exhortations were of no avail, he now comes to extreme severity, I will give, he says, their wives to strangers. He sets forth, by a particular instance, the evils which usually accompany wars: and nothing is more distressing than when the wife is snatched away from her husband; for if husbands had their option, they would prefer instant death than to bear such a disgrace. Jeremiah then shews that the most atrocious thing that happens to conquered nations was nigh the Jews, — that their men would be deprived of their wives. He afterwards says the same thing of their fields; God declares that he would give the fields to their possessors. By this mode of speaking he intimates, that they would be deprived of their fields, not for a short time, but perpetually.

There is, indeed, a contrast here implied: for it sometimes happens, that enemies prevail and plunder everything; but yet they take no long possession of the fields, for a change succeeds: but when he calls enemies possessors, he means that there would be such a calamity, that the Jews would for a long time, even for their life, be banished from their country, and would lose their possessions. They thought that the land was so given to them, that it could never be taken from them: and doubtless the Lord would have never expelled them, had they not defiled it with their pollutions; but as they had polluted it by their sins, they deserved to be banished from it. So the Prophet shews that their confidence was absurd, in thinking that they would be the perpetual inheritors of that land: “Succeed you, “he says, “shall others, who shall possess it as it were by an hereditary right.” We now perceive the Prophet’s meaning.

He afterwards mentions the reason why God had resolved to deal so severely with them, For they are, he says, from the least to the greatest given up to avarice He means that no equity prevailed among the people; for under one kind of sin he includes all frauds and plunders, and every kind of injustice. He then says, that every one was addicted to his own gain, so that they practiced mutual wrongs without any regard to what was right and just.

He then enlarges on the subject and says, that all, from the prophet to the priest, acted deceitfully There is here also a part mentioned for the whole. But Jeremiah in various ways sets forth the wrongs by which men harassed one another. Nor does he exclude violence when he speaks of fraud; but it is the same as though he said, that they, being forgetful of what was right, practiced fraud of every kind. It was, indeed, a dreadful thing, that there remained no rectitude or justice in the prophets and the priests, who ought to have carried light for others, and to have shewn to them the right way, as God had constituted them to be the leaders of the people. Since, then, even these acted deceitfully, there must have been among the common people the most disgraceful injustice. Hence the Prophet shews by these words, that God could not be charged with too much rigor, as though he treated the people cruelly; for there was such a mass of wickedness, that it could no longer be borne. It follows —

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(10-12) Every one from the least . . .—The prophet reproduces, though not verbally, what he had already said in Jer_6:12-15. (Comp. Notes there.) It is as though that emphatic condemnation of the sins of the false teachers were burnt into his soul, and could not but find utterance whenever he addressed the people.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10–12. See summary at commencement of section. These verses are omitted by LXX and are almost identical with ch. Jer_6:12-15 above. See notes there.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Therefore will I give their wives unto others,.... To strangers, to the Gentiles; than which nothing could be more disagreeable to them, or a sorer punishment, of a temporal one:

and their fields to them that shall inherit them; or,

to the heirs (i); other and new ones; and who should possess them as if they were the true and rightful heirs of them.

For everyone from the least even to the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the priest everyone dealeth falsely; covetousness and false dealing, which prevailed in all ranks and orders of men among them, were the cause of their ruin: covetousness is the root of all evil; and to deal falsely, or make a lie, as the words may be rendered, is diabolical and abominable in the sight of God, and especially in men of such characters, who were to preach truth to others; See Gill on Jer 6:13.

(i) "haeredibus", V. L. Pagninus, Montanus.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Others. Idumeans, &c. Yet most part of the land remained uncultivated. (Calmet) --- The rest, to ver. 13., "they will collect their fruits, says," &c., is supplied by Grabe. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them; a paraphrastical description of the miseries of war: God doth here insinuate that their misery shall not be for a short time, but so long, as that strangers, viz. the Chaldeans, shall enjoy their land by inheritances, so far should they be from possessing their land for ever.

Every one is given to covetousness; so greedy after their own private gain, that they took no care of equity or justice, in which word is comprised all their fraudulent dealings one among another. Of this and the two next verses, see on Jer 6:13-15.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10-12. Were they ashamed — Identical with Jer_6:12-15, but with such differences as to vindicate the passage from the charge of being interpolated here. It is an instance of Jeremiah’s tendency to repeat himself. For a list of these repetitions, see Introduction, p. 286.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Vers. 10-12. These verses are almost the same as Jer_6:12-15; the differences are in Ver. 10. They are omitted in the Septuagint, and Hitzig regards them as an interpolation, at any rate from the point where the present passage coincides verbally with its parallel. His grounds are:

(1) that Ver. 13 follows more naturally on Ver. 10 ("... them that shall inherit them") than on Ver. 12;

(2) that Ver. 10 is deficient in symmetry; and

(3) that the deviations from Jer_6:13-15 sometimes loosen theconnection of the clauses, sometimes sink into the colloquial style. The arguments seem to be inconclusive. Jeremiah is apt to repeat himself (Graf refers to Ver. 14 = Jer_4:5; Ver. 51-Jer_14:19 Jer_5:9 = Jer_5:29, Jer_9:8 Jer_7:16 = Jer_11:14 Jer_50:41-43 = Jer_6:22-24 = Jer_49:19-21) and the element which is common to this paragraph and to Jer_6:12-15 seems equally appropriate in both connections. It should be added, however, that the cautious and reverent block has come to the same conclusion as Hitzig. To them that shall inherit them; rather, to them that shall take possession of them, i.e. by violence.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.