Charles Ellicott Commentary Jeremiah 8:20

"The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." — Jeremiah 8:20 (ASV)

The harvest is past ... —The question of Jehovah, admitting no answer but a confession of guilt, is met by another cry of despair from the sufferers of the future. They are like men in a year of famine—“The harvest is past,” and there has been no crop to reap.

Summer. —In Isaiah 16:9; Jeremiah 40:10, and elsewhere, the word is rendered as “summer fruits.” “The summer” (better, the fruit-gathering) is ended, and yet they are not saved from misery and death. All has failed alike. The whole formula had probably become proverbial for extreme misery. It is well to remember that the barley harvest coincided with the Passover, the wheat harvest with Pentecost, and the fruit gathering with the autumn Feast of Tabernacles.