John Gill Commentary Jeremiah 8

At that time, says the Lord, they shall bring out the bones
of the kings of Judah
That is, either the Chaldeans or the Romans would do this; for this refers to the destruction of Jerusalem,either by the former or the latter; and it is certain that Jerusalem was ploughed up by the Romans, wherebythe prophecy in (Micah 3:12) was accomplished; when it is highly probable the graves were dug up, and thebones of the dead brought out, and scattered abroad by way of revenge; or it may be that graves were opened,especially the graves of kings and great men, for the sake of finding treasure in them.

It follows,and the bones of his princes ;
of the princes of Judah: and the bones of the priests ;
that sacrificed to idols: and the bones of the prophets :
the false prophets; though this might be the case of the priests and prophets of the Lord; whose bones, inthis general devastation, might be exposed as well as others; which of all might be thought to be the mostsacred: and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem out of their graves; high and low, rich and poor, maleand female; their graves, in common, were without the city.

And they shall spread them before the sun and the moon, and all
the host of heaven
The stars. This shows, not only that they should be publicly exposed; but, as it refers to their idolatrous worship of the sun, moon, and stars, that these deities will not be able to help them; as they could not prevent their dead bodies being dug up, so neither could they order or cause them to be gathered together, and buried again:

whom they have loved ; whereas they ought to have loved the Lord their God, and him only: it means an idolatrous love of and affection for them; and not the love of them, as creatures for use and delight; otherwise the light of the sun, moon, and stars, is sweet, and their influence great; and a pleasant thing it is to behold them, and especially the former of them, the fountain of light and heat:

and whom they have served; more and besides the Creator of them, whom they should have served, the Lord of hosts, and him only:

and after whom they have walked ; not in a natural and literal sense, but in a religious one, as is after explained:

and whom they have sought ; for advice and counsel, and by making their prayers and supplications to them:

and whom they have worshipped ; by bowing the knee, or kissing the hand; by offering sacrifices, and burning incense, and putting up petitions to them; by trusting in them, and expecting good things from them; see (2 Kings 21:3–5) (23:5) (Jeremiah 7:18) (Ezekiel 8:16) :

they shall not be gathered, nor be buried : meaning not the men that should die in those times, but the bones that should be brought out of the graves; these, having been scattered about, should not be collected together again, and replaced in their sepulchres:

they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth ; that is, they should lie and rot upon the face of the earth, and crumble into dust, and become dung for it; see (Psalms 83:10) .

And death shall be chosen rather than life
By those who should be alive in those times, who would be carried captive into other lands, and be used very hardly, and suffer greatly, by the nations among whom they should dwell; see (Revelation 9:6) . The Septuagint version, and those that follow it, make this to be a reason of the former, reading the words thus, "because they have chosen death rather than life"; see (Deuteronomy 30:19) , but the other sense is best, which is confirmed by what follows:

by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family ;
the nation of the Jews, become very corrupt and degenerate; so the people of Israel are called the whole family of Israel, (Amos 3:1) , now it is foretold, that those who remained of that people, who did not die by famine, or were not slain by the sword, yet should be in such a miserable condition, as that death would be more eligible to them than life:

even which remain in all the places where I have driven them, says
the Lord of hosts :
for, though they were carried captive by men, yet the thing was of the Lord, and a just punishment upon them for their sins.

Moreover, you shall say to them. The Jews, in Jeremiah's time, in order to leave them inexcusable, though the Lord had before assured that they would not hearken to him, (Jeremiah 7:27).

Thus says the Lord, shall they fall, and not rise? Men, when they fall, endeavour to get up again, and generally they do.

Shall he turn away, and not return? When a man turns out of the right way into a wrong one, as soon as he is sensible of his mistake, he returns back; this is usually done among men.

This is generally the case in a natural sense, and might be expected in a moral sense; that whereas these people had fallen into sin, they would rise again by repentance; and, having turned from the good ways of God, would soon return again to them.

Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a
perpetual backsliding ?
&c.] These people fill into sin, and rise not again by repentance; they turn out of the good ways of God and religion, and return not again; they backslide and revolt from the Lord, and they continue in their revolt and rebellion; their backsliding is an everlasting one; there is no hope of their repentance and recovery: it is a vehement and passionate expostulation about the people of the Jews, founded upon the former general observation, showing them to be the worst of all people: it is a common saying, "it is a long lane that has no turning"; but these people, having departed from the Lord, return no more.

A very learned man renders the words, "why does Jerusalem turn away this people with an obstinate aversion?" ^F2 that is, the rulers and governors of Jerusalem, as in (Matthew 23:37) or rather thus, "why does a stubborn aversion turn away this people, O Jerusalem?" and so they are an address to the magistrates and inhabitants of Jerusalem.

They hold fast deceit ;
practise it, and continue in the practice of it, both with God and man: they refuse to return :
to the Lord, to his worship, and to the right ways of holiness and truth, from which they had erred; see (Jeremiah 5:3) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F2: (txun hbvm Mlvwry hzh Meh hbbwv ewdm) "quare avertit hunc populum Hierosolyma aversione pertinaci? [vel] quare avertit populum hunc", O Jerusalem, "aversio pertinax?" De Dieu.