Jeremiah 9:22

Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(22) Speak, Thus saith the Lord.—The abrupt opening indicates a new prediction, coming to him unbidden, which he is constrained to utter as a message from Jehovah.

As the handful.—The reaper gathered into swathes, or small sheaves, what he could hold in his left hand, as he went on cutting with his sickle. These he threw down as they became too big to hold, and they were left strewn on the field till he returned to gather them up into larger sheaves. So should the bodies of the dead be strewn, the prophet says, on the open field, but there should be none to take them up and bury them.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

9:12-22 In Zion the voice of joy and praise used to be heard, while the people kept close to God; but sin has altered the sound, it is now the voice of lamentation. Unhumbled hearts lament their calamity, but not their sin, which is the cause of it. Let the doors be shut ever so fast, death steals upon us. It enters the palaces of princes and great men, though stately, strongly built, and guarded. Nor are those more safe that are abroad; death cuts off even the children from without, and the young men from the streets. Hearken to the word of the Lord, and mourn with godly sorrow. This alone can bring true comfort; and it can turn the heaviest afflictions into precious mercies.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The "handful" means the little bundle of grain which the reaper gathers on his arm with three or four strokes of his sickle, and then lays down. Behind the reaper came one whose business it was to gather several of these bundles, and bind them into a sheaf. Thus, death strews the ground with corpses as thickly as these handfuls lie upon the reaped land, but the corpses lie there unheeded.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

22. saith the Lord—continuing the thread of discourse from Jer 9:20.

dung—(Jer 8:2).

handful … none … gather them—implying that the handful has been so trodden as to be not worth even the poor gleaner's effort to gather it. Or the Eastern custom may be referred to: the reaper cuts the grain and is followed by another who gathers it. This grain shall not be worth gathering. How galling to the pride of the Jews to hear that so shall their carcasses be trodden contemptuously under foot!

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Speak, Thus saith the Lord; lest they should think these things would never be, cease not to tell them from me that they shall certainly come to pass, viz. what was said before, and what is said now in this verse (these words, Speak, Thus saith the Lord, being best read in a parenthesis).

The carcasses of men, Heb. a carcass of a man, noting here and there a scattered carcass.

Shall fall as dung upon the open field; as Jezebel was, 2 Kings 9:37, exposed to all contempt, strewed up and down on the superficies of the earth, Heb. face of the field, and be offensive by their stench to all that pass by, Jeremiah 44:12.

As the handful after the harvest man; either laid in heaps by death, as the harvestman doth his cocks of hay or sheaves of corn; or rather, they shall be no more regarded than a few scattered ears that drop out of the reaper’s hand, which either lie on the ground, and are eaten by birds, or trod to dirt by beasts; thus God would pour contempt upon them, which must needs be grievous to so proud a people as the Jews were.

None shall gather them; none shall have so much respect to them, or compassion of them, as to afford burial, Jeremiah 8:2.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

Speak, thus saith the Lord,.... These are the words of the Lord to Jeremiah, to go on with his prophecy in his name; so the Targum,

"prophesy, thus saith the Lord:''

even the carcasses of men shall fall as dung upon the open field; or, "upon the face of the field" (f); this shows the reason why the women are called to mourning, because the men would fall by the sword in the open field, and there lie and rot, and become dung upon it. The Targum is,

"as dung spread upon the face of the field;''

which denotes the great number that should fall, which would cover the face of the field; the condition they should be in; and the contempt and neglect they should be had in:

and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them; as a handful of corn that is forgot, and left by the harvestman; or as ears of corn which are dropped by the reaper, or binder, and are usually gleaned or gathered up by the poor that follow; but in the case referred to, or supposed, are not gathered; so it would be with these people; they should be left upon the ground, like a handful forgot, or like ears of corn dropped, and not gathered up, and there they should lie, and none should bury them.

(f) "super faciebus agri", Montanus, Schmidt; "in facie agri", Cocceius; "in superficie agri", Junius & Tremellius, Piscator.

Geneva Study Bible

Speak, Thus saith the LORD, Even the carcases of men shall fall as dung upon the open field, and as the handful after the harvestman, and none shall gather them.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

22. Speak, Thus saith the Lord] The words are not found in LXX and they break the connexion.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 22. - Speak, Thus saith the Lord. These words are in three important respects contrary to the style of Jeremiah:

(1) such a prefix as "speak" is unique;

(2). such a phrase as כה נאם is also unique m Jeremiah;

(3) when our prophet does use the formula נאם it is not at the beginning of a verse.

They are omitted by the Septuagint translator, who presumably did not find them in his copy of the Hebrew, and the text gains greatly by their removal. The following words are mistranslated in the Authorized Version, and should run, not even, but and, the carcasses of men shall fall; etc. It is most improbable, however, that a fresh Divine revelation should begin with "and." With other points, the word rendered "speak" would mean "pestilence." Possibly the word fell out of Ver. 21, where it would find an excellent place in the second clause (as an explanatory parallel to "death," as in Psalm 78:50), which would thus obtain greater roundness and symmetry. As the handful; i.e. as thickly as one heap of corn succeeds another under the deft hand of the leaper. Jeremiah 9:22

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The way of safety. - Jeremiah 9:22. "Thus hath Jahveh said: Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength; let not the rich man glory in his riches: Jeremiah 9:23. But let him that glorieth glory in this, in having understanding, and in knowing me, that I am Jahveh, dealing grace, right, and justice upon earth; for therein have I pleasure, saith Jahveh. Jeremiah 9:24. Behold, days come, saith Jahveh, that I punish all the circumcised (who are) with foreskin, Jeremiah 9:25. Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the sons of Ammon, Moab and them that have their hair-corners polled, that dwell in the wilderness; for all the heathen are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."

After having overturned the foundations of the people's false reliance on the temple, or the sacrifices, and in the wisdom of its leaders, Jeremiah finally points out the way that leads to safety. This consists solely in the true knowledge of the Lord who doth grace, right, and justice, and therein hath pleasure. In Jeremiah 9:23 he mentions the delusive objects of confidence on which the children of this world are wont to pride themselves: their own wisdom, strength, and riches. These things do not save from ruin. Safety is secured only by "having understanding and knowing me." These two ideas are so closely connected, that the second may be looked on as giving the nearer definition of the first. The having of understanding must manifest itself in the knowing of the Lord. The two verbs are in the infin. abs., because all that was necessary was to suggest the idea expressed by the verb; cf. Ew. 328, b. The knowledge of God consists in knowing Him as Him who doth grace, right, and justice upon earth. חסד, grace, favour, is the foundation on which right and justice are based; cf. Jeremiah 32:18; Psalm 33:5; Psalm 99:4; Psalm 103:6. He who has attained to this knowledge will seek to practise these virtues towards his fellow-men, because only therein has God pleasure (אלּה pointing back to the objects before mentioned); cf. Jeremiah 22:3; Psalm 11:7; Psalm 37:28. But because the Lord has pleasure in right and justice, He will punish all peoples that do not practise justice.