Thomas Aquinas Commentary Jeremiah 8

Here, he threatens the exhumation of corpses.

1. He speaks of the exhumation itself: they shall cast out the bones, believing that they will find gold or something similar. But you have been cast forth from your tomb like a useless branch, polluted and wrapped up among those who were slain with the sword, and have gone down to the bottom of the pit, like a rotten corpse (Isaiah 14:19).

2. The scattering of what was dug up: and they shall scatter them. They have worshiped the whole host of heaven (2 Kings 17:16). Those things by which a man sins are the same also by which he is tormented .

3. Their worthlessness: they shall not be gathered up. Their dead bodies have become like dung in the middle of the streets (Isaiah 5:25).

1. Here, he shows the oppression of those who remain, signified by their choice of death, which in itself is not worthy of choice except insofar as it is an end to evils. In those days men will seek death, but will not find it; and they shall desire to die, but death shall flee from them (Revelation 9:6).

Here, the prophet shows their stubbornness and hardness in sin. For this reason, this section is distinct from everything that has come before it.

First, he shows their stubbornness in the sins they have committed against God, themselves, or their neighbor.

Then he speaks of the sins they have committed directly against their neighbor: who shall give water to my head and a wellspring of tears to my eyes? (Jeremiah 9:1).

Concerning the first category, there are two points.

1. He rebukes them for their hardness.

2. He threatens them with punishment, beginning in the verse, I shall surely gather them (Jeremiah 8:13).

Concerning the first point on their hardness, there are four aspects.

1. He shows their hardness with regard to idolatry.

2. He shows their hardness with regard to pride, in the verse, how can you say, ‘We are wise, for the law of the LORD is with us’? (Jeremiah 8:8).

3. He shows their hardness with regard to their greed, in the verse, therefore, I will give their women to strangers (Jeremiah 8:10).

4. He shows their hardness with regard to their shamelessness, in the verse, they are ashamed, because they have done abomination (Jeremiah 8:12).

Focusing on the first of these aspects—idolatry—he demonstrates their astonishing hardness in three ways.

1. From normal human behavior. He asks: shall not he who falls rise again? This applies spiritually to conversion from sin, or even physically. He continues, and he who has turned aside? This refers to turning away from God. It is as if he were saying, “This is what people normally do.” As the Psalm says, Shall he that sleeps rise again no more? (Psalms 40:8). And elsewhere, The virgin of Israel is cast down upon her own land; there is none who will raise her up (Amos 5:2).

   He ends with astonishment: why, then, has this people in Jerusalem turned aside in stubborn rebellion? This is a rebellion against the Lord, as if defying Him. I know your rebelliousness and your exceedingly stiff neck (Deuteronomy 31:27). They have set hold on a lie—that is, a fraud—and refuse to convert. We have set a lie as our hope, and by a lie are we protected (Isaiah 28:15).

2. From the universality of their sin. He shows their complete negligence in doing good: I attended and listened; no one speaks what is good, and much less does anyone do it. There is none who does good, no not one (Psalms 13:3). He also shows their universal impenitence for the evils they have committed: there is no one who does penance for his sin. But you according to your stubbornness, and impenitent heart store up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath (Romans 2:5). And he shows their unbridled sinful desire: all have turned. A horse not broken will become stubborn, and a son left to himself will become headstrong . He has run against God with an upraised neck, and with a fat neck is he armed (Job 15:26). Behold, he will swallow up a river and not be astonished; he has confidence that the Jordan river can flow into his mouth (Job 40:18).

3. From a comparison with irrational beings. He first describes their knowledge: the kite in the heavens knows his season, that is, the air, which is suitable for its activities. He speaks of their coming, because they go away in winter to warmer locations and return in spring, doing all this by natural instinct. Ask the beasts, and they will teach you; and the birds of heaven, and they shall declare it to you (Job 12:7).

   Then, he speaks of the people’s ignorance: but my people have not known the judgment—that is, the judgment of propitiation that will overtake them. But Israel has not known me (Isaiah 1:3).

Here, he shows their pride, which stems from their boast of wisdom; concerning this, there are three things.

1. He speaks of their boast: we are wise. Woe to you, who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own estimation (Isaiah 5:21).
2. He shows their injustice: when the lying pen of the scribes has worked falsehood, either by wrongly interpreting the Scriptures or by establishing wicked laws. Woe to those who establish wicked laws, and when they write, have written injustice to oppress the poor in judgment, and do violence to the cause of the humble of my people (Isaiah 10:1).
3. He speaks of their punishment: the wise are confounded—taking the past tense for the future. He brings counselors to a foolish end, and judges to astonishment (Job 12:17).

Then, he resumes his case: they have cast aside the word of the Lord. The word of the Lord in the highest is a wellspring of wisdom . Therefore are my people led captive, for they had not knowledge (Isaiah 5:13). Because you rejected wisdom, I will reject you from being a priest before me (Hosea 4:6).

Here, he shows their greed.

1. He speaks of their punishment: to heirs, that is, to those who hold it strongly and securely as if it were their own inheritance. You shall take a wife, and another shall sleep with her (Deuteronomy 28:30).
2. He speaks of their guilt:
   1. Of their greedy desire: because from the least to the greatest they all go after greed, as an end. The whole head is weak, and the whole heart grieving; from the sole of the foot to the top of the head there is no soundness in it (Isaiah 1:6).
   2. Of their fraud in obtaining what they desire, from the prophet.
   3. The manner of their treachery: and they would heal. They gave life to their own souls, and violated me before the people for a handful of barley and a piece of bread, that they may kill souls that do not die, and bring life to souls that do not live, lying to my people that believes the lie (Ezekiel 13:17–19).