John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 8:9

"The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of Jehovah; and what manner of wisdom is in them?" — Jeremiah 8:9 (ASV)

He says now that the wise were ashamed, and astonished, and ensnared. By these words he means that the Jews gained nothing by their craftiness, while they claimed wisdom for themselves, and under this pretense rejected all admonitions, and sought to be spared.

"This wisdom," he says, "benefits you nothing, for God, as it is said in another place, will take you unawares" (Isaiah 29:14; 1 Corinthians 1:19).

Ashamed, then, he says, are they; this does not mean that they were then ashamed, for he said before, in Jeremiah 6:15, and will state the same shortly, that they were so hardened that they could not be made ashamed, nor be made to blush. But he here denounces a punishment which was soon to overtake them, as if he had said, "You have now an iron front, and think that you can elude God and his servants with impunity; but God will take you unawares, and will so shake off the masks under which you hide yourselves, that your disgrace will be revealed to all." This is the meaning.

For the same purpose he says, "You are now secure, but God will shortly fill you with such terror, that he will make you greatly astonished.” He implies, then, that nothing would benefit them while they took delight in their vices and increasingly hardened themselves; for God would deprive them of their craftiness and cast them down with terror, however secure and perverse they were now.

By the third word he describes the manner in which they would be treated: God would have his snares by which he would take them. He alludes to the subterfuges in which those hypocrites trust, who proudly oppose God, while they think that by their arts they can escape in this or that way, and often devise new schemes by which they may deceive God. Hence the Prophet, alluding to their perverse cunning, says that God would be like a fowler, who would ensnare them and hold them captive.

He then assigns the reason, Because they had repudiated, or despised or rejected (for the verb means all these things), the word of Jehovah. And he uses a demonstrative particle, Behold, so that they might not, as usual, make any evasions: "The thing," he says, "is sufficiently known, and even children can be judges of your impiety—that you have rejected the word of Jehovah." From this he draws the inference, What does wisdom avail them? or, What is their wisdom?

Either of these meanings may be accepted: They were wise to no purpose, while they provoked God by their impious contempt. “I hate the wise who is not wise for himself,” is an old proverb. Since, then, the Jews failed to secure their own benefit by rejecting the word of God, in which their safety was involved, the Prophet justly states that their wisdom availed them nothing.

Others read, "What is their wisdom, when there is no fear of God?" And undoubtedly it always remains a truth that the fear of God is the beginning and the chief part of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Psalms 111:10). Since, then, they had basely despised God’s word, the Prophet rightly asks, What is their wisdom?

But there is a third meaning which is suitable, namely this: And wisdom, what to them? So it is literally—What is wisdom to them? He still speaks to them ironically, as if he said, "They are indeed wise, but in their own esteem; they have therefore no need of being taught: What then is wisdom to them!"

The meaning is that they were so swollen with pride that they received no instruction. How so? They refused wisdom through the false conceit with which they were inflated.

Let everyone, however, choose for himself; my object is to show what I most approve. There will be no lecture tomorrow, as a consistory is to be held.

Prayer:

Grant, Almighty God, that since you do not cease daily to rouse us, as our sloth also requires continual warnings—O grant, that we may not be unteachable, and that our perverseness may not hinder us from returning immediately and willingly to you, from whom we have, through our own fault, alienated ourselves. And may we not only feel some desire to repent, but persevere so constantly in the exercise of penitence, that through the whole course of our life we may contend with our lusts, until having at length subdued them all, we shall reach the goal which has been set before us, and enjoy in heaven that eternal inheritance, which has been procured for us by the blood of your only-begotten Son.—Amen.