8:7 time of their coming. All animals behave in the manner for which they were created, but men and women, made in God’s image, have perverted His ways.

8:9 what wisdom is in them? The priests and scribes, the “wise men” of ancient Judah, had “rejected the word of the LORD,” and so had forsaken the very foundation of true wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). The same was true in Paul’s day, who noted that God had “made foolish the wisdom of this world” (I Corinthians 1:20). It is more true than ever today, when practically the entire intellectual world—even in the religious world—has “rejected the word of the LORD” in favor of some brand of evolutionism.

8:11 Peace, peace. This indictment first lodged by Jeremiah in Jeremiah 6:14, is also repeated in Ezekiel 13:10.

8:16 heard from Dan. Dan was the northern-most tribe, and thus the first to encounter the invading Assyrians and later the Babylonians.

8:17 cockatrices. See note on Isaiah 11:8.

8:20 we are not saved. As when the time of harvest passes with no fruit or grain yielded from the land, so Israel’s time of grace for repentance was gone. Individuals could still repent, but the nation was doomed.

8:21 I am black. Also translated “caused to mourn” (note Job 5:11). Because of his nation’s unrepentant sin, Jeremiah was so grieved as not merely to don black mourning garments but actually to become the very personification of mourning. How rare is such mourning over national sin today, even by Christians!

8:22 balm in Gilead. The trees of the mountains in Gilead were noted from ancient times for the healing balms produced from them (Genesis 37:25).